The MeidasTouch Podcast - Time to EXPOSE the fascist GOP with POWERFUL Meidas messaging with Suzy Shuster

Episode Date: July 1, 2022

On today's episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast we speak with Emmy Award winning sportscaster, activist and producer, Suzy Shuster. We talk with Suzy about our collaboration and distribution of the incr...edibly powerful 'GOP Handmaid's Tale' video Suzy produced for us. Suzy discusses how women's rights in this country are under attack and how to fight back. Before bringing in Suzy, we briefly discuss the emergency Jan 6 hearing. If you enjoyed today's episode please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! New episodes of The MeidasTouch Podcast episodes with the brothers are released every Tuesday & Friday at 5am ET. Thanks for listening. Shop Meidas Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:11 If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Ben and Jordy with you today live for all the Midas Mighty watching on YouTube. And boy, have these YouTube numbers through the roof these days. And with you live in spirit for those downloading this on the podcast, the Jan 6th coverage by the Midas Media Network has really been next level. Special shout out to all the great panelists. Special shout out to our host, Tony Michaels and Gabe Sanchez for the great work that they've done in hosting
Starting point is 00:02:07 one of the most watched streams. I was looking at the stream, Jordy, like we're beating most major media networks on the digital stream side of things. And I think it's because it's refreshing to watch the pre-hearing coverage of this panel that we put together that really kind of represents real Americans, not these talking head, you know, BS kind of ping pong, as I like to call it, politics, where they just kind of both sides, fascism and democracy. There are some good panelists out there in mainstream media, but that is definitely far and few. Yeah, but this is what happens when we build a platform that is unapologetically pro-democracy. People come because they like the no-nonsense. You can't have people on your panel that are
Starting point is 00:02:55 going to be like, the interaction was bad, but I think, no, no, that's a ridiculous way to look at it. I think the numbers prove it. And if you are listening to this and you have not checked out one of our streams, you better subscribe to youtube.com slash Midas Touch. Look, we have cameras in the hearings. That's unheard of. At the end of the day, the media cares about the media business. They care about their ratings.
Starting point is 00:03:21 But in caring about the business and the ratings, it almost is self-fulfilling defeat because what they believe to try to both sides the issue, they are not delivering the truth to the people. They're not conveying what's at stake. And we saw this with the emergency hearing that took place this week and what's been going on these past few days following the emergency hearing, where Cassidy Hutchinson, who showed a great deal of courage and bravery, who stood there and sat there under oath, answering all of the questions by the committee, you know, and testifying as you should under oath, not giving off the record or on background statements so that mainstream media reporters can go about doing your bidding in non-under oath settings.
Starting point is 00:04:13 But the mainstream media, basically, they profit off of the disinfo, right? They just literally, and it's the same thing. It's like, you would think that they would learn their lesson after the rise of fascism with Trump and their amplification of it. But time and time again, we see them falling for it again, or perhaps they're not falling for it. Perhaps they just really like to promote fascism because for that, that sells, but we're doing things differently here at the Midas Media Network, which I think is what is connecting the majority of what I'm talking about. And I want to get your
Starting point is 00:04:49 reaction to it, though, is right after these brave, this courageous testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson, these like Trump staffers who probably are Giuliani and Meadows or whoever it is, leaked to an NBC reporter, leaked to a Washington Post reporter that they don't think that Cassidy's testimony wasn't true or that. But these people aren't testifying under oath. And what are these papers? Do they publish it? They publish the anonymous Trump sources. How about you just say to that, that is the point. Hang up the freaking phone. That is the point right there, Ben. You hit it on the head. You have Cassidy Hutchinson literally putting her life on the line to testify. She is under oath with the threat of potential
Starting point is 00:05:38 perjury if she lies in prison. And then the media, the mainstream media is going to take people from Trump world, literally just to get clicks on their tweets and their articles saying they refute Cassidy's retelling and recounting of the story. Well, those people, Ben, the Giuliani's, the ridiculous people in the Trump world, they have been invited to testify under oath. And you know what they've said? They said, no, because they know if they had to go up there under oath and tell the truth and not just plead the fifth, they'd be, they'd be subject to perjury and they'd get arrested. You know, media, you don't have to take that phone call. I want to break it down. You can literally say, hey, no, I'm not going to do that and not be a transmitter
Starting point is 00:06:28 of the disinfo. You could be like, hey, I'm sorry. No, it's probably that's that's what we've learned. Through these hearings, too, we've learned a lot about what a fascist Trump was and that he actually wanted to walk up like he's like Napoleon with the army behind him and the phalanx of shamans and whatever behind him and literally try to hang Mike Pence and declare himself emperor. But what we've also learned is that the obsequiousness, the weakness in people, not everybody, there were people who stood up to him, but people, when they were confronted with Trump, basically saying, here's what I want
Starting point is 00:07:11 you to do. They'd go, okay, okay, I'll do it. You know, like when Mark Meadows was aware of the insurrection, Cassidy Hutchinson's like, yo, do something. And he's like, I don't know what I can do. I don't know what I can do. And then he's like ignoring phone calls from people. It's like, dude, you are the chief of staff to the president do something. And that is kind of a consistent theme of this chicken shit. Trump ism of like, because Trump is mean because he bangs the table, all of a sudden, you do it because he bangs the table, all of a sudden you do it? You do it because he bangs the table? If he banged the table in front of me, I'd be like, I'd laugh in his face.
Starting point is 00:07:51 I would say, get the fuck out of here. You're banging a table? I'm not working for you. You fuck, right? I wouldn't say any of those. Because he bangs the table and throws ketchup, we're going to go and do what he says? That's one of the things that this thing has shown. It's the craziest thing that the youngest person possible
Starting point is 00:08:09 who is working in this administration is the one that may very well be the person who actually takes Trump down. Cassidy Hutchinson, as we know, she's 25. She's part of Gen Z and she has more courage than anyone on that staff. And we know what was also happening now. Liz Cheney spelled that out for us during the hearing. Cassidy Hutchinson, along with many other people who are testifying at this committee, have been subject to just rampant witness tampering, like mafioso-style threats that they've been receiving. And that's why we've seen the Cassidy Hutchinson hearing be moved up
Starting point is 00:08:45 prior to the prior to the July 4 holiday. No, absolutely. I want to read Adam Kinzinger's tweet recently. He said, watching the desperation of Trump world, try to discredit the brave Cassidy Hutchinson reminds me of everything Trump does when he is busted and cornered. Also want to take about a major shift in polling across the country. We see this in individual races and we see this at a national level because of the Supreme Court's horrific, catastrophic decision overturning Roe v. Wade and Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization. The polling has shifted dramatically throughout the nation of people saying, no, this is not what we wanted.
