In this episode, David Reaboi discusses his journey from resisting Florida to embracing it and the impact of personal relationships with art and creativity. The Karol Markowicz Show is part of the Clay Travis & buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
A week ago, in my monologue, I talked about how
I think bystanderism is one of the largest cultural problems
we face, that people don't step in when they see
something bad happening that they were able to stop, and
of course even worse the modern problem where they just
(00:32):
kind of stand around and film it. And then on
Thursday's show, I monologued about the frat boys who protected
the flag at UNC Chapel Hill and how America just
fell in love with them. Last I looked, the GoFundMe
for them was over four hundred and fifty two thousand dollars.
(00:53):
And I said on Thursday that we needed this, We
needed to see people step in and be here and
remind us how it's done, because it wasn't that long
ago that we thought of that as what should happen
when something goes wrong. And you know, I pointed to
nine to eleven. But I also lived in New York
(01:14):
during the blackout of two thousand and three, and people
wanted to help, They wanted to step in. They got
on the street and they directed traffic, They helped old
ladies carry their bags. I mean, I talked about this already,
but it really showed me something and I thought that
that's how it was always going to be. But like
I said in the first episode about this, people are
(01:34):
afraid because they've seen people get targeted for it. Daniel
Penny in New York stepped in to save a subway
car full of people and now is a waiting trial
for killing a man. And I think a lot of
people are waiting for the inevitable backlash right now. The
milkshake ducking of the Boys as it's called when someone
(01:55):
becomes instantly famous and their old tweets get calmed through
to find something. But that's the whole thing we know,
and they knew there are risks to stepping in. These
boys did it anyway, and we should all follow their example.
People are hungry for heroes, and I think we can
(02:15):
overcome the risks that people face when they step in
by making it something that we expect to happen, something
that we prefer happen. If the boys do get targeted
for protecting the American flag from being torn down on
their college campus, then we should be the ones who
step in for them. We should protect them. We should
defend them. It will be a better society and that
(02:37):
should be our overall goal. Coming up next and interview
with David Reboy. Join us after the break.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. My
guest today is Claremont fellow and podcaster at Late Republic Nonsense.
David Reboy.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Hi, David, Hi, It's great to be with you.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Really nice to have you. I was actually just thinking,
I absolutely never call you Dave like you are David
one hundred percent of the time.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Is that really?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Is that the case for everybody or no?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Well, that was the case growing up, and then at
some point around middle school, I had one friend that
started to call me Dave, and then that just kind
of took off. So we have usually it's women who
say David and guys who say Dave.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, I almost always refer to you as Reboy, but
if I'm already saying your first name, it's going to
be David. It just you know, we have more than
one David and our group of friends in Florida, and uh, usually, yeah,
it's easier to just do last names at that point,
but I actually do last names for all the guys
I don't know. Maybe I'm having some realizations here as
(03:48):
I introduce you. So you are a South Florida pioneer.
I owe you a lot of credit for changing my
mind on Florida, or not even changing my mind on Florida,
opening my eyes to Florida. And I really do think
you were the impetus for a lot of people making
(04:09):
the move. You were just already in Florida. You were
talking about how amazing it was. So how does it
feel to be so right?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It feels. It feels great to be vindicated. It feels
great to be right about something you know that seems
got in retrospect so obvious. But I mean I didn't.
I I know, I've been talking about how wonderful Florida
is for a number of years, But truth be told,
I was resistant to coming here for decades, right because
(04:42):
my yeah, yeah, I mean, my my grandparents started to
be snowbirds here when I was a year old, and
my family, my parents and my sister has decided to
move down here in two thousand.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And so you were like, absolutely not.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
I said absolutely. My grandparents would say I'll move to Florida,
so nice, You'll be with you your family and I
would say, but you know, Grandma, Florida doesn't have you know,
hipster coffee shops. It doesn't have you know, wrap house theaters.
It doesn't have you know, great bookstores and and jazz
clubs and all the things that were essential to my
(05:20):
life at that time when I lived in New York
or in San Francisco and and you know, these are
the things that that I wanted, that that to me
made living in a city, uh essential, right at that
particular point in point in my life. And then you know,
and then things changed.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So was it Florida the change or was it that
you need it didn't need those things.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Honestly, I think I think it was a little. I
think it was a little of both. I definitely changed.
You know, when I was a kid, the thing that
I wanted the most in the world was to live
in a loft, in a you know, huge industrial loft.
