January 6, 2022 • 30 mins
This week on 4 From the South, Steve and Fab discuss the immediate aftermath of the Chilean general election… with Fab on-the-ground in Chile! The guys discuss Boric’s victory and what it means for the country. They also talk about the Chilean Peso falling slightly after the election and how outsider media is framing it like a disaster for everyone, but Chilean-native, Fab, thinks that may be blown out of proportion. The guys also talk about what the election of a millennial means for other countries’ world leaders.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:18):
Hello everyone, We're back with four from the South. I'm
Steve Healey and with me live from Chile is for
Brizzio Campano fabriary there. Listen to listen to the smooth
internet we get from in the borich Is Chile. Yeah,
they improved the internet right away. That was the first
(00:40):
thing they did. It was just a switch underneath the
Chilean White House. He just had to unplug it and
plug it back in again. That's the first thing you
do when you see elected president of the country. We've
been doing this podcast now for something like fifteen episodes,
and people when they see me on the street, they
come up to me and they go, Steve, what are
(01:00):
you doing? Why are you recording a podcast called four
from the South that's largely about electoral politics in Chile.
And I was like, trust me, this is a good story.
We're onto something here, something interesting is happening. And then
this week Sunday, suddenly I'm vindicated because the biggest story
(01:20):
in the world is the thirty five year old hipster
leftist Boris wins a shocking win in the Chilean election,
and here we are ready to cover it. We've been
bringing into you. We front to the background, and here
you are. You're there. We got it finally, Yes, we
were there from the beginning. Now everyone like, now the
(01:40):
economy is the Bloomberg's like, yeah, we know about this guy.
Not really was ahead of you losers always there's no
There is simply no other English language podcast that's been
bringing you more background information about Gabrielle Borich in the
Chilean election. I feel confident and saying that, and here
(02:00):
we are. It's our moment. We need to take advantage
of this somehow. This is our This is like when
Dan Rather got to see this a Brewder film or whatever,
or I can't think of another example of a journalist
who was It's like Jerry McGuire that scene where Kuba
Godwin Jr. Finally have a moment. Yes, yes, and now
(02:21):
we have to go to the press and do the
rounds and like yeah, to take advantage of this. Now
it's all just gonna be cash and checks and enjoying life. Okay,
So you're there in Chile, walk us through. How long
have you been there? How did it go down this weekend?
How did the election play out? Well? I arrive on Friday,
the election was on Sunday. The last couple of days,
(02:45):
it was a little net rocking. Everyone was tense. You
can feel out of tension. Yeah. My first I mean,
I'm understanding comic. My first idea was going on stage
and trying to make fun of this tension, you know,
to break the eyes of the country. And I have
(03:05):
to say that I failed because everyone was so tense
that if you make a joke, I mean, even like
not against Boridge we just mentioned in Border, it was like,
don't do it, you know, one misstep and we get
into the hands of cast and for the for audience,
cast was the villain of the story. He was the
(03:26):
Bosonaro kind of character, the trumpy guy who was against
Borage and was defeated on Sunday. So it was like,
please don't ruin this, please don't touch this is so
fragile electric yeah. Uh and then okay, then Sunday. Uh.
(03:46):
I mean. Something that we have to say about the
Chilean electoral system, where we're a small country, is easy
to count the votes. You know, we're not that many people,
but at the same day as a really effective system
because you have Peru to have maybe the same amount
of people. But it takes three days to have a result.
You know how bad is having three days? Well, it
(04:08):
happened during this election cycle in the US, but just
three days of note knowing what's going to happen, it's
a nightmare. And in Chile it was technically three hours
after they close the polls. It was three hours later.
We knew it um and for two reasons, because the
(04:30):
surveiled the system that count is really effective, they're really
really good at their job. And at the same time,
the election was not even closed each one for ten points.
That is insane. That was kind of surprising to me
because I had thought this was going to be a
real squeaker, and it made me think that maybe the
media or the media I was reading is all the
(04:52):
US language media, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, and they were
all leftist, has narrow lead, and it was always leftist.
He was always of seeing as a leftist and they
never really uh framed cast as like a far right
or extreme right. He was sort of like more conservative
Canada cast. It's possible I wasn't getting the best, most
(05:14):
accurate reporting. It may have even been a little biased.
It's possible I was a second ago. I was checking Twitter,
and there was a Bloomberg piece was like Chile, be careful.
It's like, shut up, Bloomberg, come on, let us please
leave us alone. Stup, like don't, don't, don't do this. Uh.
(05:35):
The economist that Chile was in danger of making a
grave mistake. Yeah, and I'm sure, I'm sure that every ghost,
all these pieces works against what they want, you know,
because people really get upset, like I don't want the
economy is telling me what to do. I mean people
(05:56):
who are connected with this. Most of the audience don't
even care. But it's just it's annoying. It's really annoying
to have those those pieces are missing form and there. Yeah,
they don't have the nuances of each country. To be honest,
I want to read to you because this is from
the Wall Street Journals article reporting on the election of Boridge.
This is the first paragraph, state line, Santiago, Chile. The
(06:19):
Chilean peso fell to a historic low and the country's
stock market tumbled Monday after voters elected leftist Gabriel Boridge
as president, raising investor concerns about the future of the
country's free market economy. The paso was down about three
to eight seventy per US dollar, while the Santiago Stock
Exchange lost more than seven percent in early trading. That
(06:40):
was their take on This guy, student activist, you know,
wins by a lot. There's something happy here, parties all
over the country. I don't know. The stock market dropped.
This could be bad. I mean I get it because
the Wall Street Journal is basically like it's being read
(07:03):
by money. That that's the audience for it. It's capital
and money. Well, what happened with the dollar was that
today yesterday it went up, five hours later went down
and that's it, and now it's getting stable again. Yeah,
it's it's just like they get scared for a couple
(07:24):
of hours and then if you, if you, if you,
if you read the speech like they when when Boridge won.