Starting point is 00:09:34 This may have been your radical extremist agenda to take reproductive choice away from women, you radical right-wing fascists. But Roe v. Wade and Casey created stability within this country. And the constitutional right for women to have abortion that you took away has created chaos, has created havoc, and has placed the life of women and childbearing persons in significant peril every single day and treat women and childbearing persons like second-class citizens. And that was the intent. And so I do want to focus this episode, though. I think now is a time to really bring in this interview. We've recorded this interview before the decision, sadly in anticipation of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Starting point is 00:10:33 But when you listen to this, bear in mind it was recorded before. But we're going to be bringing in Susie Schuster. And for those who don't know who Susie Schuster is, you got to meet Susie Schuster, got to meet her in the podcast. She's an Emmy award-winning sportscaster. Her work has appeared on ABC Sports, ESPN, Turner Sports, Fox Sports, and HBO. And in addition, she is a staunch advocate, activist for pro-democracy. And so we at Midas Touch, one of the honors that we have through our journey when we started was we get to meet people like Susie Schuster and we get to work with them. And the fact that we've built such a big platform at Midas Touch for us to be able to work with people like Susie Schuster to help get content videos out there to the public is something that we are so honored to do.
Starting point is 00:11:38 And so Susie Schuster, and she'll tell you about it in the interview, approached us with the video GOP Handmaid's Tale, which in 2020 had a different name. She thought that we were the right fit to distribute it. And she'll tell you why. I don't want to give away the whole interview. But I want you all, I think this will be a great episode. So you understand kind of the thought process of how that ad that was created in 2020. And many people said about this ad, which portrays a mom taking her daughter across a border, being pulled over by the police and the police taking away the daughter because
Starting point is 00:12:19 she's going across the border to seek abortion care in a state that allows abortion care to take place. Everyone was saying, and lots of people were saying in 2020, you're just trying to scare people. That's not going to happen. Sensationalists. Sensationalists. So no, that's not going to happen. But I want to walk you through the process of how that video was created.
Starting point is 00:12:38 And I would say, I might as touch, and kudos to Brett for doing this, I would say somewhere between 85% and 90% nuts to bolts we do in-house at Midas Touch. But occasionally, we'll be brought an idea, a video, a production, where we'll function as the studio to distribute that work. And this is one of them. And we wanted to highlight it. And I think to have the perspective of a woman like Susie Schuster to do a video like this was critical to its success and really important for us in our creative process and how we think about doing videos like this and distributing videos like this. And so, Jordi, I'll give you the final word here, but I'm excited to bring in the Susie
Starting point is 00:13:30 Schuster interview so some people can get a real window into how the process went about and also hear from Susie Schuster how Democrats can fight back with hard hitting ads like this or just hard hitting content in perhaps a post-ad world where messaging comes from influencers who are able and thought leaders in a specific space. Ben, I couldn't say it any better than you just put it. So why don't we just take it to the interview? Let's bring in the interview with Susie Schuster. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. We are joined by Susie Schuster. You know her as the Emmy Award winning sportscaster whose works appeared on ABC Sports and ESPN and Turner Sports and Fox Sports and HBO, basically everywhere.
Starting point is 00:14:17 She's also the host of Just Getting Started with Susie Schuster, the podcast where each week she sits down with the world's most successful and popular people to hear their personal stories about how they got their start. But did you know that Susie Schuster also is the producer of one of the most viral Midas touch ads that we called the GOP Handmaid's Tale after Susie produced it, which depicted a young woman being pulled over by police as she attempted to cross state lines to get an abortion. We originally ran that during the 2020 and unfortunately had to repurpose it and put it out again when the predictions from it came true.
Starting point is 00:14:57 But Susie Schuster, welcome to the podcast. Hi, you guys. I'm so excited to be here. I've really wanted to get together with you guys for a while. I feel like we were dancing around each other during 2020 with everything that happened when I was working with Lincoln Project. And I really admire what you guys have put together seemingly by yourselves. It's kind of amazing. Like we were a bunch of like, you know, old white rhinos and me hiding in Los Angeles as the crazy Democrat. And you guys were out there just crushing it week after week. It was really fun to watch us build these two things together. You mentioned that ad. That was a huge ad that the director, John Turtletaub, did with zero budget in his house. We got a couple of great actors to come together. He and I put that script together and we shot it in Malibu in his driveway, believe it or not, right off of PCH. And when we shot that ad, it was originally for Lincoln Project. We thought at the time this was so powerful and so crazy. And the guys said, you've gone too far this time, Susie, which is basically a constant refrain. And I called you guys up and I said, what do you guys think? And you guys were willing to go for it.
Starting point is 00:16:10 And it paid off in spades because you guys broke that one. It got a lot of attention. And now, two years later, here it is again in realism and in the moment, reflecting what is happening in this country. So that ad was prescient ahead of its time. And I am so grateful that you guys had the balls to run it. And I think if more people weren't afraid of pushing the cards even further down that deck, that's what we need right now is we don't need scare tactics. Back then they were like, this is too scary. This isn't real. It's too delusional. It's too dystopian. It's not. I mean, didn't you see this coming? I don't know how people didn't. And so once again, I'm just so grateful not only to be with you, but that you guys had the cojones to put that out there because you're right. It is indelibly linked with Midas and it should be.
Starting point is 00:17:10 You know what? I think maybe the reason is because we didn't come from political backgrounds. And so when we were building this, none of the ideas that I was putting out there, I didn't really feel those ideas are political then or should be political now. They've been politicized. You know, I don't believe 18 year olds should be walking around with AR-15s without. And similarly, I think a woman should have a right to choose. And when people are threatening the things that are in that video, that they want to arrest women and charge them for murder. And someone shows me a video of what the Republicans are talking about. There was really nothing controversial in it. When you sent it to us and you showed it, I was like, this is what they're saying. So here's a video of it. And we'd be delighted to publish it.
