No, this is the FCB Podcast Network. Are Mansoda Day that we won't said and we won't say all we got it? Does no one get Tatto? And bathe is gonna be okay? Manoa Day that we won't say and we won't say all we got it? Does no one get Tatto? Don't bathe? It is? Don't be okay? Hi, everybody, welcome back to another episode of Just Listen to Yourself with Cura Davis. I am your host, Cura Davis, and this week is a listener response. I'm still getting back into the swing of things. I know, I start off every episode with the CEA stays, but May was a brutal month for me, and I'm still kind of not in a great headspace and processing everything and not well. I don't think it's just a weird time. I'll probably break it down here on the podcast at some point, because this is where I tell her, you know, this is where I express myself. This is where I tell people what I think and and if I'm being honest with you listeners, I think the thing I'm struggling with is that I really wasn't that close to my father. We didn't he was an absent father for most of my life has other had other personal issues that made it difficult for us to have a relationship, a close relationship. He was a nice guy and a like a fun guy to be with, and we didn't have a bitter relationship at all, but we just weren't close and he didn't raise me. And so I'm struggling with those feelings of like losing this person who really wasn't a everyday part of my life, but yet it's still an everyday part of your life as as a parent. I don't know. I can you tell. I'm like I'm going, but I'm really wrestling with it. I'm shocked at how much I'm wrestling with this because I don't think I feel totally sad yet, and I don't know if I will. I don't think that I do. I keep thinking that's gonna come. I don't feel totally sad, but I do feel a drift bit. I guess I am the type of person. I know how I feel. You know, I have opinions, I know what I think, and it's discombobulating for me to not know how I feel and to not be able to express it. So I don't know here I am expressing it the famous Davis sidebar. I'll get into it a little bit more later. I guess, well, it's a listener response today. As I was saying it, just I haven't been in the mood to think much lately, and so I've decided I've banked enough emails. I'll let you guys do the thinking for me. Although I have to say this first one we're starting with. I am gonna I'm so glad that Neil are my friend and our listener. Neil wrote this email, and this is gonna make me think a little bit. But I think today it's a perfect day to get into some of your responses. I think you'll be interested to hear this first question slash email because I've actually been getting a lot of questions about it lately, and I promised Neil that I would podcast about it. I didn't get to it as soon as I told him I would because I'm a liar. But I'm podcasting about it now. I've wanted to talk about it as well. It's about the Little Mermaid, Disney's remake of the Little Mermaid. It's got a all you know, like they're doing everything. It's a diverse cast and I guess the Ariel is We talked about it with Brandon Morris on this show about Ariel is played by a black woman, Hallie Bailey, and there's other casting choices, and they've changed the story a little bit because of course, and so you know. Then now there's controversy, and I'm not sure. I don't know how I feel about this race swapping stuff. I'm starting to think that we are all part of the same organism and we're going around and around and we're feeding the rage is feeding each other. I don't think anyone's really outraged. I just think we're just playing games with each other. Like I don't know if people were really outraged about the Little Mermaid being black, or anyone being any character race swap. I don't think anyone was like really outraged. Maybe some people were annoyed, But the idea of like these online mobs, I don't really think there were. But maybe there were one or two because there's a lot of people on social media and lots of people have lots of things to say. Maybe there were a few sort of complaints online. But then what happens is the marketing team at Disney takes those and then they also pay bought farms and accounts to spew hatred as well. And then they take a few benign examples and they go, look at all the racial hatred our production is getting, our actress is getting, and this is why you have to see this movie. This is what we're up against. YadA, YadA, YadA. And they use that to sell tickets right to the show. And then they complain about the racist outrage so much that we start complaining about the racial angle because now it's in our face. They've brought it up, we're responding. It's like we're all just reacting to each other over something that I don't think has genuine reactions to start with. It's like it's it's just like it's like a plant, like like a plant at a spy, at a rally, let's say, a riot, like the kind of riot that you would have in front of the US capital or something like that. Sure there's people there, they're doing stuff, a lot of them are upset whatever, But you put one or two well placed people to start stoking the fires, instigate the crowd, Maybe go through a door where no one was going to go through a door before, or shout a phrase where people were just being quiet. Then you start so you sort of start to spread that it becomes infectious, and then it's a thing that takes advantage of people who are already primed to be upset or already primed they just sort of needed that push or that little spark. That's what this feels like. It feels like there's some instigators in the crowd, and we're already all primed for outrage, and they're just sort of pushing that button, pushing that button, so we're just reacting. I'm not sure any of it's genuine. Anyways, I'm blabbing. I know. Let's get to this wonderful email from Neil about the race swapping in The Mermaid. He wants to know what I think about that. So they've been wondering your thoughts about what your thoughts might be about the live action remake of Disneys is a Little Mermaid. We didn't have social media back in nineteen seventy eight when the movie The Whiz came out, so I don't know what kind of reactions there were about it. I was too young to understand the culture at the time anyway, But I'm wondering about the two movies and how you would contrast them, and why there seems to have been so much fuss over one character being changed in this way when I don't remember any such controversy over the complete restyling of The Wizard of Oz. And if you don't know what the Whiz is, it's the Black version