The MeidasTouch Podcast - Winning with Women in Charge with Ukrainian Leader Olena Sotnyk and Kentucky State Senator Karen Berg

Episode Date: March 25, 2022

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we have TWO incredible guests! First up, we speak with Olena Sotnyk about the ongoing situation in Ukraine. Sotnyk is a Ukrainian attorney and politician. She was a member of the Ukrainian Parliament from 2014-2019 and serves as a permanent delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Sotnyk is also a human rights defender and Deputy Prime Minister Adviser. Following our conversation, we chat with Kentucky State Senator Karen Berg. Senator Berg is also a radiologist who went mega viral this past week after giving an impassioned speech against Kentucky's SB 321, which would ban abortion after 15 weeks. The remainder of the episode, the brothers bring you the latest breaking news of the week including updates on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation and which republicans have made absolute fools of themselves this time. If you enjoyed today’s episode please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! As always, thank YOU for listening! DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Fast Growing Trees: https://fastgrowingtrees.com/meidastouch Trade Coffee: https://drinktrade.com/meidas MasterWorks: https://masterworks.art/meidas 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 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Ben, Brett, and Jordy fighting for democracy with you each and every pod, each and every day. We've got an incredible podcast. Incredible podcast. Honestly, some of the best guests maybe we've ever had on the podcast. Do you call a podcast though? Like we have a great podcast or is it an episode? Is there a terminology for it that we should be using? I think it all depends on the context there, Ben. I'm not sure the distinction. Context definitely matters. Yeah. We got a great podcast today. We got a great episode of the Minds Tech podcast today. We got a great podcast today. We got a great episode of the podcast today. We've got a great show. For those listening, Jordy is apparently in Antarctica. He's wearing his winter hat. Might as touch a great hat, but Jordy wear it. It is a great hat. So one of the

things they don't tell you when you're 28 and you move out of your parents' house and you get your own place is that your room that you grew up with, your childhood room doesn't always stay that way. So my room here, I'm at mom's and come visit her has been converted into an office. And now I am staying in the basement. Love it. And that definitely further explains your sartorial, your clothing choices. I'll break it down for you, what you're wearing. We have great guests for you today. Elena Sotnik will be joining Ukrainian attorney and politician. She was a member of the Ukrainian parliament from 2014 to 2019 and serves as a permanent delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Sotnik is a human rights defender and deputy prime minister. I will add, Ben, Elena is going to be speaking with us from the border of Ukraine and Poland. She's in an undisclosed location right there. She is actively helping people on the ground. I am so excited to speak with Elena. I'm so excited for everybody to hear this interview because she is really one of the most impressive people on the planet. She knows Ukraine inside and out, like you said,

member of parliament in Ukraine from 2014 to 2019, and still deputy prime minister advisor. I am just so thrilled and honored to have Elena on the show, but that's not all Ben, who is guest number two on the Midas double header on this pod, the double header. I remember every go to the baseball game where you got the double header. You go to the first game.

There's like two games. It's a lot of baseball, a lot of like a lot of baseball. But but this pod, we do it concise. But we have state Senator Karen Berg, Kentucky state senator. She's the state senator. Everyone's talking about who went viral. She's a radiologist, and she gave that impassioned speech against the Kentucky Bill 321, the state Bill 321, which would ban abortion after

15 weeks. Everyone knows that it got over 10 million views, and she looked at the committee that was discussing and debating this bill, and she's like, I look around and all I see are men and you're not doctors. Okay. I'm a woman and I'm a doctor. And let me explain to you the travesty that is SB 321 and what it's going to do to women. Let me tell you as a woman, let me tell you as a doctor, let me tell you why your science is bogus. Let me tell you why what you are doing is so despicable and so hateful and so hurtful and so excited to have both Elena and Karen on the podcast. I mean, we're really got some of the best guests today. One observation I want to make about Elena Sutnick too, and I'm going to mention this in the interview with her.

You know, President Zelensky gets a lot of credit. I mean, he deserves to mention this in the interview with her. President Zelensky gets a lot of credit. I mean, he deserves all the credit in the world. Literally, he deserves all the credit in the world. When people make that expression, all the credit in the world, Zelensky should get it. But I do want to say this, an observation that I've had, and I think is one of the true strengths of Ukraine and Ukraine's ability to fight for democracy, to fight for freedom. And it also ties into our interview with Karen. They have in Ukraine so many young women in positions of power, positions of power in the government, positions of power in parliament. And it is so incredible to see that we need more of that in the United States, frankly, and to see just how

intelligent and smart Ukrainian policy is that it's like, okay, got it. Like there's a lot of women in power. Like it just completely, it completely makes sense. And it's so true. You know, and then you hear Karen's speech, like I'm a doctor. The hell are you doing? I'm a doctor. What are you, what you're saying makes literally no sense. Men, you know, who are here and why do you want to legislate and regulate the bodies of women and childbearing persons? Like, are you out of your mind? That brings me to a segue and the segue alert, segue alert, and the segue. We should do like, you know, everybody knows that segues are best, you know, when you call them out instead of just letting them happen naturally.

Segue alert. Here comes a segue. That'll be our segue. But as you watch the confirmation hearing of Katonji Brown Jackson, we've had incredible coverage on Midas Touch of it. We've had Harry Littman, an incredible legal expert for LA Times, and he's prepared people for confirmation hearings. He's the perfect person to have critique it. He's done daily critiques. We've had Michael Popock and Karen Friedman Agnifilo do a breakdown

of what's the place. We've all watched it. We've given information. But to see such a dignified person in Katonji Brown Jackson sitting there. And then to see the type of like weirdo conspiracy. Swamp creatures. Like out of control. Like Lindsey Graham acting like a freaking moron. Ted Cruz, like a moron Ted Cruz, like a moron. Holly, like a like a moron. You got people up there like mostly my theory is almost almost true that it's like that

we just need to get rid of all the men in the Senate and just have women. But Marsha Blackburn kind of breaks the theory because because her questioning was also very problematic. But, you know, she's sitting there, you know, someone who's like the most accomplished person to ever sit there. And then you have these barrage of conspiracy theories thrown her way by primarily these Republican men. And like Ted Cruz is literally there questioning, looking at his Twitter account as he's asking the questions to her. And they're going over some of the most bizarre stuff. It was really hard to watch.

And I don't recommend that anybody watch the hearings, but just pick out the highlights. Because, I mean, what I compared it to, it's like a hazing ritual. It's like a sick and twisted hazing ritual, like a fraternity. It's like, OK, we know you're going to be in this position, but along the way, we're going to beat you down along the way with the craziest, wackiest shit that we can throw at you. I'll pause you there, Brett, because it's a great observation. It is a fraternity, a male-created thing that's like, let's create this organization of love and support. And that's how it starts. Right. And let's use the

Greek alphabet. Okay. Now let's lip. Now let's lick whipped cream off each other's toes to prove how manly we are. It's like, what the fuck are you doing? What does that have to do with being manly and friends? And that's what we saw. It was, it was a, it's a hazing ritual. I mean, no one, no one should watch it. Um, but there are some moments that are worth pointing out. I mean, but what we saw from these hearings, it was really it was America at its best and America at its worst. And when I say worst, I'm obviously talking about the Republicans who are just extremely racist, misogynistic, rude, frankly, just creepy and disgusting. Like they literally grossed me out looking at them. And I was scrolling through TikTok yesterday with my wife actually. And like, you know, Cory Booker came on and, and, you know, my wife hadn't seen the clip yet. And the Cory Booker clip is unbelievable. Like everybody should watch the Cory Booker clip. There's a, you know, the two minute version that went viral. I recommend

watching his full 10 plus minutes speech that he gave because it is incredible. And so my wife watched that with me and we were watching together and she was like, wow, that's really special. Like both of us, you know, just geared up when I watched that. Yeah. I, both of us like tearing up just like, you know, judge Katonji Brown Jackson. And then you scroll and next thing, you know, like it's Lindsey Graham coming on my TikTok feed with just his like grimace and disgust. And my wife literally said, she's like, oh, he's like icky. That guy's icky. And like, You know how to look up child porn. Have you seen the child porn photos? All I'm saying is Lindsey Graham knows a lot about child porn, about where to find child

porn, all the details, the ins and outs of child porn. Lindsey Graham sure knows a lot about it. But, you know, when I was watching it, though, I was also thinking like we've all seen the movies of like the civil rights movement. And we cringe when we see those racist American politicians portrayed on the screen. And we like to pretend like we're somehow better than that now. Like, like, I can't believe those racist, disgusting people were in power in this country back then. How could that be in the United States of America? But like, I'm telling you when the movie is written about Katonji Brown Jackson, and there will be a movie written about Katonji Brown Jackson, the way politicians like