Starting point is 00:18:10 And that was our thinking behind the scene because I didn't even feel a whiff of controversy behind it when we published it back then. No. And I think your reaction to it showed that you made the right decision. That it did what it was meant to do. It was meant to make you think in the moment about your life. I mean, that's the style of the ads that I write are they're meant to especially when I write to women, they're meant to make you think about what's happening in your
Starting point is 00:18:36 body right now. And for you to look at your children and realize that your actions have consequences for them. And I really liked that ad because it's direct, because I hate floral ads. I hate ads that are too over the top or I hate traditional ads. I like ads that are written as mini cinema and things that I was taught how to write at Real Sports with Brian Thumbel. I was taught about a paucity of words and about word choice and how important it was when you're scripting to be clear. And I liked that one a lot just because there's not a ton of dialogue. It's very simple. Obviously, John Turtletaub, who directed While You Were Sleeping, all the national treasure movies, the mega, this is a big time, huge Hollywood director. And so he directed it with such a beautiful touch and a
Starting point is 00:19:28 light touch, but absolutely frightening. Nonetheless, we actually had two other ads in that series that I don't think even saw the light of day. Maybe one did, maybe you guys, maybe because we had one that we shot about a little kid waking up the morning after the election and crying because Trump had won again. It was another dystopian ad. But I think we're in a place right now that we're almost post-ads. And that's what I'm scratching my head about as we look towards the midterms and as we look towards 2024. Because when you guys were churning out your ads and Don Winslow was doing his and Lincoln was at the top of our game, I think that the ads worked. The ads scared people. They poked people, especially Morning in America was a good one, where people were really having conversations and we were able to tap into something in the zeitgeist to get people to pay attention to how
Starting point is 00:20:22 they were voting. I'm sitting here really spending a lot of time thinking about what the new ad is. I think that it's incredible you guys have your following in your podcast and same with Don and still link into that matter. But I think that people have become inured to these ads that we put out. We have to start thinking about what's going to make people vote from the heart at the polls and from the gut and get them there again. I'm not so sure that the ad format will keep working. It's funny that we had such a mind meld there. It's not that we've ignored the ad making. We'll still do maybe once every two weeks, we'll try to come up with an original
Starting point is 00:21:06 content, typical kind of style, Midas ad. But where we've been focusing on is the entire media apparatus that needs to be repaired and trying to chip away at this right-wing monopoly on info and the counter to it, disinfofo that they've been able to control. And so instead of just the traditional ad where we've been focused on are these reaction videos and elevating people who may not look or sound like typical Democrats speaking just from the heart and taking the role of traditional newscaster. So we replaced the role of the traditional, you know, you know, I won't describe the look, but newscasters have a certain type of look. And we replaced that with a guy in Texas named Texas Paul. He's got a cowboy hat. He's a big
Starting point is 00:21:59 Texan who speaks from the heart about compassion and decency and why he's a Democrat. And we have a cast of characters like that who are real people who just speak about issues every day with a relentless response to everything that's going on. That's been our response to what you do in a post-ad world, although we have to then convince the democratic establishment and other people, despite the fact that it's working. Like if I showed you our data, you'd go, wait a minute, you're getting more views, more engagement. You got people wearing the shirts, Midas shirts, this, that, then mainstream media, but the democratic establishment, the funder, the people behind it, now we have to get them on board. But that's our response to it. I want to know what's in Geordie's smoothie container.
Starting point is 00:22:49 What did you make today, Geordie? Brett, but nothing. This is just water. It's just pure H2O. This is pure H2O. Okay. This is my own condition. I was hoping you had something really good in there. No, it's nothing fancy. Here's what I, here's what I subsist on, on a daily basis, water and coffee and probably the occasional cookie or gummy bears. That's my diet. You should hold that La Coloma really, really well to the camera and see if they send you some. Yeah. Well, they're not paying me. Once I start paying me, I will start advertising.
Starting point is 00:23:20 Coffee. Who cares about the payment? Just get the free coffee. Susie Brett will knock out nine reaction videos a day um uh one sometimes two full podcasts in a day when he edits these things which is like in terms of like the editor and the amount of work that is it's like f15 beethoven whatever you want it's it. It's absurd, the output there. And this is- We don't have a team.
Starting point is 00:23:46 It's Brett, me, Jordy. We have a consultant here or there who helps if we have to buy space on TV or things. But that's the team. It's not a big team. Brett, that's impressive. I mean, all I have to do is sit my ass in front of the camera.
Starting point is 00:24:02 I've got a producer, a great producer and a great audio engineer. And I'm lucky. I just have to, well, I usually screw up. They're usually telling me that I didn't put the microphone on higher. It's like typical talent where you seem like you don't know what you're doing. Even though I did every job in television for an excuse. Like I had to do those crap jobs, you know, where you're getting somebody,
Starting point is 00:24:22 you've got an Ivy League degree and you're getting someone's coffee or getting their glasses fixed. And then when I went to ESPN, I was, you know, where you're getting somebody, you've got an Ivy league degree and you're getting someone's coffee or getting their glasses fixed. And then when I went to ESPN, I was, you know, climbing the stacks for tapes for sports center, trying to get an, you know, a stupid 45 second highlight done on time. So I shouldn't have had to do all this stuff, but I don't. So I am, um, I'm in awe that you actually go through this and do all the editing and thank God you do. So you can erase things for when people make idiot mistakes like me. And Susie, I mean, you know, the process when, you know, with, with film development and television development,
Starting point is 00:24:51 how much of a slog that is, right. It's, it's very difficult to actually get stuff done in that sort of structure. So I think part of our secret is our structure is we do things that we want to do and we release them and we move on to the next thing. And by the way, you know what the best antidote is for when you don't like what you're doing is to do it yourself. I mean, that's always been my problem in life is that I know how to do it for someone else's job. It's like the old joke in broadcast news. Remember Holly Hunter was in broadcast news. She was the producer who one of the head of the network says, what's it like being
Starting point is 00:25:24 the smartest person in the room all the time? She's like, it's terrible. I'm like, I get you. I hear you. I mean, I so understand what you're saying. So I think the fact that you do everything yourself is probably why your quality is still high. It's when you start farming it out that you get worried about your quality. Right.
Starting point is 00:25:40 A hundred percent. I couldn't agree. So let's talk about. So so post ads, though, you know, we see things like Uvalde, um, free too frequently. I mean, once is horrific. The fact that you have Uvalde and then you hear Tulsa and then after Tulsa, you know, you can't keep up with the mass shootings. It's overwhelming. And then you're gaslit by Republicans who talk about doors and it's weed and it's pornography. And they have a relentless machine that pushes that out there.
Starting point is 00:26:15 And then people who you communicate with, who you think are fairly level-headed, normal people start saying shit like that and start saying, oh, well, he's on the psychotropics. And it's like, what the fuck are you talking about? What do we do? What do we do? One, we should be doing something, but what do you think we do? You know, in addition to, okay, an ad, we said we were doing these reaction videos. Where do we go? Because doing nothing's not an option. You know, I've been in talks with a couple of senators. I've been working in the gun violence prevention arena for since, since the day after Sandy Hook, because as the mother of a young kid dropping off at preschool, the day after Sandy Hook, I froze in the driveway and I couldn't leave my kid at school. And I got involved back then
Starting point is 00:26:59 hosting salons for all the different gun violence prevention groups. And that's the problem. There's all these different groups. There's Brady, there's Everytown, there's Giffords, and I'm very close with Gabby, but there's one NRA. And so they've been able very succinctly and easily to be able to create their own narrative as opposed to all these different gun groups who are all jockeying for position and power and celebrity, because they all want to be the reason why the gun violence prevention movement succeeds. And until they all come together and start working together as one voice, I think that there will be no forward momentum. Chris Murphy, the senator from Connecticut, has been working for years to unify these different gun violence prevention groups.