of The Wizard of Oz starring Michael Jackson and a ridiculously old Diana Ross. She was great in the role, but I always felt like she's too old to be playing Dorothy. But anyways, or the Whiz version of Dorothy. So lots of great numbers, dance numbers in the Whiz, and we love the Whiz. Black folks love the Whiz. So anyways, moving on, he says, if you're interested in my take, I've been using the example of Tim Russ in the role of Tuvak on Star Trek Voyager. Okay, Neil, the way to my heart is through Star Trek or other sci fi series. So and I love Tuvuk. He played is a black actor who played a Vulcan on Star Trek Voyager. And it was the first time we had seen Vulcans of a different race, and so it was a little bit jarring to see him at first, But I would say his portrayal of that character, I would say it was one. He's one of my favorite Star Trek characters of all time. I'm a big fan of his. Neil says that Tim Russ did an excellent job with the character, and his example eventually kind of cured me. Quotes cured me of placing too much emphasis on the identities of fictional characters. They're fictions, so why would people ruin real friendships over such things? After so many years of the Next Generation in Deep Space nine, the general look of the Vulcans and Romulans had become somewhat homogenized, so suddenly seeing a black Vulcan was a little jarring at first. I kept expecting to them to reveal he was half human. We have the same here, but I don't think that ever came up in the show. Noah didn't as far as I know. He was supposed to be fully Vulcan. There are so many and he goes on to say that there are so many aspects of sci fi which requires a suspension of disbelief, So why can't we, you know, suspend disbelief as as well? And he goes I won't read the whole thing, but he goes on to talk about Chris Pine being poorly cast as Kirk and how he couldn't you know, he had a much easier time relating to the black Black Vulcan than Chris Pine is Captain Kirk in the Star Trek reboot, which I quite agree. I love Chris Pine, begrudgingly. I always thought he was like a pretty boy when he came on the scene, but he's actually got some chops. He's really good actor, and I think he's a very serious actor as well. But he was just very miscast as Kirk in the new Star Trek, I think. But then I have feelings about how much they've changed the series anyway, and and I well, I have feelings about what they did to Star Trek. But yeah, he never seemed he always seemed like a Captain Pike to me. I don't know why. Maybe because his name is Pine, Chris Pine, and isn't it Christopher Pike. I don't know. He always seemed like, oh, this is how I imagined Captain Pike to be. He doesn't seem to have the same gravitas as William Shatner, but to close out Neil's So I'm sorry everybody to nerd out on you just now, but it's Neil's fault he ends like this. I was not familiar with halle Berry prior to the news of her being cast as a little mermaid. She looks like a beautiful woman. The first trailers gave me issues on something completely different, though, I guess over the years, I'd gotten used to seeing cartoons of characters talking and singing underwater, but live action when she opened her mouth to sing, I was expecting a noisy, garbled mess of bubbles as the air escaped her lungs, and safety divers rushing in from the sides to rescue the actors from drowning, while someone offscreen yelled cut. I have done a bit too much scuba and snorkeling for my mind to accept that. When I first saw it, the trailer didn't quite give me a panic attack, but there have been a few close calls which made it difficult for me to just relax and watch the trailer. My kids are all grown now, so I will probably feel weird standing alone in line as a grown man to go see a Disney Mermaid movie. But I plan to see it in theaters. I hope to hear your thoughts. Take care, Neil. Okay, well did you go see it? Neil? Definitely write me back and let me know what your thoughts on it. What were I have not seen it. I've watched all the trailers. I'm not going to go see it for I would never see a Disney live action remake period. The whole thing is ridiculous. There are a reason why you animate some stories and don't animate others. It's a totally different medium. I mean, you could do things in the animated world that you can't do in the real world. And your characters can tell different stories with their faces, and these are such charming stories and so memorable. Just passing them off two actors and cgi it just I don't know. I'm I haven't seen one yet that's like been hailed as a superior product, nothing like that. So yeah, this is just the money grab for Disney, and so I have no plans to see The Little Mermaid. But I don't have any attachment to the film anyways. I was a bit too old for My sister is a lot younger than me. She's fifteen years younger than me, and she loves The Little Mermaid. All right, So you asked how I feel about the race swapping in The Little Mermaid contrast that with the Whiz. Okay, I think these are two totally different things. I'm not old enough either to remember the reaction to the Whiz. I don't know that it was a big deal. I don't think you know. We certainly if it was a big deal, we certainly don't think about it or talk about it now. The Whiz is just just sort of in our canon of cultural knowledge. And that's a cue also to you as well, that it wasn't really the same kind of controversy as what we're dealing with these days with race swapping and film, and in particular with The Little Mermaid, because we still reference the Whiz. We still talk about the Whiz, we still sing songs from the Whiz. If you've never heard one of the Whizz songs, look at the soundtracks, a great soundtrack. We remember the Whiz. It's part of pop culture. It survived. Is are you going to be talking about the Little Mermaid remake in thirty years, forty years? No, of course not, you're not. Now I've realized times are different as well, and you're talking about a time when there were mega stars and huge celebrities. So that starred Michael Jackson Diana Ross, and they were huge stars. Of course, Michael jack some one of the most famous men in the world, and I don't know that he will we would have Michael Jackson these days, I don't know that there could be someone as famous. Because we have social media, we have the Internet. Our idea of fame and celebrity has changed, and we have so many outlets to see stars and interact with stars. So, yes, the film was a product of its time period, of course, and the way we remember it as a product of its time period. But it also has survived the