And so, by the way, there's a lot of good
things about Chili that I think we need to address
in this conversation cast. Like the trumpy guy called that
night on okay cool, he was like it's over. Then
(07:46):
he did a speech, he cried a little bit, and
then they had a meeting. They have a big together
right away. That's next morning. First thing, Boridge go to
the to the quote unquote white House did Chilean White
House to visit right away and they took pictures and
(08:07):
they get a tour. I mean, it was beautiful. Like
that's the reason why it gets stable again, because it's
like it's just an election. Still a country that have
institutions and know how to deal with this thing. You know,
it's not it's not that crazy Bloomberg. Economy is calm down.
That's really great. I'm happy to hear that. That's it's
(08:27):
nice to have a smooth transition. One of the most
dangerous things out there these days. We are in danger.
We've already bungled it once and I think probably for
the rest of my lifetime, American presidential transitions will be
extremely tense. And it sounds like chill I handled it
really smoothly. Yeah, it was. It was really well well
well done to once again. That's the reason why the
(08:48):
market goes like and then it's like, oh, okay, well
it's this it's still the same place. I'm sure they're
gonna get scared with a couple of things are going
to change pretty soon. But also people are really tired
of the way they had handled this. So I don't
think it like the people who vote for for for
for Borridge. Are that concern about the dollar right now?
(09:11):
There's a lot of other problems in their lives. Uh,
I think, I think it's gonna take a minute, of course,
and you know, you know how governments work. After a year,
people start hating you. But right now everything, everything seems
to be in the right place, and there's a lot
of cruel school stuff happening. Um uh, Well, Boridge went
to the convention because, by the way, we're writing the
(09:34):
new constitution at the same time. Uh, and you see
that these moments of like these thirty five years old
hanging like a native Chilean who's writing the constitution, and
he talked about his his staff is gonna be uh
this the same amount of women and men for the
first time in the history of the country, you know.
I mean there's a lot of like feels, a lot
(09:56):
of renovation of like a new cast of characters right away.
New cast of characters is great. It is really great.
It's really refreshing for this show. Can you give me
(10:20):
any like sort of I always like the little personal
details like did boris like did he eat something special
or did he you know, was he seen hugging you
know his grandmother. Were there any little personal moments like that,
of of what he did after he realized that he'd won,
and yeah, he's got a partner, right. I wanted to
(10:40):
speak about this. I want to speak about this actually
because I don't know about Spanish Wikipedia, but an English Wikipedia,
there's no mention of a wife or girlfriend, and I
think that should be something that they take care of immediately.
You've got this guy's in the international news. Now. He's
not kind, I wouldn't. He's not a heart throb. But
you know, he's got a sort of hipster He looks
like he'd be a nice boyfriend. There's gonna be people
(11:02):
checking this out, so I want to make sure that
we get his wife or girlfriend into his Wikipedia page immediately.
I mean, this guy is who looks like someone who
works in a brewery, have like a yeah, like his
own he's making his own beer. You've seen this guy, yeah,
I tweeted that it looks like he's he looks like
your friend's boyfriend. Yes, yes, so yeah, you see this
(11:24):
guy in a in a party, he's around you, he's
not he's not uh you know, like the other character
was someone that you will never hang out with. But
I know, yeah, he looks like your friend's evil dad
or something. But yeah, he said, I seen your friend
Danyelle for a while. She's like, hey, this is my boyfriend, Gab.
And then that's what Bords looks like if you haven't
pictured him. He's a nice guy. He's he's neither fan
(11:47):
nor chubby. He's just ordinary, you know, not handsome exactly,
but not not handsome. Yes, yes, the world acceptable acceptable.
She had her friend, uh I met her that night
during the celebrations. Her name is Elena and yeah, she
(12:08):
she's a political science uh if, feminist activist, super smart
and she she actually they asked her about like, hey,
and you're gonna be the first lady, and she was like,
I do think we need to have like that concept anymore. Wow,
I love that Why people vote for this guy, Why
(12:30):
his family is part of the deal. You know. It's
like we're not like a kingdom, We're not kings, you know.
So yeah, I'm just gonna be his girlfriend, and of
course I'm gonna keep working in like my my my things,
but we're not gonna like do the the first lady thing.
Probably the concept of the first lady is pretty whack
(12:53):
and not really necessary. It's not really it's never it's
really never been clear what the First Lady was supposed
to do. Yeah're in the US. She's usually supposed to
have some nominal cause. Uh, Michelle Obama was military families
good cause whatever. Uh that is right. Yeah, maybe we
(13:19):
need a hype band or something. We could have a
whole there's no reason to structure this long traditional family lines.
Supports is not even married, but this is his partner, definitive,
this is definitely his lady. Yeah, and they they they
she she said that you want to rethink the figure
of the First Lady. So I think that's interesting. Um,
(13:41):
that could be cool, huge amity for modernization of that
whole concept, I hope, because it also, like I think
it comes from a very mis such distinct place in
the beginning. You know, it's like, it's the wife, So
take care of the furniture of the White House. You know,
we're just gonna be like taking big decisions and yeah,
put the Christmas tree right, Doing the Christmas tree is
(14:01):
always a big part of it. Yeah, So I think
this is refreshing and uh yeah he he, Well I
was able to because I'm close with him and his people,
and you know, I know them for ten years when
they started the story of this this group, because he's
part of a generation of politicians in Chile that started
(14:23):
in the in the twentyn there was like some movement
for new, for renewing education because Chilean education was very expensive,
not that good, and everyone was like in high depth.
I think people from the US can feel, uh, very
very much like that too, you know, like it's very
(14:44):
expensive and it's not like they used to be that
you think, you go to college and you go get
a job. Not anymore. Um, So it was falling apart,
and these people took the streets and the whole generation
kind of grow into being part of the Congress and
blah blah blah, and then take different positions and now
it's like the final stage of taking over power. And
(15:06):
that's that reason why I met them, because at the
beginning of all the social movement, I was doing stand
up in all this uh the the I mean, I
don't know how to call them, like rallies or student rallies.