Starting point is 00:27:44 And the last time I was in D.C. before COVID, he and I had talked about having a summit and then COVID hits. And then if you guys remember only too well, nobody cared about guns during COVID because no one was going anywhere. So all the momentum that was taken by HR8, I was in DC lobbying for HR8 right when it was passed. It was an exciting time. We're high-fiving. We're thinking, this is great. We're on our way. And then COVID hits. And then guns weren't part of the equation because people weren't leaving their house. That's not realistic either. I mean, the fact of the matter is the perversion of the Second Amendment has been recorded ad nauseum, right? Ted Cruz is, what a total joke. What a total embarrassment. He is talking about doors, talking about blaming this teacher.
Starting point is 00:28:29 What if she left the stone in the door? What have you, this poor teacher saw a guy crash his car, went to go help him because that's what teachers do. And then realized that he had a gun and went running. What teacher, arming teachers. Why should a teacher, my, my in-laws are retired Staten Island
Starting point is 00:28:48 school teachers. Let me tell you something. You don't want to see guns in these Jews' hands. It would not be pretty. I don't care how much training that they would possibly have. They can't fire a gun. I want these kids taught, not protected with a rifle or a gun and blaming psychotropics and blaming the lack of fathers. I mean, you've got to be kidding me when you're telling kids, if a kid needs to wait till 21 to drink, if a kid needs to have passed every single test in the world to drive a car, I don't understand how they're giving these weapons of mass destruction, these weapons of war to 18 year olds. I don't think that we can underestimate the control that the government would have had Trump gotten a second term. I think that's the truth. And that's
Starting point is 00:29:38 what's so scary is I really don't think that I don't think it's hyperbole. No, I think that we were about to enter one of the most frightening times in the history of our country and maybe in the world, because I really I think there was a real fear that those of us who were so outspoken. Could have been carted off. I don't think that's hyperbole. Back to the gun thing, If you don't mind indulging me, clearly I care a lot about this. Obviously it was president Biden when he was a Senator who ushered in the era of the assault weapons ban. I remember when it lapsed, I thought to myself, how the hell did that happen? And I know it made me in, it made me depressed about the state of the country when that lapsed anyway,
Starting point is 00:30:24 because I thought, well, after what, why on earth would they let a bill that was successful lapse? But you look at you, you look at the lack of argument that these Republicans have on this. And you're right, the constant blaming of everything but the actual gun. If you talk to Senator Kelly from Arizona, he's a gun carrying, you know, he carries, he shoots, he safely puts his gun away in a locked box. He doesn't need to have an assault weapon. You know, I remember who was the senator from Louisiana talking about feral pigs and you had to shoot off feral pigs. You can use a rifle for that. I'm all for a rifle. It's just that a semi-automatic weapon is a weapon of mass destruction. It's a weapon of war. And I just feel that when Ted Cruz opens his mouth about the doors, the fathers, the what have you, I think sadly it's going to take one of the Republicans
Starting point is 00:31:28 family members to be in jeopardy for them to possibly come around. I was speaking to somebody this morning in Italy and they were asking me because, you know, I have a lot of friends who live out of the country and they they just don't get it. They don't understand why anyone would need an Uzi. Why Why does somebody need to have a weapon that even if you're in the army, those weapons are locked up. You don't walk around carrying your AR-15. You don't walk around a base carrying an assault weapon. So then why would we allow it to be some kid who on his 18th birthday gets that much money? Why should that child, that child be allowed to go buy a gun that a member of the army is not allowed to carry unless they are physically in the midst of battle or training. And before they could get their hands
Starting point is 00:32:16 on it, as you just were saying, they need to be trained in a specific way. That training needs to be renewed every single year. They have to go through training in order to keep that weapon. I think one of the analogies that has actually stuck with me is that if you had a group of kids on a playground and one of them had a stick and was hitting the other kids with the stick, yes, you would say there's something wrong with that kid, but your solution wouldn't be, let's give all the other kids sticks. You would take the stick away from that kit. But what the Republicans want to do is they want to give sticks to everybody and just have it be a free for all where everybody is just bashing each other in the head with sticks. And it becomes a much more dangerous situation.
Starting point is 00:32:59 This is what I found is a leitmotif in politics over the last three years. Democrats don't take messaging by the horns. Right. They don't. They let the Republicans run the narrative of messaging. The fact of the matter is, Second Amendment has become a freedom issue, right? Or what about my right to send my kids to school without sheer fear that they could get shot up in their classroom? See, the Second Amendment needs to be flipped, quite honestly. This is, again, what we talk about narratives, where the Democrats routinely fail to seize the narrative. And like, by the way, if they do lose in 2022 or 2024, look in the mirror,
Starting point is 00:33:45 same thing I'd say to my 13 year old, you got to look in the mirror and say, what did I do wrong? What's my personal accountability? They should seize the narrative. Ted Cruz, I should have the right to have the door to my school open. I should have the right to protect other kids in the class from an easily preventable, contagious virus. What about my rights? If you flip the right to live in this country as a free citizen on its head, it's the exact same thing. So basically, what I would do is fight fire with fire. I'd shove it right back in their faces and say, these are my inalienable rights,
Starting point is 00:34:24 and you're preventing them by allowing assault weapons. fire with fire, I'd shove it right back in their faces and say, these are my inalienable rights. And you're preventing them by allowing assault weapons. And that's what he does is Ted Cruz basically allows assault weapons to proliferate in this country. What are there like 20 million assault weapons? A friend of mine came up with a concept. She said, well, I have a great idea. If Ukraine needs all of these weapons and we need to get them off the street, let's offer to buy them back at twice the value. Get those weapons, send them to Ukraine. They need them. We don't need them.
Starting point is 00:34:50 If you're going to go hunting and you need an assault weapons ban, you're a shitty shot. You're a shitty shot. Go take some lessons. Hunting is supposedly a sport. I'm sorry, but it's a sport. I'm not sure what's so sporty about killing an animal. And I'm sure that every hunter's like, you moron, it's a sport. It's great. Well, I don't understand. And I can take the blows. But I mean, if you really need an assault band
Starting point is 00:35:18 to kill a deer that you can't eat now because it's got a it's exploded i learned how to say exploded in italian this morning because i was so annoyed um trying to explain to somebody in italy about um i'm like how do you say explode into a million pieces because some moron had to shoot it with an ar-15 i'm like okay no one had to say that but think about it i I mean, how does Ted Cruz have a foot to stand on? And to that point, they are all their so-called solutions, which aren't good faith solutions at all. It's all like you said, we should be framing it as they are trying to restrict your freedoms further. They want to prioritize guns over your own freedom. They want to turn that supermarket into like an airport where you have to go through security and check your bags and be followed by police when you enter.