test of time and still a film that many people see, many people know, and many people reference. And The Little Mermaid is not going to be that. I mean, none of these sort of properties that we're talking about now where they race swap and well here's a version but with all black people, or here's a version of this, but with you know, the lesbian best friend or whatever. We're not going to have that same kind of value with projects like the live action remake of The Little Mermaid. We're not. They're not because the Whiz was an artistic endeavor. Okay, So it was carefully crafted, beautiful songs, two of the biggest black stars on the planet, a great soundtrack, all of that. It was. It was a work of art. But Disney isn't making art anymore. Disney is making money. And there's nothing special from what I can see about The Little Mermaid. I mean, even even Neil points it out, you know, I was it was disconcerting to see people underwater, interacting and singing underwater. But it's all cgi as well. So you have this whole uncanny valley thing going on that I think sort of takes maybe I'm maybe I'm old, but I think it sort of takes you out of it. And it's just it's purely to make money. And the race swapping thing, there's no heart in it. That's That's what I'm trying to get at here. There's no heart. The Whiz had heart. Tuvak Tim Ross playing the black Vulcan, he had heart. That was a performance. So even if people were a little annoyed by suddenly seeing vulcans of a different race, he made you forget about that almost instantly because he was so good at what he did a show like Bridgerton on Netflix. That's a Shonda Rhimes show. I'm not a big Shonda Rhymes fan. Sorry, everybody, I don't do Shonda Land. It's I don't like shows that are two talkie talkie. Successions is the only show I really allow to do that to me. And but Shonda Rhymes one of the most successful show runners and TV writers in history, and one of her shows is Bridgerton on Netflix, and it's it's just sort of a bodice ripper, you know, Victorian era or whatever drama, and and it features people of all different races playing different roles. It's it's not race swapping. It's just blind casting. And it's fine. People love that show. People love the nobody questions that the queen is black or this princess's bannock or nobody cares because the actors are doing their jobs and the story is good. It's a good piece of work. That's because Shanda is not writing, going, Okay, this is going to be for a black person, and this is going to be for a white person, and I'm making this a story about race. Now, She's just writing a good story. And then she's like, I'm gonna. I want them to cast the actors who fit this project, and I don't care what they look like. Irrespective of what they look like, I want the best actors for the project. That's the difference between what Disney is doing with something like The Little Mermaid and what happens with things like The Whiz. Can you race swap characters? Sure, I don't care, but make it makes sense. Do it because this character was best portrayed by this person, that this actor brought the most valuable performance, the most valuable angle to this character. Do it because of that. But I think this is why so many people have a problem with it, because I'm like you, Neil, I don't care. This is not a real character. You know, if you're making a story about Queen Elizabeth and you're gonna cast Alfrey Woodard in it or Viola Davis to play Queen Elizabeth, Like, yeah, obviously, I'm gonna have a problem with that. This is a biographical picture. You can't recast her as a black woman. But it is like a cartoon character. What's important about The Little Mermaid, or what's notable is that her hair is red. The skin color doesn't really matter. She doesn't even really have a skin color because she's a cartoon character. So I don't really care hair about the race swapping in The Little Mermaid. But I know why people do because it's disingenuous. It feels forced, it feels shoved in our faces, and it doesn't feel like an artistic choice. It just feels like a choice to make a statement. And you know what, people are tired of statements. People are tired of statements in their entertainment. They don't want it. If I'm going to see a Disney film, I'm not going to see a Disney film because it's going to revolutionize the way I think about black women, or the relationships between men and women, or homosexual relationships or anything. I'm not going to see a Disney movie to redefine my paradigm. I'm going to see a Disney movie because I want to be entertained and I want to shut my brain off for a little while and just relax and be charmed. If they're going to give me that product, I'll go see that product. But that's not what they're doing with this. They're They're making a deliberate choice in order to make a political statement. And I think also there's a bit of cya there right cover your ass, which is like, we're making these movies. They're not very good. They can't be good because you can't really do you can't do the same things in live action as an animation, so you take a lot of the charm out. They know that they're not great properties, but it's still it's worth the money to make them. The money you're going to make back. I guess it. The math works for the studios, and then they get the internet riled up, and then when the movie flops ratings wise, they don't they make these things because they do make them some kind of money. Don't be fooled. They're making some kind of money off it, but it's not a huge hit. When it flops, then they can go, oh, well, it's not our fault. It's not that we made a bad movie because we focused on how the cast looked instead of the story. It's racist America's fault. It seems to be a marketing plan these days. So anyway, that is how I feel about that. I don't care about race swapping so much. It's that it's not the race swapping that bothers me at all. It's the story. It is the abandonment of story to do. So that's when it's a problem to me. But I think we're all sort of playing into the hands of these master marketers when we express so much outrage about things like race swapping characters. I don't really care. Tell me a good story. If you're gonna do it, make it worth my time, you know what I mean. If you're gonna do it, then give me a performance like Tim Ross and Star Trek where it's good enough for me to not care. Give me some added value. Well that's how I feel about that. Did I beat that dead horse? Neil? Thank you for that question. It's really interesting. I think. Look, here's what I think. If you want to