And so that's just what I wanted when I was
twelve years old. And I got that not in Soho,
(06:04):
but you know, in Bushwick. And then I really got
it in Dallas, where I lived in deep Ellum in
a giant, beautiful loft. And then Donald Trump won the
election in twenty sixteen, and I said, wait, I have
to go back to d c because it's going to
(06:25):
be like the wild West, and many of my friends
are going to be working in the administration and I
need to be there. And it was an important lesson
because here I was at that time in Dallas in
the most beautiful apartment that I've ever had.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I remember it so tru clearly. I really remember that. Yeah,
it was just from the picture.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, it was amazing. It was the kind of place
that you just wanted to sit and just take pictures
of all day. And on one hand, it was great
and I had that and it was wonderful, but then
I really that I had. I celebrated my fortieth birthday
at the same week that that that Donald Trump won
in twenty sixteen, and and many of my friends came
(07:11):
from all over the country to join me in celebrating,
and I realized it was like, why am I here
in Dallas where I know next to no one while
all my friends are, you know, scattered around.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
And why were you? Actually was it a girl?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
It was? But it was like, hey, let's move to Dallas.
So we moved to Dallas because Dallas was bigger, than Austin,
and and we thought, hey, maybe you know, bigger is
better and yeah, and you know, so that was a
big lesson. And the lesson is that you know, you
(07:52):
have to go where your friends are. And and I'd
already by that point I probably picked up and moved
to a new place fourteen times in my life before then. Literally,
so I was, you know, you get tired, You're like,
you know what the home is, where your people are
at the end of the day. And when I my
(08:16):
grandparents passed away in twenty seventeen and I started coming
down here to Florida and using their apartment. I was
living in DC, and every time I would go back
after spending you know, several wonderful days living like I'm retired,
you know, playing shuffleboard, going to the beach, going to
the gym. At one pm, I would go back to
(08:36):
DC and I would say, what's wrong with me? Why
am I going back to this cold you know nonsense?
And so I decided to move down here, and that
was in early twenty nineteen, and to be honest with you,
I almost left. I enjoyed it great for six months,
and then I said, I'm kind of lonely. Because nobody's
(08:58):
here then yeah, and you're no more right and you know,
so that was that was a kind of big deal.
And the way I refer I've moved around so often
in life, the way I refer to Florida now is
the final destination.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I love that states. I have a friend that makes
a joke like Jews moving to Florida.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
No way.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
You know, yeah, never heard of it, but.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yes, it makes sense as the destination. And I also
just can't see leaving. It's funny because you make fun
of me because you said, oh, I said that to
you recently, like, oh, I can't you know I would
never leave Florida And you were like, well, you never
saw yourself leaving New York either, which is true. I actually,
if I can give myself credit, it's that I did
leave New York, even though I was so committed to
(09:45):
it and I loved it so much and I was
so sure that I wouldn't. But when it was time
to go, it was time to go. And I think
that that's an important lesson that I will try to
in part to my kids. Sometimes it's time to leave.
So you mentioned you go to the gym. This is
a thing you do.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, I go. I go when I can.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And if you're listening to this on audio, David is
a bodybuilder and so that's why it's it's funny that yes,
of course he goes to the gym. So can you
tell us a little bit about the bodybuilding journey and
how you got into it?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Sure. So it's something that I've kind of always wanted
to do, but I never I never sat down and
kind of did it right. And there's the right way
to do it, and there's the wrong way to do it,
or or let's put it more specifically, there's an easy
way to do it, which is when you think things
out and plan and and you know, apply energy and
(10:38):
and and and discipline to something. And then there's the
other thing, which is like, hey, let's just you know,
make a mess and and then you know, and then
the people who go and they do it in then
make a mess mode are always surprised that, you know,
that they don't see results or you know, or and
(10:59):
then and then what ends up happening is they abandon
it because they think, oh, this is impossible, this is
not for me. I can't you know, I'll never be
able to do this. It's too hard, you know, when
in fact, it's a lot harder to go into things
willy nilly without a plan and without being organized. And
it took me a long time to get there.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
So when you first started, you you did do it
the wrong way.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Of course I did it the wrong way for like
eight years.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
What would you say to somebody, right, So, what would
you say to somebody who wanted to get started? What
would what advice would you give them?
Speaker 3 (11:37):
I would say Number one is I would go and
I would find a good coach. And there's a big
difference between a coach and a trainer. Everybody kind of
knows a trainer. A trainer, you know, will you will
show up with you at the gym and sort of
teach you how to do things, and that's fine, that's okay.
But a coach will have a comprehensive approach to whatever
(12:01):
your goals are. And especially if you go and you
find someone who who is a competing bodybuilder, they will know, like, okay,
I have to go from point you know A to B,
you know, to get on stage, to get in shape
over a you know, specified amount of time. So that
person is always going to be a lot more results
(12:24):
oriented results focused than than just a trainer. I mean,
the trainer is happy to take your money every week,
right so and and be your you know, and be
your you know, amateur psychiatrist while you make no progress.