Starting point is 00:36:09 They want hospitals to be the same way because the logical end of all their suggestions are, what do you do? Okay. There's a shooting in the Tulsa hospital. Okay. Your plan for schools was the doors, arm the teachers. Are you going to have fewer hospital doors? Are you going to arm the nurses? Are you going to teach the patients self-defense classes as they're being admitted into the hospital? The plan makes no sense. It sounds dumb because it is dumb and it is bad faith. And the end game of it is to basically turn America into a police state where you're being
Starting point is 00:36:40 followed at every point because we have all these weapons of war on the street. And the only way for you to be safe is for you to be under surveillance 24-7. You'd have to check a bag everywhere you go, be followed around, et cetera. I mean, that's the solution? Brett, it's antithetical because it's exactly what they say they don't want. They say they want an open state. They want your rights and your freedoms to do what you want to do. But their actions make us more unsafe. Their actions make us turn to a police state. They want your rights and your freedoms to do what you want to do, but their actions make us more unsafe. Their actions make us turn to a police state. And so once again, like here we are sitting here, the three of us, and clearly we're a bunch of geniuses and we're sitting here,
Starting point is 00:37:14 we've figured out the right narrative for the DNC, even though they can't figure it out for themselves because they won't take meetings because God, they're just painful to deal with. So here we are, three genus sitting here. We've now figured out how to get this message out, which is if you want to live in a free world and in a free society, simply by removing the threat of assault weapons, which no one needs, keep your Glocks, keep your Migs, your Sig Sowers, whatever the hell they're called. Keep your shotguns. Keep your rifles. I'm all for the Second Amendment. Took an hour to reload a musket, but I mean, I'm all for the right to
Starting point is 00:37:51 bear arms. I don't send my kids to a play date without asking, is there a gun in the house? And is it safely put away? Because, you know, we live in LA. There's a lot of people of, you know, different types of people. And you find out a lot more people have weapons in their home than you expect. But you have to know that you have to protect your kids, right? I mean, I am not going to send my kid to a house that's gotten a assault weapon, that's for sure. And if I am sending to a house that has guns, I always say, please keep it in a locked place because I just wouldn't want to. My kids are older now. They're not little, little because it's the little, littles that get into the guns and then hurt themselves or hurt others around them. I just think it's incredible that how many kids get massacred over the last 10 years. Of course, we don't care about them anymore when they come out. We care about them a lot when they're still inside the mother. But when these kids come out in our mask or these little kids who reach into their grandmother's bag from the backseat and they shoot the grandmother, they reach into the you know, they find their dad's gun. They shoot their sibling. Guns kill. Guns hurt. Guns maim. You need it for protection. Be a grownup.
Starting point is 00:39:06 Put it away. Keep it somewhere safe. You need to carry your gun into Starbucks. Aren't you a big man? I mean, like that's the lamest thing about Texas and some, and some of these States that have open carry. Does it make you feel like more of a man?
Starting point is 00:39:19 Cause you got a gun on your hip. And I know a lot of women care that they care those cute little pistols and their pocketbooks. And I just don't get it. I just I do appreciate wanting to protect one's home. I am all for the opportunity in this country to do as one wishes to do in terms of the Second Amendment. You have the right to carry a gun. I get it. But the continual perversion, that's what makes me mad about, you know, and I keep harping on Ted Cruz just because this whole idea of him not being Ivy league educated, him not being an elite.
Starting point is 00:39:51 Cause he's the worst. The worst. And Josh Hawley is right next to him. This whole idea of like you people don't understand how we have to protect ourselves. Like, listen, you loser. I mean, nobody liked you at Yale. Nobody likes you now, but this whole idea of like how I'm one of you, you've got to be kidding me. This whole like, so again, then you start thinking about the messaging,
Starting point is 00:40:14 where it ties in. One of the ads I did that was my favorite ad was, I don't know if you guys remembered it or not, but the 1-800-KANCOON-TRIP, where we did a fake ad calling out him of his hypocrisy for going to Cancun when everyone else was freezing. And I think I had lines, something like, you know,
Starting point is 00:40:32 let him eat tortillas or something like that. Like, you know, with the let them eat pastel or I don't know what it was, but how he's been able to keep on the charade as long as he has is beyond me. I'm watching the Beto race with a lot of interest because now that he's neck and neck with
Starting point is 00:40:55 Abbott, I just wonder if Uvalde has pressed enough Texans into awareness. But my fear is, I was talking to somebody in Amarillo the other day, the one liberal in Amarillo, and she was saying, she doesn't even ask anybody or talk to anybody about politics because she's continually disappointed because the answer she gets from women and men alike is, well, you know, when the government comes to take your guns away, I just thought to myself, the government can't even do our taxes on time. How do they have anybody to come and take your guns away? A lot of people. They've been saying that line for decades and decades and decades. And guess what? It hasn't happened. And gun sales have only increased and guns have proliferated more than ever.
Starting point is 00:41:38 I think another important freedom issue, and I think I would frame it as an issue about freedom that you hit on, and it comes full circle to the ad that you produced, is the Roe v. Wade issue. And I think I would frame it as an issue about freedom that you hit on and it comes full circle to the ad that you produced is the Roe v. Wade issue. So what do you think is the right way to message the overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision? Yeah. So that one is really tough. And that's where, again, I will put all of my messaging efforts towards women of childbearing age and slightly older and appeal to moms because I think that any mom's worst fear is a daughter either being abused or raped or even like in our ad, just having made a mistake. And I go back again to this idea of this is all control, right? This isn't about a baby. This isn't about a fetus. And it might be about Jesus or religion or what have you, but it's not about religion for these senators. It's about control.
Starting point is 00:42:40 And it's about controllable woman's right to choose. It's about control. It's not about a baby. Again, I keep trying to hammer that in, and I do appreciate that there are those in the religious right who would beg to differ, but for the most part, this is about solely control, and it's no different than the Catholic Church wanting to control the narrative since the dawn of time, what have you. This is all about controlling women's rights. So I don't know if you recall the ad, the girl in the mirror ad that I did for Lincoln, which was an ad really imploring women to look at Trump and to think about their children's,
Starting point is 00:43:17 their girls' future with him as president and about the example that he was setting as girls watch a man. I just pulled it up. I remember this one. This one was unbelievably good. This one was fantastic. Thank you. president and about the example that he was setting as girls watch a man. I just pulled it up. I remember this one. This one was unbelievably good. This one was fantastic. Thank you. And I have been playing in my head of how to approach the row issue to women who might think differently.