The student movement you were part of. You were a
comedian of the student movement, of which exact an early leader, right,
So that's how I met them. It's it's been insane
(15:27):
then to see these people or that you were like
eating a hotdog and you know, having a beer. Then
they're like the government. Uh, it's it's pretty wild. Um
and and and and and now, especially during the negration,
was very emotional to see, like I think for a
whole generation to you see these people grown with you.
(15:48):
It's like you see your friends and then they have
better jobs and then they get married and it's like,
but this is our national TV. So it was pretty
wild and fun to be in that celebra ration that
sounds really great and a really good time. It is interesting,
like you know, in the US, also, education is totally screwed.
(16:10):
To go to college is it? Somehow became astronomically more
expensive than it was for our parents, and yet somehow
we didn't really do anything about it. We haven't been
taking to the streets. You don't hear student protests. Do
you hear people whining on social media about how Joe
Biden should cancel their debt. But we haven't managed to
get organized in the way that it seems like Chile did.
(16:31):
The younger generation than me already took care of that
in Chile, and somehow we haven't done it. I wonder
what we're what we're missing here in the US. Maybe
we just don't have a tradition of protest on that order.
We have other problems we've been protesting. I'm not sure
certainly we should take a memo here. Yeah, I think
there's something very interesting there. And once again it's like
(16:54):
Chilian president right now, the Biena who was still in
power until March. He's seven four, and then this guy,
next guy thirty five. It's a little bit great to
see that in the US changed someone's like eighty one
to someone that he's like, I don't know, thirties seven. Oh,
it's it's so good just to see that, even if
(17:16):
he's if I don't know how the government's gonna go,
but is that ready? Like finally, you know, it's highly
highly refreshing. And so this guy when he pops up
in American social media bar which he's wearing a Nirvana
T shirt, he's got the nine inch nails hat. There's
a lot of photos of him as a fan of
(17:37):
he's he's a big tool. Okay, okay, I like that strong.
There's something to it. You know, like, I don't know,
I don't like Tool, but I think, yeah, it's it's
kind of cool to see a guy with a hat
of nine inch nails then becoming the president of a country.
I don't love Tool, but I don't want the president
(17:59):
to be listening to like IMO stuff. You know, I
wanted something strong and Tool is uh will work for that. Okay,
(18:20):
So it's also great. Yeah, you know, the thirty five
year old guy is really good. Love that he loves Tool.
So five I saw something who was somebody on Twitter,
person named Lilah on Twitter tweeted the absolute range of
millennial world leaders. And it's a picture of Boris, a
picture of Santa Marion, the Prime Minister of Finland, who
(18:42):
famously recently left her cell phone at the club. And
then it's the Prince of I'm not sure if it's
Ben Solomon or his son, the Prince of Saudi Arabia.
And then it's Kim John On or Kim the current
Kim ruler of North Korea. And these are the these
are the under forty world leaders we have now they
(19:03):
left out just into art and of New Zealand, who's
doing apparently doing a great job but we've got a
pretty interesting range of hipster world leaders now. And I
think I think hipster is a fair term here because
I was thinking about hipster, what the hipster even means?
You know, Boris has got a beard, He's a mellow guy,
he's not super masculine. He dresses kind of casually, which
(19:24):
I think are all kind of hipster things. He looks
like he's into some interesting music whatever, bookele you can.
I was like, what is what do we even mean
by hipster? Well, booke sort of looks like a club dude.
If you wear a shiny shirt and you like slick
your hair back, you're definitely not a hipster, right, You're
he looks like he's listening to Peo or something. I
don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's not shopping the record
(19:47):
shops and reading interesting magazines and talking about ideas. He's like,
he's exactly a dude. Uh And yeah, Boris, I don't
think he's that guy. I don't think that guy. I
would say that definitely there's a hipster look at him.
He is a part of a generation that is pretty
(20:08):
much he looks he looks like his generation. That Once again,
it's so important for a president to like look like
someone that you know, I feel like, of course you
need that, you you you need some of that in government.
And once again I want to talk about the team
around him, because uh, there's one character that we talked
(20:28):
about her before. She's called during the craziness of the pandemic,
she was the president of the I don't know how
to say it, but it's like the College of Medicine,
but that is like an institution of doctors who talk
outside government. Is not a government governmental, but they advised
(20:50):
to government. And she became a very important character is Kia.
And then yes, pictures of her up and she's always
wearing the same thing, a sort of whitish coat over
like a black shirt. And she decided she decided to
quit her job and go with with with the borage
(21:14):
in this in the runoff, and she started doing these
live streams and she just had a baby. So she
did give a speech like I was I was staring
at the face of my daughter, and I was like,
I need to do this for my country and for her.
And she take a bus all over there, like you know,
I mean all the north of Chile, just going all
(21:36):
the way to Arica all the way back to Santiago
in a bus touring and talking with people and like,
I don't know, convincing everyone with the baby. So she
was doing live streams, uh, breastfeeding the baby and be like,
we're here in this town and she's a doctor. Her
skin is exactly the skin of female women, and I
(21:57):
feel like she looks very much like a lot of
woman from Chile. She's the perfect person to be the
next president. I think she's ready to be the expression
she I'm reading her Wikipedia. She she looks amazing for
similar to Borich, She's she's not like it's a little
weird to talk about a woman, but we know we're
talking about politicians that are public figures. She's not so
(22:19):
stunningly gorgeous that she should be a model, but she's
very appealing, you know. Like that would be my take
on her competent her same as Bard. If I if
I hadn't seen my friend John in a while and
then I met him at a party, He's like, this
is my girlfriend. He's cap sure, that's what she looks like.