Cruz, like Graham, like Cotton, like Hawley, like Marsha Blackburn will be portrayed will be no different than those movies. But when we're watching them, you're watching David Duke, you're watching Jefferson Davis, you're watching George Wallace. These politicians are really no different than that. They just have a 2020 kind of framing to that mindset and that attitude. And that's what we were watching during these confirmation hearings. And with all the child porn stuff, I mean, all of you witnessed the anatomy of a smear. That's how the right wing does it. You saw how it happened. You saw Judge Katonji Brown Jackson be nominated for this position. First, they attacked her even before that they knew that she was in the role. They just attacked the fact that a black woman would be in the role. Second,

they get the name and then they've got to figure it out because she is just overwhelmingly qualified, like cannot even be refuted her qualifications. So then they try to poke around and they go, okay, what's our talking points? You see all the people, what do we say about her? She's qualified. I don't know. What do we say? What do we say? What do we say? And then Josh Hawley decides to home in on this child porn thing. And then they go, that's it. Child porn, child porn, child porn, child porn defender to score some political points for their base. If they could do that to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, they could do that to everybody. And that's how their smears work against her. That's how their smears work against Kamala Harris. That's how their smears work against Hillary Clinton. That's how their smears work. They take conspiracy theories. They blow them up until their audience thinks that they are true. And they run with them full steam without even acknowledging the fact

that accusing somebody of something so heinous and disgusting, they don't even care. They don't care about the bodies they leave along the way. They just want blood. They just want to take fucking blood. That's all they care about so they can get some red meat for their base. And it's disgusting. It's absolutely disgusting. Couldn't agree with you more, Brett. And as you look though, into some of the issues that they do kind of delve into, and they do want to talk about, you know, we mentioned this in the last podcast though, the criticism, this is a Marsha Blackburn criticism of the Griswold decision, which made contraception a privacy right that adults can avail themselves of contraception. That was a policy issue that they criticized

Ketanji Brown Jackson for supporting that precedent that exists since 1965. You know, it's funny. They were like, you know, they asked her about the Heller decision, you know, a decision that basically begins making the accessibility of guns easier so that, you know, a lot of these states had started putting forward rules that like, hey, in these areas, can we not have like assault weapons and can we not have these weapons? You know, and Heller's a decision that Second Amendment, you know, people, by the way, I support the Second Amendment, but the Second Amendment says there should be well-regulated militias. And so we should read well-regulated and militias into the Second Amendment. I think the words actually have meaning. It's the one amendment that, you know, there are strict textualists, these Republicans

on every issue, but the one amendment that actually like mentions regulation in it is the one that they take away the word regulation. Well, it actually didn't mean that. We're talking – let's forget the militia part. But they asked Katonji Brown's action about the Heller decision and would you be against that precedent? Or do you think the precedent of Roe v. Wade is more important than the precedent of Heller? And she's like – it's like the dumbest question to ask a lawyer. She's like, their precedent. It's not one precedent over another precedent, like follow precedent in the Supreme Court.

But the irony is what the Republicans didn't realize they were doing. They were challenging the precedent in the question by asking her to support the precedent of Heller and the Second Amendment line of cases by saying that Griswold should be overturned, by saying that Roe v. Wade should be overturned. Shit, we had said, like I go, shit, like shit, we had Senator John Cornyn, I don't know where that even came from. We have Senator John Cornyn. He said he talked about the Obergefell case in 2015, you know, and challenged the due process logic that that legalized same sex marriages. So that's what they're going to attack.

This wasn't in the hearing, but we have Senator Mike Braun from Indiana saying that interracial marriage should be a state's rights issue and that there should not be, you know, a constitutional right in the United States of America to an interracial marriage. He's since attempted to try to walk that back and say he thought that he was talking about transgender rights or anything like that. No, it was a very clear question. And by the way, if that's your view- It's still horrible either way. No, and if that's your view that the state should be able to handle everything and that constitutionally, you don't think that the federal government should be able to handle anything.

First off, we're going back to like the Articles of Confederation, like you're throwing away the Constitution. Second of all, then you're saying, OK, then if a state wants to reimplement slavery, they could reimplement slavery. I mean, that's the natural, not even evolution. That's exactly what he's saying in his statement. Like that's what he said. An interracial marriage was an example. And there's a reason though, why he said, there's a lot more horrible things too, that, you know, you might disagree with, but I think it's all best left to the States. I mean, that is literally what he's saying. And even like the dumb cultural stuff that Ted Cruz and those people like to attack, like they were mad. They were, they were trying to act all self-righteous because like a book

at the school that she was affiliated with was teaching kids not to be racist. It was anti-racist. And so that was like a huge scandal to them that they were teaching people that they shouldn't be racist. Like, you know, it's like anti-racist, anti-fascist. Like these are all bad things to Republicans. Like Ted Cruz, there's literally a photo of Ted Cruz questioning her. And he has a children's book up that I think promoted diversity behind him. And like, that was the question. Like, it looked like out of the onion, you know, that that that line of questioning. But yeah, that that her that an anti racism position is anti American. According to these people sleep at night. Like, do they have

a conscious or they're just sleeping on big bags of money? I think they don't have a conscious. And if you want to give you just a great example, Jordy, have you been following this Mo Brooks news that's in it? So Mo Brooks, Mo problems. Exactly. So Mo Brooks is a congressman in Alabama. He's running for Senator Shelby's seat in 2022. Mo Brooks was originally endorsed by Donald Trump and Mo Brooks was a big supporter of even had it in his Twitter bio. He called himself Maga Mo or something like that. Maga Mo in his. But at a recent rally, what Mo was asked, you know, Mo supports the big lie. OK, like he's been like if you go to the editorial that was written in the Alabama dot com editorial, because here's the scariest thing about Mo Brooks.

And it's written by Kyle Whitmire. It's an opinion column. And they said, well, you know, Mo Brooks was like a district attorney. Like, how many people did this individual prosecute? Like, his logic, too, to support the big lie was based on all of the rejected stuff about, like, the Pennsylvania, you know, missing boats, which was proven to be just a complete sham conspiracy, and the Arizona stuff. Like, who did this man

prosecute? But anyway, this man supported the big lie. He didn't just support it, Ben. He was on stage. He simply said January 6th, but he simply said at a rally. Yeah, it's a great point. He was on. He's the guy who said American patriots. It's time to start. What did he say? Taking names and kicking ass. That was that was his quote. One of the most famous clips of the insurrection day. All he said though recently was we need to move past 2020 and we need to focus on 2022. That was his comment. Fact check, Mo Brooks does not support the big lie. Fact check, just fact. Daniel Dale fact check. Oh, right. It's a good point, though, Jordy. That would be something that we would then get fact checked saying that

Mo Brooks supports insurrection because all of a sudden somebody like a Mo Brooks changes their position. But anyway, Donald Trump says, oh, you said we have to move past 2020. I'm rescinding my endorsement of you and I'm endorsing the other person. And Mo Brooks on a recent local media interview basically says like Trump calls him, was calling him like all the time and basically said in recent weeks, this is not like not even around the time of the election, like still is calling Mo Brooks and saying, we need to rescind the election and you need to install me as dictator, you know, is really what he would be installed at.