go see a Little Mermaid, fine, go see it. If you don't, don't go see it. I don't think it's worth getting yourself tied up in nods because a cartoon character is a separate race than what you're used to seeing on film. Your cartoon character has no race. It's a cartoon. Hey, y'all, this is Alie Michelle. I'm a conservative social media influencer that has been censored by big tech, so I broke away from the restrictions and started a podcast called pillow Talk with Alie Michelle. My show is a space to have real conversations about the issues that impact our everyday lives without the fear of being canceled by the big tech tyrants. Subscribe to pillow Talk with Alie Michelle and FCB podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you getch podcasts. That's Ali a l II. Come check on my show. I'll see you there. This one is on the cohabitation episode. This one is from Julie. This one is from Julia. Julia says, Hi, Kia, I listened to this episode and loved it. Your message is countercultural at the moment, but I hope it will come back. For those that insist living together is a necessary precursor to marriage, I want to say, how's that working out for you? Because usually it isn't. So many good points from marrying someone with your heart and your head and moving away from a man that thinks marriage is just a piece of paper because he doesn't think you're worthy enough for a commitment. Also that women in their thirties and forties aren't competing against women of their own age for husbands, but younger women well I don't think my daughter currently a team will cohabitate. I will have her listen to this. Thank you, Julia I, thank you, Julia Ann. This is I made that episode for my kids. I just we don't talk enough about this. In fact, I think we should all be encouraged our churches, our pastors are particularly youth pastors, to communicate these ideas to the kid to the kids. I was looking at YouTube videos about this topic while I was gathering my thoughts, and there's quite a few Christian YouTubers out there who have addressed cohabitation, and there was one video in particularly in particular that was really It had a huge views. It had a lot of views on it, like a million views or something, and so I started reading through the comments and I was shocked. I was shocked at how many people were saying that they were Bible believing, born again Evangelical Christians or you know, hardcore believers, and they were living together with their fiancee. They were and they were cohabitating and it was fine. A lot of them were like, well, it's fine if you don't have sex. We're not having sex, and so it's fine, which is like, why are you living together? Just get married. That's all of the same thing applies. Just because you're a Christian in doing it, and you're living together but you're not having sex, it's still all of the same logic applies. The sex is not what the issue is. The issue is like you're committing to some you're halfway committing to something. Anyway, I'm not gonna litigate the whole episode again, but I made the episode for my kids, and I talked to my daughter about living together before you're married and what God's plan for marriage is. And I was shocked that she was shocked that I said that. I was shocked that she found that idea to be old fashioned, the idea of not she is sitting around here believing that moving in together as boyfriend and girlfriend is the next natural step to marriage. Everybody does it, and that's what you're supposed to do. I was just assuming, because we're church people, right, that she was thinking about it the way that I was thinking about it. But she wasn't, and she doesn't, and that tells me we need to be talking more about these things. It might seem like a little thing. So so I'm glad you liked it. I got a lot of positive responses about it. I think the people that were, you know, a little bit offended by it just didn't you know, they didn't bother writing in. And I get the sense that a lot of y'all out there, when you disagree with me, it's like we've cultivated this relationship so well and it's so nuanced. Now. I think a lot of you out there are just like, yeah, I disagree with Kiera on that, but it doesn't make me mad because I know she's just thinking through these problems and this is disappointed disagreement. I mean, that's what this whole show is about. So I don't get too many of those complaint letters anymore, and I think it's a sign that were developing a good relationship audience. But so I didn't get a lot of complaints about it, but I did get a lot of positive feedback and a lot of people saying, yeah, I don't think cohabitation is the right thing to do. And again, I think I said this in the episode, but one of the person, the person who surprised me the most on this issue, with Jordan Peterson, he said the sin this is a guy who I don't think he's an atheist anymore. But he's been an atheist, and he's a college professor, and he's a neuroscientist, and he's Canadian, you know, And to me, I just sort of assumed that, you know, in Canada, it's very very common to just live together. I just assumed he felt the same way. But he basically was saying what I was saying, which is the snow that there's cohabitation. Is what's it saying to your partner that you will live with them, but you won't marry them. You know, that's a halfway commitment. That's saying I like you well enough for now, and then we'll see if I like you well enough down the road to marry you. This is here I am litigating the episode again, but thank you, thank you, Julia for that feedback, and I do encourage you to share that episode with particularly people in your church. I mean, I think a lot of pastors and religious leaders need to hear this. We're not we're so focused on this alternative sexuality that's popped up and it's making everything bonkers, like everything is. It's Pride month now, and everything's about Pride now this month, and we're so focused on how sexuality has become upside down, and how crazy that's made everything that we have forgotten to talk about the traditional aspects of intimacy and relationship ships in the church. I'm talking about the church now. We've sort of forgotten about it. We've been sidetracked by these other issues we forget. Our kids need to hear the basics too. They need to hear the basics that you you should try to wait, You should want to wait until you get married for sex. I know that that is not very that is not a very stylish message these days, and I know that how unrealistic it sounds. But you that should be a goal for you. And there's lots of different