And she's doing a great job of like you know,
(22:39):
becoming the kind of bachelorate kind of character for for Chile,
for the next generation of Chilean's and she was so
important for for the Boradge campaign, and she's going to
be in government for sure. Uh. And I don't know,
I feel like that those characacters I think they're not
that many in the US politics weirdness that you don't know,
(23:02):
you don't see anyone like looks like the people who
are in Congress in the US. Yeah, what's going on
with that? I mean, like, I'm looking at these hyper
competent thirty five year olds that are in Chile, and
they seem adults, they seem mature. And we have some
you know, we've got AOC I guess, and then we
have Pete Buddha Jedge, who's sort of like a creation
of establishment politics. He doesn't he doesn't really like broken
(23:24):
free of anything. And then you've got a few fringe
characters like Cawthorne or whatever, these kind of Uh, they
don't seem like adults, they seem like fanatics. And here
in Chile, somehow these people are. They seem sensible, they
seem balanced, they seem competent, there's nothing extreme about them. Uh.
(23:47):
How do you think that generation got created in Chile?
In a way that it didn't seem whatever is happening
in the US. The country's president's eighty something or seventy nine.
They Speaker of the House is eighty something. That spring
it is all eighty year olds. It's it's Mitch McConnell's,
however old he is. This is the United States is
an old person run country at this point, despite our
(24:09):
rep as being this vital, youthful kind of place, it's
it hasn't emerged. And now in Chile there's a whole
generation that's taken the reins of power. It seems to
be happening in other countries New Zealand, Finland. It's going on.
What what are we missing here? What can we do
to get on to inspire a generation that will take
the reins. I have no idea, I just I just
(24:30):
feel that here there was yeah social movement that happened
with the students movement, and then all the generation in
the middle, like the people who are forty five, you know,
they kind of never like killed their dad in a way,
you know, they never did take that step of taking
over power, and they just wait and we all know
(24:52):
that baby boomers, they don't give you a chance, don't.
They don't. They don't want you there. Uh. They get
used you uh for some stuff, But honestly, they don't
want you to take over power. They want you to
do you like a kid. So I feel like they
they attached themselves from the system and then they inserted
(25:12):
themselves in the system when they already have enough power,
and maybe that was the difference. I remember reading a
book called Power, Why Some People Have It and Others
Don't buy Jeffrey Pifer, professor at Stanford Business School, And
one of the takeaways I got from the book is like,
power is never nobody ever gives it to you. It's
not like somebody says, here, I want you to have
(25:33):
some power. The power is always something you have to take.
You have to go and get it. Maybe it was
power No no, no, people like it as as they haven't.
Even if they even it corrupts them and turns them
into monsters, they don't ever want to give it away. Okay,
So you are a comedian, You're you make your living
(25:54):
as a funny man, and you know a comedian can't
really be You might have to make choice. Here are
you gonna be okay with making fun of Boris, Are
you gonna be Will you be making jokes about him
now that he's the president? Will you rib him when
he gets out of line because he will make mistakes?
Come on, Well, last night I have my first show, uh,
(26:15):
in the new boridg Era, and my first thing I
said up on stage is like, well, I think we
finally can make fun of him. No, it's like, I
think now we're free to make fun of him. And
it works really well. It works really well. Well. There
was a running running joke for many years about Biea,
(26:38):
the current president, to have short arms. So every suit
he's his hands were disappearing under this suit, and Uh,
I was like, Boridge also have short arms. Let's stuck
about it. A take that. So I think, yeah, I'm
(27:02):
questioning power. I'm I think I'm I'm putting there against
the wall. I think you always have to make fun
of them. I think that's the only way. Uh. I
don't think you read you can. You can make funny
different ways, you know, Like, of course it's not the
same to make fun of someone that you think morally
they're disgusting. At the same make fun of someone that
(27:24):
you do you think you're not they're not doing a
great job. Yeah, well, I mean I would say I
would say most of my life the most fun that
I had, like really evil monster Trump or something. It's
not not actually that fun to make fun of. It
doesn't catch you anywhere. The affectionate fun or making fun
of someone you know pretty well but has certain flaws,
(27:45):
as we all do. That is really where you get
your laughs and excitement. You know, it's from from the tension.
So that I think the fact that you like borrig
and that he's sort of a friend of yours could
be good for your comedy and you could have a
valuable role to play here. And once again, it's like
they with the trumpy characters, every time you make fun
of them, you also feel like you're you're you're talking
(28:07):
with them, You're talking, you're you're bringing them to the world.
So it's funny because every time you make fun of
like these weird extremists in every side, you know, it
can be like left right there are on YouTube and
you make fun of them, you're actually helping them. So yeah,
it's it's a tricky situation. And yeah, I'd rather just
(28:30):
make fun of his arms. In the meantime, just waiting
to start with his arms and we'll work our way
up from there. Well, that's a pretty good report. What's
going on. So you're down there in Chile, you're gonna
be celebrating or is the celebration lasted? Today's Tuesday as
we're recording. Has has the partying in the streets come
to an end? What was just one crazy night? Uh?
(28:53):
Because it was. It was a Sunday. I think everyone
went home very early, but still it was. It was
a crazy feign party in the streets. Now back to normal. Uh,
the all the meetings are happening, All the transition blah
blah blah is happening. Everyone talking about who's going to
be in government in which position blah blah blah. So
(29:13):
let's see, we have a couple of days to know
the new generation then next gen of this government. And
of course if you want to know about that, this
is the place for you. This is the podcast. We'll
have it for you every week. We'll be back next
week with some exciting updates. I think we have a
special guest episode coming up, and we will continue to
(29:34):
bring you the news from the future is coming from
South America, and we've got it for year here and
four from the South. Hit us up on Twitter and
Gmail for From the South both places. Thanks so much.
I love that we have a man at the center
of the news. Great to have you here and we'll
see you guys next week. Four from the South is
hosted by Me, Steve Healey, and Fabrizio Capano. Robert O'Shaughnessy
(29:55):
is our producer. Original theme song by Amy Stolsenbach. Four
from the South is production of Exile Content Studio in
partnership with I Heart Radio is Michael Toura podcast Network.