Throw Joe Biden out and put me in now is what Trump said to Mo Brooks. And Trump called Mo Brooks for making this statement woke. He said Mo Brooks made a horrible mistake recently when he went woke and told people to put the 2020 election behind you. Now, that just shows you that all these Republican attacks are completely disingenuous. They use that as a form of cancel culture to cancel you, to cancel your opinion by calling everything woke, by trying to shame you from supporting civil rights, from supporting health care, from supporting environmental issues, to try to shame you from supporting things that will better the lives of American people. Anything that goes against that,

you're woke, woke, woke, woke. You support that, you're woke. That's how they silence you. So I want you to be very, very aware every time that Republicans call something woke, call something communist. It probably means that it's pretty fricking good for you and for the country if they're attacking it, because that means that they are afraid of it and they are trying to silence you. That's what they're doing. It's March 2022. He's still getting calls from Trump asking him, no, telling him to rescind the election, to institute Trump as president, to take Joe Biden out. I mean, that's lunacy. I bet Mo Brooks, I bet Mo Brooks has put the phone on speaker before, like with the family around, like, come on, come on, crazy uncle Charlie's calling again. Let's, let's see what he has this

time. And he just picks up and the guy just rants and rants like a lunatic, but it's Mo Brooks' fault. He fed the beast. Now it's his fault, his problem. You know, leaders lead and it's not fait accompli that this idiot, this monstrosity, idiot, corrupt Donald Trump can get away with it. The fact that he intimidates and bullies people, you know, really one speaks to the strength of the democratic party, you know, that we just stand up. We're like, if that were to be a phone call to Representative Schiff, if that were to be a phone call to, you know, any Democratic member, you know, member of Congress, Ted Lieu, I can just name 100. But, you know, Donald Trump were to say, hey, here's what I got to do. I would say this. Don't you ever call me again. Don't you ever call me again. I'm going to report you now to law enforcement. And don't you

dare ever call me again and say any of those things. And then you do that with your colleagues and then you get rid of this cancer in the party and Donald Trump. You don't let that ridiculous stupidity mustasticize. And that's exactly what we saw at these hearings with Katonji Brown Jackson. We just saw a stupid party. We saw a ridiculous party. We saw a conspiracy related party. We saw a corrupt party. We did not see a party with a modicum of intelligence. Ben Sasse, at least, I don't even know what he was talking about. Like, I mean, it was like, he's so lost in there sometimes. But at least Ben Sasse, you know, I think projected a modicum of intelligence that I could say, look, that's like a smart, sounds like a smart guy. And he called him out. He said, you know, despite the jackassery, I think was the term he used, you know, of my colleagues. And he said it like right after Ted Cruz spoke. So at least he called it out. He's one sensible guy in this crazy conspiracy party.

But what I want you to do, and I want you to also show family members, show friends, show them the clip of Cory Booker, show them what Cory Booker said and show them how Katonji Brown Jackson reacted. Then show them a clip of Lindsey Graham or Ted Cruz or one of these nutshops from the same hearing and ask them, which is the America that you want to live? These are your choices right now. You could live in this crazy conspiracy, disgusting America, or you could live in this America of optimism, this America of hope, this America of always striving to be greater than we are today. Those are our two options. And you got to pick your lane. And I know which side of the lane that I stand on. I know which

side of the lane that our listeners stand on. So now we need to make that comparison to the people at large and say, listen, these are our choices. Make your pick, choose a side right now. We have great guests. As we talked about on the top of the pod, we have Elena Sutnick as our first guest that we will be bringing on the podcast. But before bringing in Elena, I want to talk about some fast growing trees. I'm excited to talk about fast growing trees. So I really am excited to talk about fast growing trees. Because I just thought like, what are you talking about fast growing trees? Get ready. Get ready. Because I just ordered a fast growing tree. So full disclosure, I just ordered a lemon

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That's fast growing trees.com slash Midas touch. Make sure you spell out the full Midas Touch on that. Fast growing trees. I know fast growing trees is going to be a massive hit for the Midas Mighty. I can see the photos of the trees coming in now. We could follow our trees growing together. Tree competition. So once I get competitive with the trees, like you're going to have a real issue of whose trees grow faster, Ben, Brett or Jordy. Brett, talk to us about trade coffee, please, will you? Yeah, absolutely. Because trade coffee is, guys, one of my favorite. This episode is tailored for me or something. I just don't even know because most coffee is dull, stale and

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We were trying to all accommodate time. So I think I'm straight off the Peloton when I took the interview. For those audio listeners, don't worry about it. For those visual listeners, my apologies. Let's bring in Olena Sutnik. We are joined by Olena Sutnik, a Ukrainian attorney and politician. She was a member of the Ukrainian parliament from 2014 to 2019, serves as a permanent delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council

of Europe. And Sutnik is a human rights defender and advisor, Deputy Prime Minister Advisor. Welcome to the pod. Hi, thank you. First and foremost, Elena, how are you doing? And are you able to tell us, as much as you can tell us, where you are right now and what's going on by you. So I'm living something like between border of Ukraine and Poland because I'm dealing with humanitarian aid and everything. and also helping our Ukrainians to somehow accommodate them in other circumstances in a new country in Poland. For, of course, I hope, a very short period of time. I believe that they had to leave the country temporarily. But, of course, it is frustrating. People are stressed. They don't know what to do, they really feel like they lost everything.

For many Ukrainians, you know, life divided before 24th of February when large-scale war started and after 24th February. For me, I know that war has been existing for many days. Today is 2,954th day of war, Russian war against Ukraine, because it started since Crimea was annexed. And then it was Donbass. And now it is whole Ukraine. And it seems that Putin, he is not going to stop. He aims to destroy Ukrainians, like, you know, as a nation, not just our state, not just territories, not just, you know, schools, hospitals or residential buildings. He wants to destroy us as human beings. And it is, of course, frightening.

And he's definitely trying to commit genocide against Ukrainians. And of course I didn't have any expectations about him that he would stop since he annexed Crimea. I did expect that he's going to attack Ukraine. But I didn't expect that he is going to attack Ukraine, but I didn't expect that it is going to be so cruel, cynical and absolutely nothing compared to like war. It's more destroying people, like destroying without any hesitation, without any, you know, division between, for example, civilian and military. Just destroying Ukrainians. And today we have this awful figure, 118 children already being killed during this one month of war.

And I hardly can imagine how these women and men who lost their children, how they feel. So compared to them, I'm okay. I'm occupied with many things, how to help my country to win. And I really want to come back home as soon as possible. And let's go back a little bit too. And you touched on the history here. I think Americans have been following what's been going on recently, but I think most Americans don't know Ukraine's,

really, it's very recent history as you talk about the annexation of Crimea when the war really began. And you gave this head style talk at Stanford a few years back. I would tell everybody to go and listen to that about pro bono legal services that you provided to the Heavenly Hundred, who are the victims of Maidan, who were part of the civil protests that led to the Heavenly Hundred, who are the victims of Maidan, who were part of the civil protests that led to the Ukrainian revolution in 2014. Can you tell us about this work, if you can, and just maybe give our listeners some background on the Ukrainian revolution of 2014 and how that relates to today? Yeah, of course, because, you know, I spent a lot of months in the United States, and my feeling is that just now people realized that Ukraine is Ukraine and it's not Russia and it's nothing like that.

We are different countries, absolutely different countries, absolutely different mindsets, and that one country wants to destroy another one. Yes, revolution of dignity, it was, by the way, revolution, first of all, of young people. Many people took part in this revolution, but young people, they used to be, you know, this heart of this revolution or blood of this revolution, of blood of this revolution, because mainly young Ukrainians,

they wanted to be involved in Euro integration. They wanted Ukraine to be a member of European Union. And when our president that day, Yanukovych, who was very connected to Russian authorities, to Putin, he just at the last moment, he didn't want to sign a euro integration agreement with the European Union. And that was the signal that something is wrong and that Ukraine can move to a wrong direction. And young students, they went out to the street and they started protest. And it's night, it was very cold nights. They've been staying on the central square of Kyiv. And the police just beat them.

They cruelly trying to, you know, just to suppress them and to stop this protest. It happened at night. And in the morning, it was like news all over the world that students been cruelly beaten and that it was like very cruel action from the police side and in one day more than 100,000 people went out to the streets and they started protests. And it's how Revolution of Dignity started. And then several months, we've been staying on Maidan. Different quantity of people from 10,000 to 50,000.

It was different, but we've been always staying there protesting and insisting that we want the European Union, we want to be in Europe, and we've been fighting for this. And at the last days of this protests, like some civilians been killed, they've been just shot. And it's still not investigated. There is no verdict on this. So after eight years, we still don't know the names. We know who gave this order. We know who are the main figures? Our former president Yanukovych, our former minister of internal affairs, Zakharchenko, but they are not in jail, they are in Russia.