reasons. I won't I won't talk about this this episode, but there's lots of different reasons and there's even proof statistically why you should want to wait, and it's healthy and it's going to be better for your future and your future relationships, and lots of other reasons we should talk about why marriage is important. We're forgetting to explain the value of marriage to our children, and the value of tradition and traditional moral values why they matter. Have those conversations. Don't assume that your kids know because you've always believed this one thing, that your kids are going to believe it too. Don't assume the basics. We're they're assaulted every day by the wackiest stuff on social media. It's so insane it takes up your whole brain. So they're not even focusing on the traditional things anymore. They those things aren't There's no such thing anymore. They're assaulted by weird every day. So don't assume that they know the normal things. Go talk to them about the normal things. All right, Thank you, Julia, Let's move on. Hey, y'all, this is Ali Michelle. I'm a conservative social media influencer that has been censored by big tech, so I broke away from the restrictions and started a podcast called pillow Talk with Ali Michelle. My show is a space to have real conversations about the issues that impact our everyday lives without the fear of being canceled by the big tech tyrants. Subscribe to pillow Talk with Allie Michelle and FCB podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you htch podcasts. That's Ali, Ali. Come check on my show. I'll see you there. Oh. This one's from Kelsey Kelsey said, I loved your latest jail Ty on the Death of Compassion. You mentioned on the episode about revisiting one of your earlier topics of the homeless crisis in California, and I really would like to do that. She says, that's my all time favorite episode. Oh cool, Thanks Kelsey. If you do decide to revisit the topic, I'd love to hear you. And Jonathan Choe compared, notes he's an independent reporter covering the homeless crisis in the Seattle area. His work has been having a real impact and he's doing brilliant work exposing the homeless industrial complex that exists to perpetuate this nightmare. Some food for thought, she says, back in the late nineties, my mom and brother and I would volunteer at the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle. We made huge batches of food in their kitchen and then served them up to the homeless men. It was usually men who came in for a meal. This was when I was a preteen and I didn't and it didn't seem dangerous at the time, as most of the men and sometimes teenage boys were at worst abusing alcohol, but largely just on hard times and looking for a meal. I could not even imagine wanting to do that kind of volunteer work today, not with the majority of homeless in my area now being tweakers and or out and out crazy. There's no way I would be in fear for my life and know that there would be no recourse as something were to happen. And I don't feel guilty about feeling this way. It's just gotten so bad. I wish that things were different and that I could serve without fear for my physical safety, but that's not the word world we live in right now. My state just a facto legalized all drug use, so I don't see the ending anytime soon. I feel terrible for the people suffering under this system, but other than voting out the horrid people who are perpetuating their misery, I don't know how else to help them. It's not that I don't have compassion, but that acting on that compassion has become too risky. Yeah, and again that's what I talked about in that show, the depth of compassion. I agree, Kelsey, and I don't think you have to feel guilty. But here is another thing, talking about making assumptions for what is normal for my kids to be thinking. I was thinking about this the other day. We work out in southern California, my daughter and I recently, and there's a dangerous looking homeless person. And I don't know anyone who hasn't been touched by homelessness at this point. But if you haven't, don't think that I'm talking about what Kelsey was talking about when she served in the nineties, like just a dirty old man with a bottle on this hand, we are talking about thousands and hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of California cities. They aren't drunks. They are zombies or worse. The zombies just sort of sit there and you know, they can't do anything. They can't even really stand up. But the meth and mixed with fentanyl, it makes people do crazy things. I mean crazy things like eat your face off, That's what I mean, cannibalism, walking into a store, and just randomly stabbing people. That happens every week here, every week. So we I'm just trying to ask you to spare me your judgment. If you, if you were listening to me, say that all she can't stand on homeless people. No. I know, I've served homeless the homeless as well, and I know the difference between someone who's down on their luck and someone who has tweaked out of their mind. So we saw somebody like that, a tweaker as you might say, and I gooched my daughter away and he had a sign and he was looking for money, and I'm like, no, I'm not giving him money. My daughter was like, why do you never give homeless people money? And I was like, well, because I don't know where the money is going and I'm not really helping them. And that's a decision I made a long time ago when I realized I couldn't help every homeless person that came into my coffee shop. When I was working at coffee shop in Chicago, I couldn't help every homeless person that came in looking for a hawk up of coffee. So what did I do? I went to volunteer. I decided I would do work that was helping people so I could know that I was helping. Well, my daughter doesn't have that experience. That's not normal to her. She doesn't know, so to her, all she sees is that, oh, no, I don't give homeless people money. She just sees me being stingy. She's never seen me serve, so I started thinking, Okay, we need to go do a serve project together. We need to serve together so she knows these are our values, these are the things we believe. I can't just assume that she knows I believe in generosity and kindness, you know. I can't just assume that. And I can't just assume that she knows it's the right thing and the good thing to do to serve people, to be generous, to serve others. We've got to go do those things together if she does stuff through church. But I don't know that we've ever taken on a project together. But the homeless situation here in California is