Starting point is 00:43:40 This ad in particular resonated with female voters in Georgia, which obviously tends to be a red state. So we knew that we hit a nerve. And I think that we have to do the same thing. I think yelling and screaming doesn't work. Getting quiet is far more effective. So I've seen a lot of very redundant ads when it comes to ro wade but i think it had this ad that i'm working on has to it's it's quiet it's sad it's haunting and i'm hoping that
Starting point is 00:44:15 it will make women look at their own children differently i think you know you think about ro wade and you think about um uh obviously women who are old enough to have sexual relationships. But when you look at little girls and you look at little boys and you look at these kids who are so full of potential who aren't even close to being there yet. And you just think about the effect that Roe Wade and this decision has on their futures. That's where I'm heading. That's the direction I'm heading in. There's nothing quite there. And I have three kids.
Starting point is 00:44:53 I don't know if you guys have kids or not, but there is nothing quite as dangerous as a mama bear. And when your child's future is in danger or when your child is threatened in any way, shape or form, and that's exactly what this is for Roe Wade. I think that we can, if we do this effectively and quietly and methodically, I think we can turn, we can change a lot of minds. We're not going to change the Senator's minds. It's all about money. I mean, right? I mean, isn't that what this country has become? It's become a vast money suck. Yeah. If your goal is to convince Ted Cruz of something, you have a lost cause. What I'm curious about is I think one of the benefits that you have, one of the luxuries that you have, and we do also, is we're not like politicians where we're just talking to political people all
Starting point is 00:45:37 day. You're talking to real people. You have the parents of your kids' friends. You have other things that you do out. Politics isn't even the driving force behind your career, which is nice. So what are people like that? How do those conversations go? Do you think the average person who isn't doom scrolling Twitter, who isn't watching cable news all day, do you think they get what's going on? Are they talking about any of this stuff and what seems to be resonating? What's important with them? How do we get through to that person? No, I mean, sadly, the truth is that those of us in Southern California, New York, Chicago, we're tapped in all the time. I will say that the perk of traveling for ABC Sports for as long as I did was I did the big 10, big 12 package a lot. So I spent a lot of time in
Starting point is 00:46:26 the Midwest and, um, and the nicest people on the planet and most generous and, and really had a great experience. But I think that we are in a very, we have to recognize those of us in the, in the coastal cities that our politics doesn't translate and that our interests don't always translate. I think that sadly, the best hope the Democrats have is to pivot away from things like Roe as much as possible. And I think that the female voters will pivot towards Roe, but most voters who aren't scrolling, as you said, doomsday scrolling through Twitter and what have you. The messages were on inflation and national security.
Starting point is 00:47:13 I mean, that's what's so funny is that's what I'm hearing anyway from my friends in power in D.C. But that's also being realistic about why those in the Midwest and the South despise coastal cities, because they think that we're trying to control the narrative of the country. So now we have to sit here and think, what's our lowest common denominator in its inflation and its national security? Everyone's COVID tired, right? I don't know about you guys. I mean, I'm like one of those moron mask wearers and I'm following all the rules. And I took my kid to Baltimore last week and we took the Stella from New York to Baltimore. We were the only two people on the train wearing masks flying back to LA. We were the only two people wearing masks. It was crazy. You know, I'm sitting here thinking, uh, anybody worried about work for a week? Clearly not. And, um, so yeah, I mean, our country's too big. Our interests are too vast and too disparate. That's the issue. The founding fathers never thought they'd have a country as big as it we would conquer all this vast territory we are a country of opposite minds and i think that it that's why it's so hard for this huge democratic party to survive i wished a third party had come out of this i was really hopeful that that we might have some that take the craziness elsewhere.
Starting point is 00:48:47 Maybe we could have something in the center of moderates. I mean, I'm a moderate. I am not far left. I'm actually a moderate. But I believe in, you know, my whole life revolves around a woman's right to choose and not wanting my kids shut up in school. I think that's not asking for too much. Do you think so? And, and,
Starting point is 00:49:06 and the Patriots will, you know, getting a better quarterback. I mean, Mac Jones is fine. I like the Patriots to win. I want the Celtics to win. Even though I do love Steve Kerr more than life itself. I so appreciate having a coach who's so outspoken. So great. Okay. Maybe I want the Warriors to win, but my 11-year-old is a Celtics diehard. So that's tough. So I'm not asking for a lot. I'm asking for the right to choose, not having my kids shut up in school, and maybe the Celtics to win in five. Is that wrong?
Starting point is 00:49:40 Well, what's wrong is that at least the first two, you'll have a lot of sports fans who may get upset about the New England and the Boston Celtics, but it's a whole nother conversation for perhaps your show. are not. And these were the only reason I became involved in this political world is when those issues became so politicized. And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm watching TV. I'm sitting there quarantined with COVID. I'm seeing Trump talking about injecting people with bleach and all and all of this crazy stuff, you know, and then i'm looking at the issues and i'm and i'm thinking you know about uh you know the supporting 18 year olds with ar-15s and i'm thinking wait this is not like a democrat republican issue this isn't like uh this is what's normal and this is some real disturbing shit issue and then people are like you guys are these radical you know like lefties lefties. I'm like, there's like nothing radical. I don't think there's any position that I have that's a radical
Starting point is 00:50:49 lefty position. That's the wildest part about it, that we're framed as such a thing that it's like, that's why we don't even say progressive so much anymore, because it has a connotation. That's the key word. You can't say progressive, you know, versus, you know, at the end of the day, my view was pro-democracy. We support our democracy. And my views are very, I thought, kind of common sense shit. Well, how many times did you think, well, that'll be the nail in Trump's coffin? He just said, everybody should drink bleach. But then people start buying bleach to drink it. And you're thinking to yourself, what's wrong with the state of our union? Is it that we're not educating people? Is it economic disparity? And why the hell do people
Starting point is 00:51:34 think drinking bleach is a good idea? Oh, because our president said it. But this is my whole mantra in life. And this goes to what I say to my 13-year-old every day, which is personal accountability. I don't want to hear from Dr. Birx later saying, I sat there and I shook my head, but she stood there and defended it and took it. The balls of that Russian newscaster or the producer who came from behind and held up the what's happening in this country is wrong. We don't have enough of that here. It's what you guys are doing every day. You guys are those outliers. You guys are those upstanders holding up that sign saying what you're doing here is wrong.