And they are enjoying their lives. And more than 100 people that day died just within several hours. So then this president, but it's very hard even to tell, you know, to tell presidents. So this guy Yanukovych, he ran away. That's how we feel about Trump, by the way. But, you know, at least he didn't commit such a crime i i think that it was really something uh unbelievable that days yeah and because he ran away uh russians i they just started this special operation of destabilizing Ukraine, and they started from Crimea. So within several months, they annexed Crimea, and then they helped, I'm sure that it was just, you know, their people, special services, who started the special operation in danbas then they just gave them military but without military signs that it is russian army

and these people they just controlled about i don't, maybe two or three million people territory. And this territory was occupied for eight years. So we managed to elect new parliament. So I used to be the member of that parliament after Maidan. It was the new generation of politicians, mainly like 50, more than 50% of them, they've been newcomers, a lot of young people. And it was very hard period of time because the war started, country was like ruined with previous president and his regime. And it was very hard to rebuild everything rebuild army rebuild rebuild country and like continue this euro integration reforms but we still try to do this

and i think we've been been successful then zielky came with new parliament and also newcomers, and they continued to reform country, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, but still they had this euro integration path, and they've been trying to build a European country. And I think that Putin, he just realized that Europe in Ukraine, I mean, European Union in Ukraine, European values in Ukraine, democracy in Ukraine, it is the main threat for his regime. That's why he decided that there is only one way how to survive and stay in power is to destroy Ukraine. President Zelensky has obviously been given a lot of credit as a hero. I want to ask you about if you knew that Zelensky had it in him to be this world hero. But first, what people aren't talking about a lot, though, which is an observation that

I made, though, that I think is one of the strengths of Ukraine. You mentioned this whole new kind of young generation of leaders who came into parliament. One of the observations I had when I looked at the photos of parliament, though, was that there was a lot of young women leaders in Ukrainian parliament like yourself. And to me, that is one of the main reasons why there was such strength there and why there was such unity. I mean, is my observation right? I was looking around, I was saying, this is incredible. This is actually there, you know, more than I ever see in the United States or other even European countries. There's a lot of young women who have positions of power in parliament. Yes, that's true. And by the way, a lot of young women, not a lot, but enough young women in government. So I'm advisor to Deputy Prime Minister and she's younger than me.

So she's like 36 something and she's very smart, very brave, active lady. And I can tell you that Ukraine it is like, it is the center of women leadership. It's since our history, women have always been on this territory, they've been very independent and very active with a lot of leadership in their minds and in their actions. politics, and just even to army or to be volunteers and human rights defenders, NGO activists. So among these people, a lot of women. So now I'm working with volunteers. And I would say because men, they have to fight, women, they are just organizing everything. They are doing very difficult and I would say dangerous job, but they're absolutely equal and the same as men. So they don't afraid. Many of them decided to go to the civil defense units. So it's ukraine there is no difference if you are women or men of course there are still a lot of uh challenges and some i would say um misunderstandings and sexism in our politics but

you know uh young women they are very brave and. And I think after this war, when we win, and we will definitely win, it would be even more young women, not just in the parliament, everywhere, because we would need to rebuild country in all the areas and we would need a lot of leadership. Okay, Elena. So I'm going to ask you the question that Ben was hinting at, at the beginning of his question, which was, did you know that President Zelensky had it in him? I mean, he's become this world hero, just so incredibly inspiring to everybody. And he really has met the moment, not only met the moment, he's exceeded the moment. You know, if you asked me like two months ago, or you would tell me this story two months ago ago i wouldn't believe because like he's uh he's nice guy uh he's like very smart and very active but i didn't expect that he is also so strong i I mean, inside, you know, because you need to realize that it is very frustrating and very scary when you're just living in a peaceful city.

And maybe you are like, I don't know, you're president or you're a member of parliament or you're just an ordinary person, but the fear is the same. And I remember this moment when I woke up at five in the morning because I heard these explosions. And for the first minutes I was thinking like, oh my God, oh my God, it's just a nightmare. I can't believe. I did expect war, but I didn't expect that they are going to attack the capital city. That they are going to attack one of the oldest cities in Europe. It is like a huge heritage in Kiev. So I was really not just scared. I was shocked. I couldn't believe. And he's not a military guy. He didn't have any experience in defense or military issues. So I think what he is doing now, it is first of all,

absolutely unprecedented, this, you know, unique inner mind and emotional intelligence. When even you don't know maybe from practical point of view what to do, but from emotional point of view from a value-based point of view you are definitely know what you are doing you are definitely know that you are not going to give up on this and he is giving a lot of spirit to other people especially young generation i'm sure that a lot of volunteers who decided to go to the army, they decided to go because they looked at him. Okay.

Okay. He's a similar guy as I am, for example. He never liked being military guy, but he could stay in Kiev, even with shelling, with all the danger. So why I can't do the same? You know, this is a very very important thing which we didn't have for ages in our politics, I mean in the world politics, not just Ukrainian politics, in the world politics. It is the leadership to be an example, leadership by example. When you are not just

talking about the values, but you are doing something yourself. You are sacrificing yourself. You are risking yourself. And then, of course, I think that the whole world, they started to believe what he's talking about. And they started to support Ukraine. That's very important because my worries was that I know Russians, I know how the propaganda machine works. They have a lot of money. They have a lot of means how to bring this disinformation to the world. And I was really afraid that they are going to undermine Ukraine

and it would be very hard to get support. It's still hard to get support. People used to, you know, they are getting used to war because it is psychologically, you're just emotionally exhausted and you are starting to get used. But I think that the president, he's helping the country a lot with the spirit and with bringing a lot of perspective what is happening in Ukraine to the world. TV, speaking in front of parliament, speaking in front of Congress. The videos that are being released, his constant communication. I mean, it's been incredibly effective. Ukraine is clearly capturing the hearts and minds of the world here. But we're seeing at the same time, like you said, the Kremlin tightening its grip on their own media. And when you look at polls that are coming out of Russia, you see that 70, 80, 90 percent of people believe Putin, that he's going in to denazify Ukraine.

I guess it's a two-part question, and I'll ask you the first one, which is how can we break through Putin's propaganda? I know there are a lot of even like family members that people in Ukraine have family in Russia, and I've heard stories of even their own families not believing them. And so how do we cut through that, in your opinion? First of all, it is I need also to mention very dangerous narrative, which know, it is Putin decision, but poor Russian citizens, they can't do anything, you know. They just like absolutely, they are just victims of what is happening and they are suffering because of the

sanctions listen we are living not in 18th or 19th century we have internet they have internet they have the same iPhones as you or me have they have the same YouTube. And even if they blocked Facebook or Instagram, we have VPN. And you can enter whenever you want. You can read whatever you want, if you want. The problem is that these people, they don't want. They like this narrative. They like that Putin wants to build an empire. Even if it's going to take thousands of lives, they don't care. I remember what happened with Crimea.

Look at these videos from the stadium five days ago, I think last Friday, I mean from Moscow, where they've been like applauding to the annexation of the land of another country, where they've been applauding when Putin said we are going to annex more. So do you believe that these people want somebody to break through, they absolutely like the situation. And also you need to realize that Russia, I mean, Russian people, mainly, they are very poor people. So they, like in Moscow, of course, people, they have, or they enjoy more or less civilized lives. But if you go to the small cities, small villages, they are very poor.

And the only thing what they have to proud with this narrative or absolutely pure myth that Russia is a powerful state. Guys, look at your refrigerators. I don't know look at your pockets and what cars you have or what roads do you have so what kind of life are you living putin just lying them he's giving them like you know bread and entertainment because for them this, it is entertainment. He created this lie that he is saving somebody from something. I don't know what he is doing. Pure fascist trying to say to his people that he is destroying fascists. It's absolutely ridiculous in 21st century that these people, they want to understand something else.

If they really want, they can do this. They can go to the internet, watch videos from Mariupol, watch videos from Kiev, watch videos how Russian tanks destroy civilians, watch video how Russian bombs destroyed hospitals, you know, and then just, you even don't need critical mind, just watch this, but they don't want, they don't want, it's not just how to do this. You can't do this, you can't change somebody's mind if he doesn't want.

This is a problem. Yeah. Bread and circuses, you know, as we call it, is, you know, tail as old as tail as old as civilization. Now, how do we now approach, though? We have seen videos of those Russian citizens who have taken to the streets. We've seen the videos of the Russians who have been holding blank signs and have been whisked away by Putin's police. Is there any obligation for us, you think, to support them, to defend those voices who are speaking out against Putin as a human rights defender? Do you think we have any obligation to amplify them or, you know, do anything to help those people who are risking their lives in Russia? Absolutely. There are like a few, but still like, I would say, like-minded people. So, I mean, people who believe in democracy, who believe in human rights and of course we should support them somehow.