For more podcasts or my Heart, visit the I Heart
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Hello everyone, We're back with four from the South. I'm
Steve Healey and with me live from Chile is for
Brizzio Campano fabriary there. Listen to listen to the smooth
internet we get from in the borich Is Chile. Yeah,
they improved the internet right away. That was the first
(00:40):
thing they did. It was just a switch underneath the
Chilean White House. He just had to unplug it and
plug it back in again. That's the first thing you
do when you see elected president of the country. We've
been doing this podcast now for something like fifteen episodes,
and people when they see me on the street, they
come up to me and they go, Steve, what are
(01:00):
you doing? Why are you recording a podcast called four
from the South that's largely about electoral politics in Chile.
And I was like, trust me, this is a good story.
We're onto something here, something interesting is happening. And then
this week Sunday, suddenly I'm vindicated because the biggest story
(01:20):
in the world is the thirty five year old hipster
leftist Boris wins a shocking win in the Chilean election,
and here we are ready to cover it. We've been
bringing into you. We front to the background, and here
you are. You're there. We got it finally, Yes, we
were there from the beginning. Now everyone like, now the
(01:40):
economy is the Bloomberg's like, yeah, we know about this guy.
Not really was ahead of you losers always there's no
There is simply no other English language podcast that's been
bringing you more background information about Gabrielle Borich in the
Chilean election. I feel confident and saying that, and here
(02:00):
we are. It's our moment. We need to take advantage
of this somehow. This is our This is like when
Dan Rather got to see this a Brewder film or whatever,
or I can't think of another example of a journalist
who was It's like Jerry McGuire that scene where Kuba
Godwin Jr. Finally have a moment. Yes, yes, and now
(02:21):
we have to go to the press and do the
rounds and like yeah, to take advantage of this. Now
it's all just gonna be cash and checks and enjoying life. Okay,
So you're there in Chile, walk us through. How long
have you been there? How did it go down this weekend?
How did the election play out? Well? I arrive on Friday,
the election was on Sunday. The last couple of days,
(02:45):
it was a little net rocking. Everyone was tense. You
can feel out of tension. Yeah. My first I mean,
I'm understanding comic. My first idea was going on stage
and trying to make fun of this tension, you know,
to break the eyes of the country. And I have
(03:05):
to say that I failed because everyone was so tense
that if you make a joke, I mean, even like
not against Boridge we just mentioned in Border, it was like,
don't do it, you know, one misstep and we get
into the hands of cast and for the for audience,
cast was the villain of the story. He was the
(03:26):
Bosonaro kind of character, the trumpy guy who was against
Borage and was defeated on Sunday. So it was like,
please don't ruin this, please don't touch this is so
fragile electric yeah. Uh and then okay, then Sunday. Uh.
(03:46):
I mean. Something that we have to say about the
Chilean electoral system, where we're a small country, is easy
to count the votes. You know, we're not that many people,
but at the same day as a really effective system
because you have Peru to have maybe the same amount
of people. But it takes three days to have a result.
You know how bad is having three days? Well, it
(04:08):
happened during this election cycle in the US, but just
three days of note knowing what's going to happen, it's
a nightmare. And in Chile it was technically three hours
after they close the polls. It was three hours later.
We knew it um and for two reasons, because the
(04:30):
surveiled the system that count is really effective, they're really
really good at their job. And at the same time,
the election was not even closed each one for ten points.
That is insane. That was kind of surprising to me
because I had thought this was going to be a
real squeaker, and it made me think that maybe the
media or the media I was reading is all the
(04:52):
US language media, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, and they were
all leftist, has narrow lead, and it was always leftist.
He was always of seeing as a leftist and they
never really uh framed cast as like a far right
or extreme right. He was sort of like more conservative
Canada cast. It's possible I wasn't getting the best, most
(05:14):
accurate reporting. It may have even been a little biased.
It's possible I was a second ago. I was checking Twitter,
and there was a Bloomberg piece was like Chile, be careful.
It's like, shut up, Bloomberg, come on, let us please
leave us alone. Stup, like don't, don't, don't do this. Uh.
(05:35):
The economist that Chile was in danger of making a
grave mistake. Yeah, and I'm sure, I'm sure that every ghost,
all these pieces works against what they want, you know,
because people really get upset, like I don't want the
economy is telling me what to do. I mean people
(05:56):
who are connected with this. Most of the audience don't
even care. But it's just it's annoying. It's really annoying
to have those those pieces are missing form and there. Yeah,
they don't have the nuances of each country. To be honest,
I want to read to you because this is from
the Wall Street Journals article reporting on the election of Boridge.
This is the first paragraph, state line, Santiago, Chile. The
(06:19):
Chilean peso fell to a historic low and the country's
stock market tumbled Monday after voters elected leftist Gabriel Boridge
as president, raising investor concerns about the future of the
country's free market economy. The paso was down about three
to eight seventy per US dollar, while the Santiago Stock
Exchange lost more than seven percent in early trading. That
(06:40):
was their take on This guy, student activist, you know,
wins by a lot. There's something happy here, parties all
over the country. I don't know. The stock market dropped.
This could be bad. I mean I get it because
the Wall Street Journal is basically like it's being read
(07:03):
by money. That that's the audience for it. It's capital
and money. Well, what happened with the dollar was that
today yesterday it went up, five hours later went down
and that's it, and now it's getting stable again. Yeah,
it's it's just like they get scared for a couple
(07:24):
of hours and then if you, if you, if you,
if you read the speech like they when when Boridge won.