Starting point is 00:52:15 The sheer fear is why don't more people see it that way, right? That's the fear and that's the underlying energy behind everything that the three of us do, which is we can write these ads. We can put out these viral videos. We can talk in a podcast. But our country is so big that if there are enough people that believe that drinking bleach might keep them from getting COVID. It's kind of, I mean, is there any other way to say, but like we're fucked and, and it's just a question of hoping that right before these elections, that the cards fall as they should. I mean, let's face it. We all still are wondering why Comey had to come out with the Hillary stuff right before the election. And
Starting point is 00:53:00 he basically killed her presidency. Correct. I mean, she probably would have won the election. That's in the, that's in the, in the wake of pussy gate and the whole thing. I mean, you know, it, life is a series of chances, right? I mean, isn't that right? I mean, we're, we're basically folly to luck for most of the time. Here's what I think it comes down to, you know, and I think you said it, you you said it, and this is how it is. Personal accountability and freedom. Personal accountability and freedom. How many times, though, have you heard a Democratic politician, not on this show, just speak about personal accountability and freedom? Rarely, if ever. And how many times do you hear Republicans talk about personal accountability and freedom? All the fucking time, every single day, all over again, while the actual ideas that they're putting out are completely antithetical to personal
Starting point is 00:54:00 accountability and freedom and the democratic ideas are. But what you just said is exactly right. They have one narrative, one unified narrative, and they hammer it down our throats every day. Even if they're antithetical to the truth, they have one narrative and one narrative is effective. I have the right to live freely. My kids have the right to go to school without fear of being shut up. What about that liberty? What about that essential inalienable right? So you're right. Look, if I were to go into politics and I just spent time with a whole bunch of house members in DC a couple of weeks ago, and I told them this, and they listened with rapt attention, they're nodding and we're sitting there taking it all in.
Starting point is 00:54:42 You're absolutely right. This is so great. And then crickets. And none of them are following. I gave them a roadmap and I gave them some strategy. Crickets, because they don't have central leadership. I mean, I don't think Sean Patrick McCarthy is doing a bang up job of leading the Detroit. I think that we have, sadly, incredibly effective Republican leaders in terms of leadership and following the line. These senators get in line behind Mitch McConnell. They're not getting in line behind Schumer. And I appreciate what he's doing. I think we need some fresh blood and
Starting point is 00:55:24 leadership. I like what Mark Kelly is doing a lot. I look at him as potential leadership and as somebody who can unify both sides. I mean, talk about a moderate and talk about somebody who, I mean, he's more masculine than a room full of men combined. I mean, the guy's been to space a bunch of times. He's a fighter pilot. I mean, I want to see him step up and take a leadership role. But until we can unify people behind one message, one've been in sports since I was 21 years old. No, please. It is, you know, the whole idea of defense winning championships, bullshit. If you don't score, you're not going to win. So, Democrats just, they sit back and they return serve and they return serve. Oh, another sport metaphor. This is so humiliating.
Starting point is 00:56:18 This is just awful. But they just sit there and return serve, return serve. They got to ace once in a while, right? And that's what the Republicans do because they have one narrative. How did you guys get started? Like, let's turn this into my podcast. So like, welcome to this edition of Just Getting Started. I guess this week are the Midas Spectacular Brothers.
Starting point is 00:56:39 And like, how did you guys get started? Like, how did you guys find yourself into this arena? Our backgrounds are, you know, different and unique, but not political. So my background was a civil rights lawyer, went to Georgetown Law, helped out a lot of families who lost loved ones to police brutality. So did a lot of cases out in Bakersfield and Fresno, 2014, 2015. At that time, they had the highest police shooting deaths per capita. I linked up with Kaepernick in 2016, 2017, became his business partner,
Starting point is 00:57:13 worked on all of his related endeavors and still do to this day. That's where I was in 2020, but not really in a political, but helping people with platforms behind the scenes. Brett, I'll let you tell your part, Brett, so I don't cannibalize it. Yeah, sure. I was working in film and TV. I had worked for the Ellen DeGeneres show for over five years. I was editing their digital content. I ran the post-production for their digital network, which had grown rapidly. When I started there, I was like the night editor who worked until 2, 3 a.m. cutting videos. And by the time I left, I was leading the department of post-production of all the digital stuff. Those five people who I started with turned into a department of probably near 80 people.
Starting point is 00:58:00 So I became very good at turning around kind of high quality, short form content on a daily basis, often multiple times a day with strict deadlines and high film production company. And I was working in sports actually for the big three, a traveling basketball league, running their digital content as well and putting together the digital tape packages that we would do and clip highlights and things like that. And like Ben said, we were all just so as brother. And then we have our younger brother, Jordy, who's not here right now. Jordy was a marketing executive in New York. And so we basically put our brains together one day and we're like, we got to do something. It's too chaotic out there. It's too scary out there. So what can we do? And at that point I was like, brothers, instead of us complaining every day to each other in these iMessage chats. If I made a website for us, would you guys be committed to publishing articles, making content, doing whatever we can to at least
Starting point is 00:59:10 get our voices out there? And the brother said, yes. I believe it was actually Jordi who came up with the name Midas Touch, which is based on actually both of our parents' last names, kind of a meld of those things together. And we started and we hit the ground running and then we were just relentless with it. And then we started making these videos and one video went viral, which led to the next video going viral and the next video going viral. And we never focus group things. We never decided, well, let's run it by this party leader and this expert and see, get their thoughts. And then let's wait two months and then we'll put it out after we test this out and make sure that it works for all these people and that it's in line with it. We did what we were passionate about. We did everything
Starting point is 00:59:49 based on our feelings about what was going on at that time in history. And we just hit the ground running and the thing really grew organically very quickly. And I didn't stop working for years and years straight since then. I would say even in the weekends and times that I take off now, I'm still always working. And I think it's just important for us to always have this always on sort of attitude because if we're not on, I'm not confident of the infrastructure out there, the other infrastructure out there to take the reins and appropriately be staying on top of all the issues. But there's two pieces I would just add to Brett. We started it just for context during the pandemic in March, when Trump started giving all of those
Starting point is 01:00:28 press conferences, that's when that took place. And even though we didn't really like focus group things, everything was based on kind of taking in as much information as we could and speaking to different groups and people all over the country to try to just see what would work and what would hit and what would hit and what people didn't like. And that's kind of constantly the obsessiveness that we're after today is that kind of curiosity. That's fascinating. What's your favorite retweet? Who was the person that retweeted your content when you guys were in the height of 2020 that you looked at each other and high five and you're like, I know that we made it now?
Starting point is 01:01:05 I'll tell you the first one for me. I don't know if it'd be the same for Ben, but growing up, Judd Apatow, always my favorite director, writer, comedian. I love every Judd Apatow movie. He was a hero of mine. I think on my application to USC film school, I think when it said, who is somebody who you look up to? I wrote Judd Apatow and wrote a whole essay about why Judd Apatow was so meaningful to me. And Judd became a fan of ours pretty early on and started retweeting us and supporting us and stuff like that. And so for me, seeing like one of my idols out there supporting us and retweeting us and saying, hey, you guys did a good job getting on a phone call with us, donating a little bit to us like that to me was like one of the most affirming
Starting point is 01:01:42 and coolest experiences at the beginning of this. Yeah. And then the Colbert retweet was cool, but then we ended up working with a lot of people. Like we did videos with Bette Midler, videos with Barbra Streisand, videos with Stevie Wonder, videos with Nine Inch Nails. And so that was cool being able to have this Midas brand and then work with people to kind of channel those messages. And Bette Midler did some incredible videos with us where she would sing. We would have Bette Midler singing on Midas videos and we would be in the editing studio, the virtual editing studio with Bette Midler. I mean, that was pretty cool. She was my next door neighbor for a long time. And every so often, we would hear her singing across the hedge.