it's getting worse, but it's spreading. I was just looking at video of Austin today, and I mean, Austin looks like La at this point, and it just bumps me out that in this day and age, when we really have endless means to support people, we really do like there's enough. The government has enough money to take care of everybody in this country. We do, and there's enough programs and if you want help, and you really need help, and you're really determined to use help. You can find it. We have the material means to help everyone, and we do not have the political will. And it's sad. It's sad to see what our great cities have become because of this drug crisis that has turned into a homeless crisis. And it does it makes it difficult to help, makes it difficult to roll up your sleeves and pitch in, not just because you're sick of it all, but also because you know it's dangerous. As Kelsey pointed out, all right, well, thanks Kelsey. Yeah, I'm I'll get in touch with Jonathan. I would love to hear some of his thoughts. The homeless issue is something that I think about a lot, quite a bit. This one is from Sherry and she wrote about a school choice and she says that she's gone back into my art fives and started listening from the beginning. Thank you very much, And she says, I just listened to your early episode on school choice. Timed out perfectly since school choice is up for consideration in my area. I live in Alabama, where we have a fabulous magnet school. We have fabulous magnet schools which are available through qualifying to a lottery and then quote regular schools. Every middle school and high school in our city is a failing school. I have five children twenty five to thirteen, so schooling children has been a major issue for my family for twenty years. I can't send my kids to public schools because they aren't safe and they don't pass accreditation standards. Girl, I feel you. That's why I drove my kids to private school every day when we lived in Gary, even though I lived directly across the street from our public elementary school. I remember, she says, I would love to have a voucher for private school. I could send one or two kids to private school, but four or five is a different story. Many families in our community homeschool simply because we can't afford private schools. But we can't sacrifice our kids to a failing public school. I plan to contact my representatives next week to advocate for school choice for everyone. Honestly, I think the politicians fear that the failing schools will empty if school choice is allowed. The schools are so bad no one wants to go to them. Last week, the worker at Chick fil A asked me if I would homeschool her kid. Wow. Wow, I honestly don't understand how magnet schools are even constitutional. Why is one segment of the community given access to nationally ranked schools and the rest of the community is left with the failing system. My husband gets angry thinking that the future of our children is left up to a lottery. Anyway, I plan to contact my representatives to advocate for this school choice voucher. Do you have any suggestions of what I should say that might be persuasive. I love your podcast. You really do make me think. I have adult children now learn lean more liberals, so your episodes have helped me to better engage in conversation with them. Keep it up all right? Well, thank you, Sherry, and I may be getting back to you a little bit too late on this. I'm not sure if you've had that vote yet. But a great person to go listen to and is Corey DeAngelis. He is a warrior for school choice. He's he's sort of like, how how do I want to I don't want to describe him. He's like the Tucker Carlson of school choice, Like he's made it. He's he's made it a thing. I've been working in school choice for years but Corey's come along and he's really marshaled the internet and social media and pop culture to really use it to spread this message of school choice. He's I interviewed him on the show, but you can also go and look him up online, look him up on Twitter. He in fact, that's what I'm suggesting you do. Look him up on Twitter because he has fantastic talking points and he tweets them out all the time and they're bite size so you can remember them. But you made the argument yourself in this letter. You made a great argument, which is, why does one section of our community have access to quote, great schools and then the rest are left to these failing schools And it's a it's all chance, It's all up to chance. How is that? How is that fair? So you can use that argument your zip code shouldn't determine your educational opportunities, and you and your child's future should not be left to a lottery. And you're absolutely right. Of course, politicians fear that if they make if they give us choice, that public schools are going to empty. Out of course they do well. They don't fear that. The union's fare it, but the politician's fear is losing union money. The unions know that that's what will happen, right, That's another argument. Corey makes it all the time, and I think it's a brilliant one. When somebody says that school choice will take money from the public schools, your response should be why why would giving a parent a choice on where they send their kid to school take money out of the public schools? And no one's going to answer that question because once they think about it, they're going to be like, oh, dang, well, it's because every parent would take their kid out of public school. Why because public school is failing? Why is it failing because the people in charge of our public schools are they don't have to answer to anybody, They don't have to produce a good product in order to stay in business. And so that's another question to ask, why would you think so? Absolutely? Of course that's why school choice is such a it's too much money. Money is always the problem that the Bible says, It's in the word people, the love of money is the root of all evil. That doesn't we like to think of that versus something that applies to like a person, like a rich greedy person, a single rich man Oh, no, that applies to our institutions programs. It applies to poor people. By the way, you don't have to be rich to love money. Do you obsess about your bills all the time? That's obsessing about money? Right. Are you anxious about it? Do you worry about it? Do you cry about it? Do you fuss about it? Is it on your mind all the time? That's you being obsessed with money. I know that's something you're like, well, I have to be upsesed. No, you don't have to be obsessed with money. Who do you have to pay