How? I think that the main problem is of course Putin and his regime because if you are not going to destroy the regime it would be another Putin. It would be Shoigu or somebody else, you know. So to destroy regime, you need to find a way how to block all the resources to support this regime. I mean, economic resources. Yes, these people maybe would suffer the same

as other Russians, but in the very end they have a chance that something would be changed within two or three years. Otherwise you can look what they are doing, you can look how Ukraine is suffering in this war and losing people's lives and just absorb this, you know, send condolences and warnings. But in the very end of the day, both would suffer. So I can see the only one way how to protect them. It's to help Ukraine to defeat Putin, to help Ukraine to defeat his regime. Because I believe that if he is going to lose this war, if we are going to defeat him,

then the regime would, the next step, it would be collapse of this regime, definitely. Yeah, I agree with you 100% there. Next, let's get into the conditions on the ground in Ukraine. I mean, it's clear that Ukraine is winning. You said it yourself before, Ukraine is winning. What are you seeing actually being there and what is needed to win both, you know, from Ukraine and also from the world? Ukraine is winning, but we are paying for this like huge price. Of course, we are losing people.

We are losing territories. I mean, not from the point of view of controlling territories. I mean, from the point of view of controlling territories I mean from the point of view ecologically so we have a lot of problems with nuclear threat you know this it's not just because of Ukraine

it is because of the whole Europe we need to do something to stop him as soon as possible because if they are going by chance uh attack something like nuclear plants oh my god i i even just can't imagine what can happen you know so uh yes uh we do uh what we can do on our territories but but our resources are limited, even human resources. So what do we need?

First of all, weapons. But strategically, we don't need just weapons to defend ourselves. We need weapons to defeat Putin. It is a little bit different strategies. Because to defend ourselves, tactical weapons or just something like stingers, it is enough. But when we are talking about defeating Putin, you need something equal to what they have. Especially I'm talking about these airstrikes. What you can do against their rockets.

It's very hard, you know, to afford this. And they continue to attack and they have plenty of them. So this is a main problem that we are not equal from the point of view of counter-attacking so we are doing the best what they're doing it's like it's sometimes even miracles they have a lot of spirit a lot of motivation but to win war you accept motivation and spirit and professional people. You need equipment, you need weapons, you need resources. And, you know, the main problem, and I heard different experts,

some of them been telling like more like as long as this war is continuous, like Russians are becoming weaker. No, it's not true. We are giving them a chance to rebuild the strategy. We are giving them a chance to strengthen their positions. And we absolutely realize that they still have more resources, I mean military resources, to employ into Ukraine. And they're gathering army in Syria. They're still pushing Belarus to participate physically in this war,

not just given the positions, but also to participate with their army. So, and I believe that time, it's not our friend. Time is our enemy because we have one month of the war and economy didn't work this month. A lot of people have been replaced. A lot of people died. A lot of people were injured.

A lot of humanitarian problems, social problems, relocated people, destroyed infrastructure. So I believe that time is our enemy. That's why we should, I mean, civilized world should change strategy. I know that somebody may be like tired of this, but close the sky, save airspace for Ukraine, because it is one of the main problems. We are very strong on the ground, but we have problems with our airspace. More military support, and it should be not just equipment, it should be strategic weapon with which we can defeat Putin.

And, of course, it should be understanding that after this war, I don't know, we're still counting the losses, but it would be billions of dollars to renovate Ukraine. And we should think about this now and we should bring this guy to justice because, you you know we've been talking a lot after second world war never again but it seems we have war again and it is world war uh it's not just ukraine because all the world would be involved um already uh european union destabilized with migration crisis. They threatened by Russians and we don't know what to expect from Putin.

So I believe the main strategy to defeat him as soon as possible to provide Ukraine with additional weapons and to close the sky. You ended one of your talks with these prophetic words you wrote. You said the path of change is very long and you need to be, first of all, very patient, second, very brave, and third, passionate about what you are doing. Otherwise, we pay our price.

And it's obvious that you and the Ukrainian people are like living these words every single day. We thank you for your bravery. And any final words you want to say to, you know, our audience? We have a large European audience. We have a lot of people who listen in Australia and across the world. Any final words you'd have to, you know, just the average podcast listener out there who's hearing you, who feels inspired, who wants to know, you know, what can we do as citizens of the world? Yeah, of course, I want to tell you, first of all, I want to tell everyone who, even just with their thoughts and praying, support Ukrainians. Thank you so much. It's

very important for us. Because my main fear is that this world just will be tired of this war. And it would be very hard for us to defeat one of the craziest and cruelest guys in the world if we are going to stay alone. That's why it's very important for the whole world to remember that Ukrainians, we are not fighting for ourselves. Like, help Ukraine, save the Europe. It's definitely like this. And the second one, which is also very important, I think it is a crucial moment for the world

because the whole world order collapsed and now it depends where are we going in this world if we want stability we need to put this guy I don't know

it would be Gag court, Kharkiv court Kiev court, it doesn't matter tribunal, it would be Gag court, Kharkiv court, Kiev court, it doesn't matter, tribunal. It should be justice, he should be punished because he committed the worst war crimes in the world. I don't think that something the same happened before. Syria, it is his fault. Moldova, it is his fault. Georgia, it is his fault. Ukraine, it is his fault.

And if we want to stop this list, we need to stop it together. So people just need to remember that politicians, they always depend on you. You think that you are not influential, it's not true. When you go out to the streets or when you demand from your congressmen to do something, they would do this because you are the main one. You are the decision makers when you

vote for them. So please, it is a crucial moment. Time matters and it is time to support Ukraine. And I really believe that together as human beings, we can change this world for better. We can stop this war. We can defeat this guy. We can destroy this regime and then think about new world order where prosperity would be the main condition and peace would be the main value. Elena Sutnick, thank you so much for joining us on the Midas Touch podcast. Thank you. It's a great interview with Elena Sutnick. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. I mean, maybe one of the greatest interviews we've ever done.

Well, I'll tell you what, I was traveling yesterday, so I wasn't able to make the interview. My first time listening along with the audience and you guys did a phenomenal job. And oh, my goodness, she is just fantastic. Thanks, Jordan. I think we need to be uplifting right now. More Ukrainian voices. We need to really be speaking with people who are impacted by what's going on there, more so than necessarily analysts and people like that

who are speaking from a distance. But to actually speak to somebody who's on the ground, speak to somebody who is in parliament, I think Elena, truly one of the most oppressive people I've ever talked to. And it really humanizes the situation because so much of the coverage, you see it on CNN, for example,

they have a big board where they show a map of Ukraine and they say stuff like, and right after the break, we'll get back to our big board where they show a map of Ukraine and they say stuff like and right after the break, we'll get back to our big board and tell you who's winning the war. And it's like these are lives at risk and they make it feel like it's a football game at times. And it's really disgusting. There was one part of what Elena said there, Jordi, to your point, that really kind of struck me. You know, she said, you know, when we saw the annexation of Crimea, which was the true start of the war, she goes, I anticipated that there was going to be a war in some form or fashion against the whole of Ukraine, as we're now seeing. It's like, what I didn't anticipate, though,

is that the war would really be a war on civilians, that the war would be a war attacking the people. It's not a conventional war. I mean, Russia's losing the conventional war. And she mentions it in her interview. She says, we're losing territory. She goes, that doesn't mean we're actually losing the territory to Russia. That's not what's going on. They are literally destroying the city so that the city doesn't even exist

anymore. There are no more buildings. It's just the land. And so people aren't there anymore. And that's what she says she cannot anticipate about the way the war would be fought. And I think what's really important is her messages. Don't just get used to the fact that there's a war and get jaded and stop the support because, all right, we're in month two. We get it. Like we need to remain focused and vigilant and constantly supporting Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. And I think to all of the journalists out there who listen to this podcast, I would say this too. I think there needs to be a lot more attention to the incredible Ukrainian women leaders like Elena and others, deputy prime minister who said she worked with, who's younger than her, she said.

I want to hear more of those stories out there.'m proud that at midas touch we can elevate and amplify the voices and the true stories but i encourage other media to do the same i want to talk to you about our partner masterworks before bringing in state senator karen berg alternative assets are no longer optional that's what jp mor Morgan declared in a recent release because while a typical 60-40 portfolio anticipates only 4% returns, alternative assets like oil, commodities, and art could still go up in value. So investing in them means you're making inflation work for you. You may be surprised to hear me naming art as an asset, but actually art has a price appreciation of 23% when inflation is above 3%, and it's largely uncorrelated to other assets. So putting it simply, experts are saying invest in alternatives, and art is an alternative that does well in periods of inflation and market uncertainty.