Starting point is 01:02:26 And I finally met her a couple of years ago and she was with some friends of mine. And I walked over and I said, I'm the one on the other side of the hedge. She's like, you're the one with the three kids. I always hear kids playing in the pool. I'm like, I'm interrupting. I'm sorry if we got in the way of your aria. But yeah, I loved, I like her. It's very funny.
Starting point is 01:02:42 Her political acumen is very cool. What's your end game for Midas? To have a media company that would rival and surpass like a Fox News one day. So the goals are relatively ambitious and it's not, we're not content with where it is now. But the big broader vision is to actually change the way the media is consumed, to change how media is delivered. And, you know, we've only been around for two years. I mean, that's kind of the wildest part.
Starting point is 01:03:14 And already on the digital side, I would say our engagement's equal, if not bigger, than a lot of the mainstream stuff. I want to hear something so sad. Guys, interrupt. I just got a something so sad, guys, to interrupt. I just got a text. Mom, was there another school shooting? I'm scared. That's what I just got from my 13-year-old. Can you believe that?
Starting point is 01:03:34 I just wanted to share that with your audience just because if anybody wonders what keeps us up at night and why we work as hard as we do. Yeah. I mean, is that freedom? Is that the America we want? Do you want to have to worry about going to the grocery store and wondering if you're going to get shot? Do you want to have to worry about going to school and getting shot? Do you want to worry about if you
Starting point is 01:03:53 get shot and survive, that when you get to the hospital, that someone might shoot up the hospital where you're recovering? I mean, that's the America that we are currently living through. And so, I mean, that's definitely why this is so near and dear to my heart as I know it is to yours. Can you imagine the expectant mothers who are in that hospital or those that are going through cancer treatments that are connected by tubes to machines and they hear that gunfire and they are stuck? I just want to, I'd like to ask that of Ted Cruz. I'd like to ask that of Rand Paul, of McConnell. Just think about the sheer terror of these women who are about to give birth, about to start their families in that hospital, and hearing gunfire in what's supposed to be a safe place. We all freaked out as a nation
Starting point is 01:04:37 watching the hospitals in Ukraine being moved and being, gosh, space on the word of what happens when you take people out of somewhere. That's so much. Displaced. And then that works so much for a degree. But I just, that's what I feel like. And I think you're right. It goes back to freedom. And it goes back to what we talked about at the very beginning of this
Starting point is 01:04:59 podcast, which is seizing the narrative. And if we can just inflate or conflate the narrative and we can just put it on its head. And if we can just convince in your position and my position, these Democrats to listen of what happens when we effectively control the narrative. If the people that we elected would just listen to the people that elected them, then we could actually secure our democracy in a way that we haven't seen in recent years. Couldn't agree more. And we got to talk more offline about what we can do from now until November. And then even after that building, you know, building on this. I have, so I have notes
Starting point is 01:05:39 that I have on the side that sometimes Brett and I share, like if there's a question and I wrote like, she's incredible, she's incredible, she's incredible, like 20 times and highlighting after everything that you said. And I truly mean that. It's incredible to have you on here. It's incredible to partner with you on the ad that we did. And I hope to be working with you more and other stuff in the future. And Susie Schuster, thank you so much for joining us. Oh, guys, I mean, you guys have my number. There's no idea that doesn't have potentiality. I'd love to be able to keep our conversation going. I've so enjoyed getting to know you guys. You guys can drop by the Just Getting Started podcast and take a listen to that too. It's an origin story podcast on Westwood One Podcast. And wherever you get your podcast, Our guest this week is Elizabeth
Starting point is 01:06:26 Banks, the actress who just finished directing Cocaine Bear, which is coming out, which is really insane, but it's about how she got started. I love origin stories. I love to know how people got places and where they came from. We had Dave Mandel on who created Veep the week before. We had Marshall Falk, the Hall of Fame running back, I think right before that. So we run the gamut of guests. I just like to think of somebody that I think might be interesting to my followers. Love to have you guys on because I love what you're doing. And I'm so grateful that you guys are existing in this space.
Starting point is 01:07:01 Thank you so much, Susie Schuster. We will be right back after these messages. And incredible interview with Susie Schuster. I'm really happy we were able to bring that interview to you. Again, we had recorded that interview prior to the decision. I think we all knew the writing was on the wall. She's amazing. She's really, really incredible. I was so bummed I couldn't be there for the interview, especially now watching it again. I mean, she's amazing.
Starting point is 01:07:28 Yeah, it was an incredible, incredible interview. So we'll keep you updated. We will, for those who want to know too, I hope you're all enjoying our new series on the Midas Touch podcast, The Mighty, hosted by Jordi. So the new episodes for audio listeners, the new episodes of the Midas Touch podcast involving the brothers, the marquee Midas Touch show, if you will, the brothers
Starting point is 01:07:54 show new episodes drop 5 a.m. Eastern on Tuesdays and Fridays. Every other day, we have a new program called The Mighty and The Mighty features some of our incredible content contributors at Midas Touch. So from Coach D to Texas Paul to Emma Silverman, you name it, we feature their musings, commentary, rants, and you can catch that every day that the Brothers podcast is not. And it's snack size too. I think that's an important part to it. They're usually between 16 and 20 minutes, 10 to 20 minutes. That's long. Sometimes they're seven minutes.
Starting point is 01:08:32 Yeah, they're real snack size. And you love, you bury the lead, Ben. I'm, everyone listening, I'm hosting the podcast. I actually get to speak. It's a great time. Please come join us because I need that podcast now on the same Midas Touch YouTube, Midas Touch podcast channel to continue to do just as good of numbers, if not better numbers
Starting point is 01:08:52 than the Brother podcast so I could rub it in their faces. For those watching this on YouTube, make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel. And for those YouTube listeners, do me a favor. Make sure to subscribe as well on the audio channel and go over wherever you get your podcasts on audio, subscribe, leave a five-star review as well for the audio. That's helpful for the algorithm there. It's something we ask that you do
Starting point is 01:09:18 and would appreciate it. For those listening on the audio, if you're not subscribed on the audio, come on, just hit the subscribe button. It's super easy. And then go over to the Midas Touch YouTube channel and make sure you are subscribed to the Midas Touch YouTube and you are watching the YouTube videos and getting all your Jan 6 coverage from Midas Touch YouTube. Special thanks again to Susie Schuster. Anybody wants to go check out the Midas Touch merch, go to store.midastouch.com,
Starting point is 01:09:46 store.midastouch.com. We'll see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. See you next time. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

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