your bills? But you don't have to be obsessed with it. The word also says that we're not to worry. We are not to spend all our time worrying. So if you're worrying about it, you're already in a simple place. But yeah, I had a pastor explained that once. He was like, you think that this verse means rich people, You can be poor and love money. That can be your idol, the thing you worship, the thing you look up to. So yeah, of course it's it's too much money in this game, and of course our kids are paying the price. If you want to talk about it from an equality point of view. Equity is so important in these days. Well, public schools are not equitable. You pointed it out. You got your magnet schools, and some kids get in that lottery and then they have this great future and the other kids are consigned to these failing schools. That's not equitable. That's another argument you can make. But I find the most effective arguments usually come from a place of some kind of equity argument. That's what moves the other side. And you have to make them play by their own rules on this issue. So you have to if people want to talk about, hey, public schools are for everyone, and it's equality and diversity, and well, no public schools are failing on all those fronts, and minority students deserve better than than what they're the product that they're getting. Why can't minority parents choose where their kids go to schools? Is there something wrong with a minority parent that they cannot make good choices for their child? You got to make them answer those types of questions usually when they shut down the conversation because there are no valid arguments against school choice. They're just are none. There really are not. But thank you Cherry for being plugged in on the issue, and I wish you the best with your homeschooling. And wow, that just this sort of heartbreaking Chick fil a lady asking can you homeschool my kid? And I get it. I get that, I get it, and it's just so sad and unfair. You know that that she would public school is supposed to serve her, and she's already seeing that that pipeline for her kids is just it's not going to be It's going to be an uphill battle, is what I'm saying. I'm public I'm publicly educated, but I was back before we had internet, so education is a lot different these days. Hey, y'all, this is Alie Michelle. I'm a conservative social media influencer that has been censored by big tech, so I broke away from the restrictions and started a podcast called pillow Talk with Alie Michelle. My show is a space to have real conversations about the issues that impact our everyday live without the fear of being canceled by the big tech tyrants. Subscribe to for a Little Talk with Ali Michelle and FCB podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you getch podcasts. That's Ali Ali, come check on my show. I'll see you there. Oh I've got one more here from Bethany really quick. I wanted to read this because she said I thought it was really interesting observation she made about my interview with Jennifer Say. Jennifer Say. It was the VP of brand marketing I think at Levi's company, and she was next in line for like CEO and she was going to be groundbreaking first woman CEO and she got fired for her from her job when she started questioning lockdown mandates. She started advocating for kids to go back to school, and of course that made her hashtag literally hitler. And she was a good card carrying liberal but lost her job because she just didn't tell the line on all the COVID craziness. And so I had her on the show and we had a great discussion. She used to be a gymnast, and so we talked a little bit about Simone Biles and Simone Biles dropping out of her last Olympics, and she wrote about it a little bit in her book. And so Bethany is responding to one of the things that Jennifer said about that, Jennifer say, see why is her name, and her book is great and I had a great time talking to her. You can look for that episode here, she says. This is what Bethany says. I enjoyed your interview with Jennifer say. I especially appreciated her informed explanation of the twisties and what Simone Biles had to deal with at the Tokyo Games. What are the twisties? The twisties are? This is how Jennifer described it, if I can recalls it's as you can imagine, it's very difficult to be twisting and turning up in the air to do the acrobatics of the job. She says, But gymnasts do feel fear because you really can injure yourself badly. You can kill yourself doing a lot of these maneuvers. And there are there is sort of a psychological phenomenon that happens to gymnasts where they get inside their heads and they get what she calls the twisties, which means when you're up in the air and you're you know, twisting around and flipping around, you don't have your bearings. You can't really get a sense of where the ground is. And that's when you get seriously hurt. It's a it's a thing that gymnasts have to worry about. She said, that's what Simone Bile had. She had the twisties and she really couldn't compete. So we were talking about the hard time that everybody was giving Simone Biles for that. So back to the email, Bethany says, every time I hear something else about that situation, I think we all owe her an apology. This just added to the list. I wasn't angry per se when she dropped out of the Olympics, but my vastly uninformed perspective, it looked like it was. From my vastly uninformed perspective, it looked like terrible leadership. I don't recall any real explanation of what the twist hes entailed or how truly life threatening they could be. Maybe someone tried to explain, but I don't know that anyone was in the mood to listen. Wow, it's social media. No one's really in the mood to listen. In case you were wondering, these were the things that made me want to apologize. Number One, her parents couldn't come to Tokyo. She performed at such an elite level for so long, I forgot she's still pretty young. Plus, losing support that had always been there would have been a hard adjustment in the middle of a pandemic, and all the drama that entailed. No Less number two finding out she was a victim of that awful doctor. My heart just absolutely broke for her and all the other survivors. I've been so impressed with how they have handled themselves since that went public. Three Joe Rogan of all people who said that ADHD medication, of all people said that the add medication she uses is banned in Japan. She got a waiver for a rio, but wasn't able to get one for Tokyo. No wonder she had trouble. She lost her support system and her medicine. And