Now, how do you add art to your portfolio with Masterworks? It's the first platform that enables everyday people to invest in art at a price point that works for you. Our listeners will get special priority access. Skip the Midas. That's masterworks.art slash Midas. See important regulations, a disclosures at masterworks.io slash CD. I love masterworks. I invested a lot of the artwork there. And then I told you what I do is I print out the photos of the artwork that I've invested in and I put it on the wall. And then I'm like, I own a Monet. It's a very funny thing, but I really enjoy it. And it's fun. And you know, it is a way to structure your investments in a way that could be fun and interesting. And now let's bring in Kentucky state Senator Karen Berg. Before doing that, we got to play the video that went

viral. Brett, play the video of Kentucky State Senator Karen Berg. You know, I'm a diagnostic radiologist and diagnostic radiologists historically and in many places in this state still do all of the first trimester OB ultrasound. So I am extraordinarily personally familiar with the development of a fetus in the womb. And for you to sit here and say that at 15 weeks, a fetus has a functional heart, a four chamber heart that can survive on its own is fallacious. That is not true. There is no viability. You know, I look around at my colleagues on this committee. I am the only woman on this podium right now. I am the only physician sitting on this podium. This bill is a medical sham. It does not follow medicine. It does not even purport to listen to medicine. And for each and every one of my colleagues

to be so willing to cast an aye vote when what you are doing is putting your finger, putting your knee, putting your gun to women's heads. You are killing women because abortion will continue. Women will continue to have efficacy over their own body, whether or not you make it legal. I vote no, and I really, really apologize to the people in Kentucky that we are spending this much time and this much energy when we have families in poverty. We have single women heading households in poverty at a higher rate than any other group in the state. And you all are not addressing that. You all are making it worse. Thank you. Well, you've seen the video. And now we are honored to have Kentucky State Senator Karen Berg join the podcast.

Karen Berg, as you know, is a diagnostic radiologist. You heard her on the video discuss her credentials. She was elected to the Kentucky State Senate, the 26th District, as a Democrat in a special election held on June 23rd of 2020. Senator Berg, welcome to the podcast. Good morning, and thank you guys very much for having me here. Really appreciate it. We are honored to have you here.

And we saw that video, which went viral because I think it hit a chord in Americans who care, Americans who see the issue, who care about the science, who care about compassion. And I want to obviously get into what you said in the video, but I want to rewind a little bit because your special election was a very contentious one. It wasn't a foregone conclusion that we were going to have a Democratic state senator from the 26th district. So can you maybe speak to that race, the opposition that you had and how it was that a Democrat and a fairly Republican district came to came to win? That's what I wanted to do. And then I worked for legal aid for a summer while I was in college. And at the end of the summer, they said, Karen, you can do anything you want. Don't do this. They were in desperate straits.

So this was in the late 80s, early 90s. They had no funding. They couldn't. And I listened to them. I took all the prerequisites for medical school in one year. I went back, I applied to medical school. And I have loved, loved, loved being a physician. I still love practicing medicine. But, oh, I don't medical school and I have loved, loved, loved being a physician. I still love practicing medicine, but oh, I don't know about five years ago, they tried to pass a bathroom

bill here in Kentucky, which would significantly affect where my child honestly could go pee in school. And we went up there to testify against it, my son and I. And I'm sitting there looking at these people on the education committee, and I'm thinking, who are these guys that they get to make the rules for the rest of us? How did they get elected? You know, who are they and why are they in charge? And it was basically at that moment that I thought, you know what, Karen, you can do it now. You can go back and you can do what it was you wanted to do. And it was my younger son who told me, you know, mom, if you're going to run for office here in Kentucky, there's a program called the Merge. Takes Democratic women and it trains them how to run for office.

And the interesting thing is men sort of feel like they already have the chops, like they know what they're doing. Women don't necessarily feel that way. We feel like we have to be trained, be educated, be capable, and be competent before we just go out there and do what we do. So I applied for a merge and I got accepted and I completed the training. And it was during that time that I realized I was sitting in a Senate district with a Republican senator. That 90 percent of the people in my neighborhood didn't even know his name. Been there for 26 years, most of the time had run unopposed. And I just said, you know what, I'm taking them on.

I'm going for it. And I did. I won my primary because I did have a position in my first Democratic primary. I won my primary. We went on to the general. And you're talking about a majorly majority Republican district. I lost, but honestly, I didn't lose by that much. I forget what the numbers were, but it was an extremely good showing. And about a year and a half later, the senator that I ran against and lost to decided to resign. And, you know, between you and me and the law, I think he knew when he resigned that I would take that seat. And I don't think he minded. But I did have Republican opposition, some strong Republican opposition.

We were in the middle of COVID, so it was a very strange campaign. My kid and one of his fraternity brothers came down to Louisville. You know, we were in lockdown and we just basically worked out of the house and ran the special and won 57%. I believe it's the number 57% of a significant majority Republican district. And basically my platform was people who care about people, people who just, you know, I mean, if good people don't stand up, then we're lost. And I really felt that way. I felt like we were at a point in the country where people who cared, people who cared about people needed to step up and say, this is what we believe in. This is what your elected officials are going to work towards. And I'm going to be one of them. And I can't tell you how much of an absolute honor it has been to have this platform, to have this voice. Even if you aren't in a majority, which we are in a far, far minority here in the state,

people still get to know you. People still get to hear you. People start understanding who you are and what they care about. And it makes a difference. I am convinced it makes a difference. No, it's a very interesting lesson for Democrats to take because here you are, you're in Kentucky. You're in a significantly, overwhelmingly Republican district, and you are very passionate about a lot of issues and can probably speak to them, especially ones that have medical knowledge at very scientific levels. But where you found the important thing running in Kentucky,

in your district, was connecting with people as a good human on values. And sometimes I think we see, and I would love to get your thoughts about this, Democrats have a lot of great policies, and it's important that we explain and express and implement those policies. But sometimes I think where Democrats don't put in the sufficient amount of work, it's just connecting with people and explaining, I'm here for you. I care for you. I'm running because of you. Meanwhile, you have Republicans who lie about that and then implement the policies that harm the people they say that to. And the messaging could sometimes be so convoluted. So it's like, I don't know how to explain it, but all people really want is a soundbite.

And when you need to get into the weeds and look at the details, sometimes it's really hard to get out to the public. It really is. It can be. I will do my absolute best never to stand on the floor or stand in the committee and say something that I know is not true. We'll not do that. But I do have colleagues on the other side who do intentionally do that. Intentionally.

I mean, it happened yesterday with this joint resolution that we passed to end the pandemic, which I have no problem passing a joint resolution to end the pandemic a few weeks ago. I have a huge, huge problem in that it's going to cut off food stamps for so many people in this state who are still desperately reliant on them. So to me, it's just you're doing nothing. I mean, we have no COVID mandates in the state right now whatsoever.

Nothing. No mask mandates, no vaccine requirements, you in the state right now whatsoever. Nothing. No mask mandates, no vaccine requirements, you know, unless you're in health care. We have nothing. So ending this Senate joint resolution to quote unquote end the pandemic has no implication in anybody's lives except the cutoff snap benefits. Why would you do that? Unless you just really don't care about these people. Karen, you talked about when you were, you know, five years ago or so when you went to that committee meeting,

the education committee meeting, and you looked and you saw guys. And I think you use that word intentionally. You saw men who don't know what they're doing. And there's not a great deal of diversity within the legislator. And that's not an education issue. But when you spoke in the committee on the, you know, on the bill SB 321, which would prohibit abortions after 15 weeks, not only were you the only physician as a diagnostic radiologist. As you mentioned in the video, you do all first trimester OB ultrasound. So you know this stuff, that is what you do for a living, but there's no other physicians there, yet alone physicians who actually do physician work in this specific area.