And so, by the way, there's a lot of good
things about Chili that I think we need to address
in this conversation cast. Like the trumpy guy called that
night on okay cool, he was like it's over. Then
(07:46):
he did a speech, he cried a little bit, and
then they had a meeting. They have a big together
right away. That's next morning. First thing, Boridge go to
the to the quote unquote white House did Chilean White
House to visit right away and they took pictures and
(08:07):
they get a tour. I mean, it was beautiful. Like
that's the reason why it gets stable again, because it's
like it's just an election. Still a country that have
institutions and know how to deal with this thing. You know,
it's not it's not that crazy Bloomberg. Economy is calm down.
That's really great. I'm happy to hear that. That's it's
(08:27):
nice to have a smooth transition. One of the most
dangerous things out there these days. We are in danger.
We've already bungled it once and I think probably for
the rest of my lifetime, American presidential transitions will be
extremely tense. And it sounds like chill I handled it
really smoothly. Yeah, it was. It was really well well
well done to once again. That's the reason why the
(08:48):
market goes like and then it's like, oh, okay, well
it's this it's still the same place. I'm sure they're
gonna get scared with a couple of things are going
to change pretty soon. But also people are really tired
of the way they had handled this. So I don't
think it like the people who vote for for for
for Borridge. Are that concern about the dollar right now?
(09:11):
There's a lot of other problems in their lives. Uh,
I think, I think it's gonna take a minute, of course,
and you know, you know how governments work. After a year,
people start hating you. But right now everything, everything seems
to be in the right place, and there's a lot
of cruel school stuff happening. Um uh, Well, Boridge went
to the convention because, by the way, we're writing the
(09:34):
new constitution at the same time. Uh, and you see
that these moments of like these thirty five years old
hanging like a native Chilean who's writing the constitution, and
he talked about his his staff is gonna be uh
this the same amount of women and men for the
first time in the history of the country, you know.
I mean there's a lot of like feels, a lot
(09:56):
of renovation of like a new cast of characters right away.
New cast of characters is great. It is really great.
It's really refreshing for this show. Can you give me
(10:20):
any like sort of I always like the little personal
details like did boris like did he eat something special
or did he you know, was he seen hugging you
know his grandmother. Were there any little personal moments like that,
of of what he did after he realized that he'd won,
and yeah, he's got a partner, right. I wanted to
(10:40):
speak about this. I want to speak about this actually
because I don't know about Spanish Wikipedia, but an English Wikipedia,
there's no mention of a wife or girlfriend, and I
think that should be something that they take care of immediately.
You've got this guy's in the international news. Now. He's
not kind, I wouldn't. He's not a heart throb. But
you know, he's got a sort of hipster He looks
like he'd be a nice boyfriend. There's gonna be people
(11:02):
checking this out, so I want to make sure that
we get his wife or girlfriend into his Wikipedia page immediately.
I mean, this guy is who looks like someone who
works in a brewery, have like a yeah, like his
own he's making his own beer. You've seen this guy, yeah,
I tweeted that it looks like he's he looks like
your friend's boyfriend. Yes, yes, so yeah, you see this
(11:24):
guy in a in a party, he's around you, he's
not he's not uh you know, like the other character
was someone that you will never hang out with. But
I know, yeah, he looks like your friend's evil dad
or something. But yeah, he said, I seen your friend
Danyelle for a while. She's like, hey, this is my boyfriend, Gab.
And then that's what Bords looks like if you haven't
pictured him. He's a nice guy. He's he's neither fan
(11:47):
nor chubby. He's just ordinary, you know, not handsome exactly,
but not not handsome. Yes, yes, the world acceptable acceptable.
She had her friend, uh I met her that night
during the celebrations. Her name is Elena and yeah, she
(12:08):
she's a political science uh if, feminist activist, super smart
and she she actually they asked her about like, hey,
and you're gonna be the first lady, and she was like,
I do think we need to have like that concept anymore. Wow,
I love that Why people vote for this guy, Why
(12:30):
his family is part of the deal. You know. It's
like we're not like a kingdom, We're not kings, you know.
So yeah, I'm just gonna be his girlfriend, and of
course I'm gonna keep working in like my my my things,
but we're not gonna like do the the first lady thing.
Probably the concept of the first lady is pretty whack
(12:53):
and not really necessary. It's not really it's never it's
really never been clear what the First Lady was supposed
to do. Yeah're in the US. She's usually supposed to
have some nominal cause. Uh, Michelle Obama was military families
good cause whatever. Uh that is right. Yeah, maybe we
(13:19):
need a hype band or something. We could have a
whole there's no reason to structure this long traditional family lines.
Supports is not even married, but this is his partner, definitive,
this is definitely his lady. Yeah, and they they they
she she said that you want to rethink the figure
of the First Lady. So I think that's interesting. Um,
(13:41):
that could be cool, huge amity for modernization of that
whole concept, I hope, because it also, like I think
it comes from a very mis such distinct place in
the beginning. You know, it's like, it's the wife, So
take care of the furniture of the White House. You know,
we're just gonna be like taking big decisions and yeah,
put the Christmas tree right, Doing the Christmas tree is
(14:01):
always a big part of it. Yeah, So I think
this is refreshing and uh yeah he he, Well I
was able to because I'm close with him and his people,
and you know, I know them for ten years when
they started the story of this this group, because he's
part of a generation of politicians in Chile that started
(14:23):
in the in the twentyn there was like some movement
for new, for renewing education because Chilean education was very expensive,
not that good, and everyone was like in high depth.
I think people from the US can feel, uh, very
very much like that too, you know, like it's very
(14:44):
expensive and it's not like they used to be that
you think, you go to college and you go get
a job. Not anymore. Um, So it was falling apart,
and these people took the streets and the whole generation
kind of grow into being part of the Congress and
blah blah blah, and then take different positions and now
it's like the final stage of taking over power. And
(15:06):
that's that reason why I met them, because at the
beginning of all the social movement, I was doing stand
up in all this uh the the I mean, I
don't know how to call them, like rallies or student rallies.