Four. Then Jennifer explained what the twisties are, and that moved me from I can see why she didn't compete to I'm so glad she didn't compete in a hurry. I can't imagine how bad we'd feel is she pushed through and seriously injured herself or worse. Plus, now the next generation of gymnasts says proof that you can bow out for self preservation, even at the Olympics as oh, as I enjoy your podcast. I'm glad you did it. Thanks Bethany. Yeah, Bethany, that's cool. Thank you so much. I was really impressed by that part of Jennifer's book two. And of course from the beginning, I thought everyone was too hard on Simone Biles. As you pointed out, a lot of people didn't know what she was going through. All they saw was the spoiled bratt athlete, this privileged athlete who is in a position to represent her country. Now she gets there, she takes the spot, and now she doesn't want to do it. But it really wasn't like that. There was a lot going on in her life, and I have a deep respect for her for that takes guts, you guys to drop out. Think of how much responsibility you feel when you just commit to baking cookies for the school bake sale, you know, and you feel so much pressure to get that done and to show up for the bake sale. It's not Think of how much pressure you feel when you're competing for an Olympic medal, Like it's one of the rarest privileges in the world. So think about how much effort and that's her bread and butter. It's not like she's not an actress, she's not a musician, she doesn't have any other like. She doesn't work on a grocery store. Gymnastics is her bread and butter. That's her job. And so to say no to that, that took some guts. And I don't think enough, and I do. I don't include her as a celebrity because she's an athlete, But I think about this a lot when I look at celebrities talking about the stress of social media and all the comments. I love celebrity gossip. I know I'm part of the problem. I don't need you guys to lecture me. I'm part of the problem. I know. Anyways, I've been reading a lot lately about this. It's sort of a manufactured it's like a fan manufactured feud, but it's between Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber's wife, Haley Haley or right, Hailey Bieber Haley. It's like Haley. It's like Halle Bailey and Hailey Bieber. Anyways, and people are being Justin used to go out with Selena, and that's the one the fans really liked. Andy. A lot of people have assumptions about his marriage to Haley. And you know, Hailey Bieber and Selena Gomez, they've all they've both been online going people be kind. You know, it's very stressful. And I hear Justin and his wife talk all the time about the pressures of celebrity and just how straining it is for your mental health to just be assaulted online every day by total strangers. And I get that because I get a few mean responses on the internet, and niche stresses me out. You know, I can't imagine having an Instagram account with two million people saying mean things to you every day. But here is my thing. Those two don't have to do what they do. You know what I mean? The people, the celebrities who complain about what it's like to be famous or what it's like, I feel for them. I do fame is a curse, it is not a blessing. But they complain about what it's like to be famous, what it's like to be followed around, what it's like to be online and have all that hate online, and it's like, you don't have to do this. Has no one ever sat down the young Bieber couple and told them that they don't have to be very online. They don't. They could. They could give it all up tomorrow. Lord knows, they have enough money to live for the rest of their lives. She could get a job in a grocery store and he could get a job as a construction worker, and eventually the world will forget about them, like, they don't have to do this. So I don't. While I do empathize, I don't feel sorry for them, because you're putting yourself in this situation to receive all this criticism and all this stuff that is so damaging to your mental health. The brave thing to do would be to step away way and to preserve your safety and your health. But they can't because the love of money is the root of all evil, and they're willing to put up with evil for the money. Simone Biles was not. She was not willing to accept the darkness that came with doing this job at that particular time for her anyway. She wasn't willing to accept that just for the paycheck, just for the glory, just for the metal. So I do. I have a deep respect for that, And I think Jennifer explained it so well, and I'm so glad that that you you know, also saw that, and I hope that people do. Simone Biles just got married. I think to a football player. I think, I don't know. They're an adorable couple. Look up their pictures online. She was a beautiful bride. Looks like they did it kind of on the fly, like they went to the courthouse. And good for her. I wish her nothing but the best. I hope that this is a time of peace for her because she's certainly she has certainly sacrificed a lot of peace to do what she's done in her life. So congratulations to Simone. Thank you to everybody who wrote in. If you have a question for me, if you have a comment I wanted the episodes, or you have an idea for a future episode, or if you want to be like Meal and write me about all of your personal feelings about Star Trek casting, I'm down for that too. Write me at jlty at ProtonMail dot com. J lt Y at ProtonMail dot com. Don't forget if you have not subscribed to this podcast, maybe you just go find it every week. Please hit that subscribe button. It helps. Trust me, this podcast is free and so one of the things that we ask. The sort of price we ask is just for you to subscribe. It really helps with the algorithm and it helps us make money in the other places where we make money just from advertising. Uh. Sign up for my substack just Kia Davis dot substack dot com. Follow me on Twitter at real Kira Davis. I'm back with Amelia. This week we'll be pumping out new episodes of a very merry podcast. You can look that up. If you love cheesy Christmas Hallmark movies, you'll love that podcast podcast until we meet again every once in a while. Don't forget. Just stop and listen to yourself. Masoda day that we won't was bade and we won't say all we gotta does no more? Get tatto and dude is gonna be okay? Maza Day that we won't was bade and we won't was said. All we gotta does no more, get tatto and don't bad. It's don't be okay. This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network, where real talk lifts. Visit us online at FCB Podcasts dot com.