And it was all men. And you were speaking to them and saying, what in the world are you doing? And we've obviously seen the video and we know what you said, but can you walk us through the process kind of leading up to that speech when you were delivering the speech? Did you know afterwards that it was going to have that kind of level of impact? Is that kind of classic state Senator Karen Berg? It can be, it can be, but honestly, guys, no, I mean, I was completely, I knew what was in the bill. I knew what the bill was going to do. I knew that the worst bill was yet to come. I mean, the worst of the worst we're supposed to be hearing in health and welfare tomorrow. And that's the bill that would literally stop abortion

in the state of Kentucky now. I think part of it was just frustration. I've lived this. I've seen this. From the time I was a young, young child, my dad was a surgeon. My mom was a nurse. My mom volunteered at Planned Parenthood.

And honestly, my dad was extremely, extremely pro-woman. And I've been taught from a very young age what happens when women don't have access to safe abortion. And I've seen it. I mean, I've seen women coming in septic and dying. They should have known they had a choice and they should have known where to go and they should have been able to get help without putting their lives on the line. Guys, I mean, I've had people I work with talk to me about how their moms died when they were four years old because they had a two-year-old brother and the parents were married.

They couldn't afford another child. They just didn't know how to feed it. Now they're both orphans. I mean, I'm getting these types of emails from people all over the country. Women remember. They say people that don't know history are doomed to repeat it. This is history, guys. This is our own medical history here in the United States. Please, let's not ignore it. Just because you have a moral view that is different than mine. Just because, you know, I tell people over and over and over, you don't believe in abortion.

You don't have one. As a legislator, I will do everything I can to support you and your family as a physician. I will do everything I can to keep you safe and happy. You don't believe in it, don't have it.

But for those women who want to be able to make that choice for themselves, this is an extremely personal decision. You and what you believe has no place in that decision. It's not even, you know, and I don't want to get all controversial. Like with the COVID vaccine, people are saying, it's my body. I don't want it. Okay? The difference is with the COVID vaccine, not only are you protecting yourself, you're protecting other people. There's a societal cost.

This is a very, very personal decision that belongs to the woman and her partner and her physician and whoever else she feels she needs to include in this decision but it is not up to our legislators to say we think this is wrong you couldn't do it. It's not, it's their wrong. It's not my wrong. If that makes any sense. That makes sense. And what doesn't make sense is what the Supreme Court appears it's poised to do in Dobbs v. Mississippi. And Dobbs v. Mississippi is another 15-week ban on abortion. Oral arguments suggest that that ban is going to be upheld, and if not, Roe v. Wade is going to be overturned. And this bill, the one I spoke against, was intentionally designed to mimic Mississippi as closely as possible. 49th

in the country for education and economic development. Mississippi, 49th. And our job here, what we're doing is intentionally emulating Mississippi so that if the Supreme Court rules in their favor,

Kentucky automatically, unequivocally falls under that ruling and we are done, have to do nothing else to stop abortion. Yeah. And that's what I think people need to know, that it's coordinated. So the Republican legislators that you see, you know, whether it's in Missouri, whether you see it in Tennessee, whether you see it in Texas, whether you see it in Kentucky, I could keep going on. They see the writing on the walls from the Federalist Society judges who have always spoken about overturning Roe v. Wade. And they say that's at the very least the 15 week ban is going to be upheld.

So we need to implement laws. This is what the Republican, the radical Republican legislators are saying that mimic exactly what we believe the Supreme Court's going to uphold. But then you even see before the Katonji Brown Jackson confirmation hearing. You have senators such as Marsha Blackburn saying that not only do we have to overturn Roe v. Wade, but Griswold v. Connecticut needs to be overturned, which held there's a privacy right for adults to use contraception. And I would only imagine that if that's what she's saying now, that's probably going to be something that will be right in front of that committee that you sat in front of in the next few months or the next year. That's the next issue.

No question about it. You know, I know I seem angry. I am angry. I worked as a house mother and labor coach at Home for what unread mothers when I was in college that's what I did as you know sort of my extra job and I can remember helping to deliver a young girl she's 13 years old this was her second full-term pregnancy she had her first baby when she was 11. Now somebody's abusing that girl. That was not addressed. What is addressed is that she has to have this baby. I can remember sitting in the front parlor, guys, and I mean this.

My job was to supervise visitation between a 16-year-old girl who was about six, seven months pregnant at that time and her father, who was the father of that child in her belly. My job was to sit in the front parlor and make sure he didn't do anything inappropriate. Like, why isn't he in jail? Why does he have the right to come visit his pregnant 16-year-old daughter here? This has been going on my entire life. You know, people assume that women have a choice in getting pregnant. That is not always the truth. Many, many times it is not the truth. And so they have no choices.

No choices. Somebody else can come in without their permission and basically change the trajectory of their entire life, their education, their economic status, their mental health and well-being. This child's life that they are not economically, psychologically, physically prepared to care for without ever being given a choice in that situation. I'm sorry. That's wrong. And it's always been wrong. And our Supreme Court precedent recognized it was wrong dating back, you know, for for five decades. It should have been forever, but as we've progressed as a country, fortunately, like that Griswold v. Connecticut case was a seven to two decision that now Republicans want to overturn. They want to criticize Katonji Brown Jackson for supporting that type of precedent. I think, one, this is a fundamental issue of our time, period.

Set aside politics. This shouldn't be a political issue. This is about life, living, caring, compassion, health. I do think we don't hear about this enough is probably the biggest understatement. To me, what we're talking about here needs to be talked about every single day. And I think it's media malpractice, quite frankly, that this is being swept under the rug and not being talked about at a level. This is the highest level of DEFCON in Republican radical legislators getting into the homes, the uterus, the bodies of women and tormenting them intentionally. And it's not being talked about. And for 2022, if the radical right extremist, and that's who

the Republicans are, sorry, that's who they are. If they take power, they will then go to contraception. They will then make, it's not an exaggeration, the handmaid's tale. I had to stop watching it because in many ways, the radical right here goes further than, you know, goes further than, you know, Or it's symbolically maybe a little bit extreme in the show, but in theory and implementation, it's the same. It's very similar. And so I just think, why isn't it being covered? Do people not want to talk about these issues? Is it too difficult? Is it too tough? And I think we have that decision coming out, Dobbs v. Mississippi, probably May or June. And if that goes, unfortunately, the way I think we go, I think we all need to be marching in D.C., marching in our state capitals. And this has to be a nationwide movement.

I think that's the only way we're going to fix it, honestly. And, you know, you're talking about the Supreme Court. You know, when we vetted these candidates, when we vetted Kavanaugh, when we vetted, I can't even think of his name right now. I mean, they both said, we will uphold precedence. We believe in precedence. We will uphold precedence. Guys, you've got what? It's 73 to 2022 is 70 years of precedence now and you just lied to us if you if you decide the way the country thinks you're going to decide you lied to us in your confirmation

hearings we knew when they were doing it that they were in the confirmation hearings. And, you know, and I think that's an issue sometimes with they lie so casually, like for them, words don't matter. And for people whose values align with democratic, and I don't love labels, you know, whether it's progressive, liberal. I mean, I always say I find myself to be more conservative than some of the conservatives because I believe in conserving Supreme Court precedent, conserving our democracy. I don't believe in insurrections. I believe in hygiene. I believe, you know, you get a vaccine, you try to protect your community. I'm not sure. I guess that's, to me, that's conservative. But they lie with such, and I'm sure you see this all the time in, you know, with the guys who are around you, like, they don't give a crap about their words. They just go around whatever comes

out of their mouth that protects them. It's just no, it's no shame whatsoever. And we care though about integrity. We care about getting it right. And I think we just have to connect the way you've connected with people and say, you know what, that person's lying to you. Look at it. Like that person's not telling you the truth. They're not. And I mean, and that's, it's, you know, for me coming from medicine, you know, medicine's fairly integrated. So, you know, even though, you know, I mean, I've been in medicine for a while now, when I first started, it was a little unusual for women, you know, there were definitely more men, but now, you know, it's flipped and some medical school classes have more women than men now. So, you know, coming from medicine, I was used to being in rooms where there were men and women.

And I can remember the first day I showed up in Frankfurt, you know, on the podium, and I was looking around. This is my first committee meeting. I was like, I was the only woman there. And it was like, oh, wow, I have walked into a world that is new to me. This is not a world that I'm familiar with. This is a world I'm going to have to learn to navigate. And it's not that there aren't women there. I mean, there's 38 senators. Six of us are female. So there are other women, but they don't have control. They have no control. None. At least here in Kentucky, in the Senate, the majority are older white men who have been there for a long, long time.