The student movement you were part of. You were a
comedian of the student movement, of which exact an early leader, right,
So that's how I met them. It's it's been insane
(15:27):
then to see these people or that you were like
eating a hotdog and you know, having a beer. Then
they're like the government. Uh, it's it's pretty wild. Um
and and and and and now, especially during the negration,
was very emotional to see, like I think for a
whole generation to you see these people grown with you.
(15:48):
It's like you see your friends and then they have
better jobs and then they get married and it's like,
but this is our national TV. So it was pretty
wild and fun to be in that celebra ration that
sounds really great and a really good time. It is interesting,
like you know, in the US, also, education is totally screwed.
(16:10):
To go to college is it? Somehow became astronomically more
expensive than it was for our parents, and yet somehow
we didn't really do anything about it. We haven't been
taking to the streets. You don't hear student protests. Do
you hear people whining on social media about how Joe
Biden should cancel their debt. But we haven't managed to
get organized in the way that it seems like Chile did.
(16:31):
The younger generation than me already took care of that
in Chile, and somehow we haven't done it. I wonder
what we're what we're missing here in the US. Maybe
we just don't have a tradition of protest on that order.
We have other problems we've been protesting. I'm not sure
certainly we should take a memo here. Yeah, I think
there's something very interesting there. And once again it's like
(16:54):
Chilian president right now, the Biena who was still in
power until March. He's seven four, and then this guy,
next guy thirty five. It's a little bit great to
see that in the US changed someone's like eighty one
to someone that he's like, I don't know, thirties seven. Oh,
it's it's so good just to see that, even if
(17:16):
he's if I don't know how the government's gonna go,
but is that ready? Like finally, you know, it's highly
highly refreshing. And so this guy when he pops up
in American social media bar which he's wearing a Nirvana
T shirt, he's got the nine inch nails hat. There's
a lot of photos of him as a fan of
(17:37):
he's he's a big tool. Okay, okay, I like that strong.
There's something to it. You know, like, I don't know,
I don't like Tool, but I think, yeah, it's it's
kind of cool to see a guy with a hat
of nine inch nails then becoming the president of a country.
I don't love Tool, but I don't want the president
(17:59):
to be listening to like IMO stuff. You know, I
wanted something strong and Tool is uh will work for that. Okay,
(18:20):
So it's also great. Yeah, you know, the thirty five
year old guy is really good. Love that he loves Tool.
So five I saw something who was somebody on Twitter,
person named Lilah on Twitter tweeted the absolute range of
millennial world leaders. And it's a picture of Boris, a
picture of Santa Marion, the Prime Minister of Finland, who
(18:42):
famously recently left her cell phone at the club. And
then it's the Prince of I'm not sure if it's
Ben Solomon or his son, the Prince of Saudi Arabia.
And then it's Kim John On or Kim the current
Kim ruler of North Korea. And these are the these
are the under forty world leaders we have now they
(19:03):
left out just into art and of New Zealand, who's
doing apparently doing a great job but we've got a
pretty interesting range of hipster world leaders now. And I
think I think hipster is a fair term here because
I was thinking about hipster, what the hipster even means?
You know, Boris has got a beard, He's a mellow guy,
he's not super masculine. He dresses kind of casually, which
(19:24):
I think are all kind of hipster things. He looks
like he's into some interesting music whatever, bookele you can.
I was like, what is what do we even mean
by hipster? Well, booke sort of looks like a club dude.
If you wear a shiny shirt and you like slick
your hair back, you're definitely not a hipster, right, You're
he looks like he's listening to Peo or something. I
don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's not shopping the record
(19:47):
shops and reading interesting magazines and talking about ideas. He's like,
he's exactly a dude. Uh And yeah, Boris, I don't
think he's that guy. I don't think that guy. I
would say that definitely there's a hipster look at him.
He is a part of a generation that is pretty
(20:08):
much he looks he looks like his generation. That Once again,
it's so important for a president to like look like
someone that you know, I feel like, of course you
need that, you you you need some of that in government.
And once again I want to talk about the team
around him, because uh, there's one character that we talked
(20:28):
about her before. She's called during the craziness of the pandemic,
she was the president of the I don't know how
to say it, but it's like the College of Medicine,
but that is like an institution of doctors who talk
outside government. Is not a government governmental, but they advised
(20:50):
to government. And she became a very important character is Kia.
And then yes, pictures of her up and she's always
wearing the same thing, a sort of whitish coat over
like a black shirt. And she decided she decided to
quit her job and go with with with the borage
(21:14):
in this in the runoff, and she started doing these
live streams and she just had a baby. So she
did give a speech like I was I was staring
at the face of my daughter, and I was like,
I need to do this for my country and for her.
And she take a bus all over there, like you know,
I mean all the north of Chile, just going all
(21:36):
the way to Arica all the way back to Santiago
in a bus touring and talking with people and like,
I don't know, convincing everyone with the baby. So she
was doing live streams, uh, breastfeeding the baby and be like,
we're here in this town and she's a doctor. Her
skin is exactly the skin of female women, and I
(21:57):
feel like she looks very much like a lot of
woman from Chile. She's the perfect person to be the
next president. I think she's ready to be the expression
she I'm reading her Wikipedia. She she looks amazing for
similar to Borich, She's she's not like it's a little
weird to talk about a woman, but we know we're
talking about politicians that are public figures. She's not so
(22:19):
stunningly gorgeous that she should be a model, but she's
very appealing, you know. Like that would be my take
on her competent her same as Bard. If I if
I hadn't seen my friend John in a while and
then I met him at a party, He's like, this
is my girlfriend. He's cap sure, that's what she looks like.