And feel that this issue is going to get them votes. They don't realize that 70% of Americans actually want women to have toys. 70% of Americans feel that they should have access to safe, legal women's health care. And they don't care. They do. They just simply do not care. Senator Berg, I've hijacked this interview from my brothers because I've so enjoyed speaking to you. And so I see Brett there. I see Jordy there. So this is the body language of our brothers. So Brett's like, are you going to let me speak, Ben?

Jordy's like, thank gosh, I don't have to ask any tough questions. They're both giving me different looks. Jordy's like, I'm getting a pass. I get to wear my glasses and look, I get to look handsome during the interview and do nothing. And Brett's like, Ben, let me ask a question. It's just the Ben show today. I don't know. I'm just kidding. So here's what I want to, you know, clarity on because, you know, we've seen obviously you, your messaging breakthrough in Kentucky. And I know Ben sort of hit on this earlier, but Kentucky to me is like one of the most fascinating states out there, politically

speaking, because you have Democratic Governor Andy Beshear, you have Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell, and you have Democratic State Senator Karen Berg. Could you just explain Kentucky politically to our listeners and viewers for those who may look at that and be like, how is this even possible? Well, Kentucky used to be a Democratic state. Growing up, this was a Democratic state. I think that there are people in this state who still don't realize that they are not voting in their own personal best interest. And I think they feel that having two United States senators who are well-known nationally, gets us something, gets them something that it does not get. And we've got a bill coming up this week

that is going to severely restrict the rollout of the ACA here in Kentucky. It's going to make basically preemptive eligibility for Medicaid essentially not possible. So that when people show up at a hospital and they don't have insurance and the hospital says, well, you know, from what the data we have from you, you're eligible for Medicaid, let's get you enrolled. So that not only can we see you today and get paid, which our rural hospitals desperately need, but you can have follow-up.

You can actually leave our emergency room and make an appointment with the provider to see you. Okay. Which if you don't have insurance, you can't do this. They don't exist. And people don't realize how badly that's going to hurt them. So they voted for people who are stripping their healthcare, who are just totally obliterating the Affordable Care Act. They voted for people who are passing a bill that is removing $50 million in additional food stamps for themselves.

And unemployment benefits. We more than halved our unemployment benefits yesterday. Went from 26 weeks to 12 weeks. And all because, hey, we have Mitch McConnell, who has a national presence, so it makes Kentucky relevant in this space. That's kind of your, that's why they're voting against their interests, in your opinion. I don't know that they really realize how much against their own interest these bills are. It's messaging. It's how do you get to people? How do you get to people? And guys, all of this at a time when we have more money to help the people in the state of Kentucky than we have ever had before.

Ever before. Oh, one other thing. Right now, the budget does not fund, doesn't even fund kindergarten, much less preschool, which we were really hoping preschool was going to get funded. They pulled the budget for all day kindergarten in the hopes of giving that money to charter schools. It's befuddling. It's absolutely befuddling. I mean, you look at it on paper, it just seems like evil, right? It just seems like the bad thing to do. As a human being, it seems like this is a bad way to use or rather not use the resources that we have, rather than you think that people go into government to help people. And it seems like these people go into government to hurt people on purpose or to hoard the money and funnel it into other different systems. of money coming into the state, the goal of which is to move forward, to make really a significant,

significant impact on the trajectory of the future. And we can't even send him a pardon. Your messaging clearly breaks through in Kentucky. I mean, you got elected, you went crazy viral with this video, you really touched a nerve. And so I was just wondering, and I wouldn't want to see you leave the state Senate because you're so incredible there, but have you considered a higher political office? No, no, no, no. I never even honestly dreamed that I could win a Senate seat. So no, my goal, honestly, I'm up for re-election. Karenforkentucky.com, all spelled out. I have a general in November.

I've got three Republicans right now who are running a primary against me. My goal is to get re-elected for one more term. And the truth is, if I can get re-elected for one more term, guys, I've got four years. Four years where nobody can shut me up. And Senator Berg, you have been so amazing and so generous with your time and much to Ben's chagrin over here.

I actually do have an important question. It's a different type of question that I think you may have been expecting coming into this interview, but really curious to get your thoughts here. So Senator Berg, you are the only Jewish member of the Kentucky State Senate. As a Jewish American myself, something I've noticed that's been pretty interesting over the last couple of years is that our community appears to be split. And it's a pretty sharp split. Like 50% appear to be pro-democracy loving Americans, and 50% appear to be like MAGA loving lunatics. I mean, look no further than yourself in the great state of Kentucky and everything that you fight for. And then look at MAGA Republican

Josh Mandel, for example, who's the lead Republican candidate for Senator in Ohio and the hatred he spews daily. Do you get the same feeling that there is this divide within the Jewish community? And if so, how do you make heads or tails? There is a divide within the Jewish community. There's no question. Even on issues such as abortion, Jewish law says the life of the mother comes first until you're in child birth until you're actually in labor. But there are certainly branches of Judaism that would not condone just simply elective termination of the pregnancy for no reason. So yes, there are a lot of things that we don't all agree on.

And you're going to find that with any group, any group of people. But the truth is, the substance, we get to the bottom of the bottom, that our job is to make the world a better place. And if you can do that, if you can make peace in your own home, it's like making peace in all the world. You're not asking us, and you know, I mean, I have a little poster on my wall that I stole from my daughter. One of my kids is a rabbi.

I stole from her office wall. It says a Jew is asked to take a leap of action rather than a leap of faith. I believe that. And Sutherberg, one more time, can you let our audience know? I'm sure we have tons of folks we call in our family, the Midas Mighty, who would love to support you, love to support your reelection efforts, where they can do that just one more time? It's Karen for Kentucky. Everything spelled out, you know, F-O-R-K-E-N-T-U-C-K, like Karen for Kentucky dot com. State Senator Karen Berg from Kentucky.

Thank you so much for joining us on the Midas Touch podcast. We appreciate everything you do and we appreciate your time today. Well, guys, thank you for asking me. Thank you for speaking. Thank you for being there. And these are the voices. This is what we need. This is really what we need. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. What a great interview with State Senator Karen Berg. She's incredible. I think this episode, Ben, has really proven your thesis at the top of the

episode, which is we need more women in leadership. I mean, we just had two of the most incredible women from very different backgrounds, very different parts of the world come on. And I'm honestly, I'm like breathless at just how impressive that both of them are. I couldn't agree more with you. And I mean, look, we're, you know, we're three brothers. And so like, I can't go back and change, you know, what our parents, you know, what, what our parents did. I like when some people try to criticize us for that though. Like you ever see like the Twitter comments that are like, Oh, Oh, diversity and minus touch diversity and related. Like, and like, well, I'll send your message to my mother and father and I'll report.

But, you know, it is important that we empower women in leadership positions. So that that's just normal. Like it shouldn't even be a thing. Like it shouldn't even have to be something that's commented on because it should just be what exists. And seeing Elena, seeing Karen, speaking with them, both most qualified, like intelligent people we've interviewed. Like it's just, it amazes me that we have a platform like this where we get to even speak to people like that. And Ben, I'm going to elaborate on a statement I made earlier in the episode. Because earlier in the episode, I said, show your friends and family Cory Booker speech and then show them how the Republicans were behaving during the thing and say, is this the America I want to live in? Or which America do I want to live in? But I'm going to

expand that to say, what world do I want to live in? Do I want to live in the world of Elena Sotniks and Karen Bergs, or do I want to live in the world of Vladimir Putin's and Ted Cruz's and Lindsey Graham's? Because that is really the broader implications of everything that's going on. An interesting stat that I just looked up, which I think you'd find interesting, particularly Ben, 63% of the Ukrainian parliament is under the age of 45. I just think that's a very fascinating stat with what you were saying before also about these young women leaders taking power there and the impact and the energy that they have when you compare it to looking at our Senate. I find that interesting. I find that interesting

too, Brett. It really explains everything. When I looked at it, when I saw some of these photos, I was like, you know, and then I was like looking at the Twitter accounts. I was like, got it. That is why they're winning this war. That's why they stand up to Putin. That's why Putin hates them. That's why Putin is intimidated by them. But that's why Putin can never take the heart and soul of their democracy and what they've built. Brett Jordy, it's been incredible spending this pod with you each and every episode to get to do this with you. It's always a joy and pleasure. Special thanks to our guests, Elena Sotnik and Karen Berg, for joining our podcast.

And special thanks to our sponsors, Fast Growing Trees, Masterworks, and Trade Coffee. See you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.