And she's doing a great job of like you know,
(22:39):
becoming the kind of bachelorate kind of character for for Chile,
for the next generation of Chilean's and she was so
important for for the Boradge campaign, and she's going to
be in government for sure. Uh. And I don't know,
I feel like that those characacters I think they're not
that many in the US politics weirdness that you don't know,
(23:02):
you don't see anyone like looks like the people who
are in Congress in the US. Yeah, what's going on
with that? I mean, like, I'm looking at these hyper
competent thirty five year olds that are in Chile, and
they seem adults, they seem mature. And we have some
you know, we've got AOC I guess, and then we
have Pete Buddha Jedge, who's sort of like a creation
of establishment politics. He doesn't he doesn't really like broken
(23:24):
free of anything. And then you've got a few fringe
characters like Cawthorne or whatever, these kind of Uh, they
don't seem like adults, they seem like fanatics. And here
in Chile, somehow these people are. They seem sensible, they
seem balanced, they seem competent, there's nothing extreme about them. Uh.
(23:47):
How do you think that generation got created in Chile?
In a way that it didn't seem whatever is happening
in the US. The country's president's eighty something or seventy nine.
They Speaker of the House is eighty something. That spring
it is all eighty year olds. It's it's Mitch McConnell's,
however old he is. This is the United States is
an old person run country at this point, despite our
(24:09):
rep as being this vital, youthful kind of place, it's
it hasn't emerged. And now in Chile there's a whole
generation that's taken the reins of power. It seems to
be happening in other countries New Zealand, Finland. It's going on.
What what are we missing here? What can we do
to get on to inspire a generation that will take
the reins. I have no idea, I just I just
(24:30):
feel that here there was yeah social movement that happened
with the students movement, and then all the generation in
the middle, like the people who are forty five, you know,
they kind of never like killed their dad in a way,
you know, they never did take that step of taking
over power, and they just wait and we all know
(24:52):
that baby boomers, they don't give you a chance, don't.
They don't. They don't want you there. Uh. They get
used you uh for some stuff, But honestly, they don't
want you to take over power. They want you to
do you like a kid. So I feel like they
they attached themselves from the system and then they inserted
(25:12):
themselves in the system when they already have enough power,
and maybe that was the difference. I remember reading a
book called Power, Why Some People Have It and Others
Don't buy Jeffrey Pifer, professor at Stanford Business School, And
one of the takeaways I got from the book is like,
power is never nobody ever gives it to you. It's
not like somebody says, here, I want you to have
(25:33):
some power. The power is always something you have to take.
You have to go and get it. Maybe it was
power No no, no, people like it as as they haven't.
Even if they even it corrupts them and turns them
into monsters, they don't ever want to give it away. Okay,
So you are a comedian, You're you make your living
(25:54):
as a funny man, and you know a comedian can't
really be You might have to make choice. Here are
you gonna be okay with making fun of Boris, Are
you gonna be Will you be making jokes about him
now that he's the president? Will you rib him when
he gets out of line because he will make mistakes?
Come on, Well, last night I have my first show, uh,
(26:15):
in the new boridg Era, and my first thing I
said up on stage is like, well, I think we
finally can make fun of him. No, it's like, I
think now we're free to make fun of him. And
it works really well. It works really well. Well. There
was a running running joke for many years about Biea,
(26:38):
the current president, to have short arms. So every suit
he's his hands were disappearing under this suit, and Uh,
I was like, Boridge also have short arms. Let's stuck
about it. A take that. So I think, yeah, I'm
(27:02):
questioning power. I'm I think I'm I'm putting there against
the wall. I think you always have to make fun
of them. I think that's the only way. Uh. I
don't think you read you can. You can make funny
different ways, you know, Like, of course it's not the
same to make fun of someone that you think morally
they're disgusting. At the same make fun of someone that
(27:24):
you do you think you're not they're not doing a
great job. Yeah, well, I mean I would say I
would say most of my life the most fun that
I had, like really evil monster Trump or something. It's
not not actually that fun to make fun of. It
doesn't catch you anywhere. The affectionate fun or making fun
of someone you know pretty well but has certain flaws,
(27:45):
as we all do. That is really where you get
your laughs and excitement. You know, it's from from the tension.
So that I think the fact that you like borrig
and that he's sort of a friend of yours could
be good for your comedy and you could have a
valuable role to play here. And once again, it's like
they with the trumpy characters, every time you make fun
of them, you also feel like you're you're you're talking
(28:07):
with them, You're talking, you're you're bringing them to the world.
So it's funny because every time you make fun of
like these weird extremists in every side, you know, it
can be like left right there are on YouTube and
you make fun of them, you're actually helping them. So yeah,
it's it's a tricky situation. And yeah, I'd rather just
(28:30):
make fun of his arms. In the meantime, just waiting
to start with his arms and we'll work our way
up from there. Well, that's a pretty good report. What's
going on. So you're down there in Chile, you're gonna
be celebrating or is the celebration lasted? Today's Tuesday as
we're recording. Has has the partying in the streets come
to an end? What was just one crazy night? Uh?
(28:53):
Because it was. It was a Sunday. I think everyone
went home very early, but still it was. It was
a crazy feign party in the streets. Now back to normal. Uh,
the all the meetings are happening, All the transition blah
blah blah is happening. Everyone talking about who's going to
be in government in which position blah blah blah. So
(29:13):
let's see, we have a couple of days to know
the new generation then next gen of this government. And
of course if you want to know about that, this
is the place for you. This is the podcast. We'll
have it for you every week. We'll be back next
week with some exciting updates. I think we have a
special guest episode coming up, and we will continue to
(29:34):
bring you the news from the future is coming from
South America, and we've got it for year here and
four from the South. Hit us up on Twitter and
Gmail for From the South both places. Thanks so much.
I love that we have a man at the center
of the news. Great to have you here and we'll
see you guys next week. Four from the South is
hosted by Me, Steve Healey, and Fabrizio Capano. Robert O'Shaughnessy
(29:55):
is our producer. Original theme song by Amy Stolsenbach. Four
from the South is production of Exile Content Studio in
partnership with I Heart Radio is Michael Toura podcast Network.
For more podcasts or my Heart, visit the I Heart
Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. M
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