And that's I mean, that's not sliding people who are trainers.
That's just saying, like, you.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Know, I always saw the trainer as like you pay
them to make yourself show up. You know, like once
you've paid your trainer, like you have, you have to go,
Like you can't not go. You've paid somebody already. It's
the same, you know, same concept as like signing up
for exercise classes. But if if you have somebody who
does not work out, I mean I'm pretty open about it.
(13:04):
I don't work out, not that I'm planning to start so,
but I'm just asking how does somebody like find a coach,
for example, if they're not planning to be bodybuilders, if
they're just wanting to get out on a working out journey.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
I would set a goal higher, and I would set
a goal that's a little more concrete, like I want
to look like X, you know y or is it
you know, like maybe I want to do you know,
maybe I do want to compete, or maybe I want
to get to the point where I could just maybe
compete if I wanted to. That's I think that's the
(13:38):
thing to do, you know. I ideally, Yes, I made
a mistake by not going and you know, at least
trying to compete, so sooner I should have done that,
you know, two years into.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
It and you did it because it Yeah, you did.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
I did. I did it in twenty twenty, twenty twenty two,
and I'm going to do it again before the end
of the year. And it was a great experience. It
was hard, but it was one of those things where
it's like it's hard, but it's not impossible, and those
are the things that are most rewarding, you know, hard
but not impossible.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So you do all these things. You have a podcast,
you write, you compete in bodybuilding competitions. Do you feel
like you've made it?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
I make trouble on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
You make a lot of trouble on Twitter. We'll get
to that. But do you feel like you've made it?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
No? I mean, am I am I content? Am I happy? No?
Do I want more?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yes? I thought you were going to be like, am
I content? Am I happy? Yes? But I don't feel
like I've made it.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
I'm not content or happy, so right, right, right, it's
against my nature to be either content or happy. But no,
But I mean the bottom line is I think I
mean to be to be completely serious for a moment.
Is the world, the universe that we work in is
(15:05):
changing so fast and technology is changed. I mean that's
kind of of a piece with the way technology changes
in social media and things like that. How do people
take on information? What kinds of information do they take on?
You know, I mean people aren't reading anymore, you know,
they're seeing teets, tweets are passing off. I mean, you know,
(15:28):
you are a you know, I mean, you write columns.
You know, there was there was the old joke. I'm
forgetting who told it, or maybe it was an observation
that you know, at first we were reading big, long books,
and then we started to read book reviews and you
know articles, and from the articles we got to be
(15:52):
to read you know, tweets. And now we're basically at
the meme at the mean portion of you know of
things where we just kind of grunt, right, you know,
to to you know, to to one another, and and
and you know, maybe you know, we'll be using hands
and signals and and things like that. So the marketplace,
(16:13):
let's say, the intellectual marketplace, is changing, and I don't
think it's changing for the better. So one of the
things that I've been thinking about a lot is like,
where do I see myself and what I do and
you know, what my friends and colleagues do, right, you know,
like where can we have the most impact? And there's
(16:35):
a you know, there's wanting to have some impact and
to do and two, you know, do something great for
you know, the world and our people and and and
and things like that. On one hand, On the other
hand is we have to do what we like because
I mean, now, you know, if someone showed up tomorrow
and said, hey, you need to make feature films, it's
(16:57):
a little bit you know, beyond what you know what
to what I be particularly interested in doing.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I feel like you could totally do that. I feel
like if I had to say which of your friends
could make feature films tomorrow, I'd like David Reeboy could
make future films tomorrow. You have a very like artistic vision.
One of the questions I ask on this show a
lot is like, what would be your plan be in life?
Like if you weren't doing this like it's something fun,
(17:23):
not like you know, not like a writer in a
different sense or whatever. But I could totally I've said
this to you before. I could see you being specifically
an interior designer for men. You make these amazing, you know,
design spaces. I think you do such a good job
of making masculine design spaces, and I almost don't think
that should be a joke. I think you should go
(17:44):
do that. And I could see you making feature films
and making arty work.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, I mean I appreciate that. Look, I would love
to do it. I would love to do design. I
mean I could never be an interior designer of any
of any quality because you're called upon to do a
variety of different esthetic sensibilities.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
And you're doing this, and that's it, right, right, I'm like,
I know what you want, but no, you can't have it.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
You can't have it, right, Which, at the end of
the day is the theme of my life, I think,
which is that I will I will I refuse to
give people what they want. I want to give them
what I I want to give them what I think
is good for them, as as opposed to you know,
the candy that they that they think they want, and
you know, maybe that's a personality defect. It's certainly a
(18:37):
career defect, you know, but it is it is the
way it is.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
That's I mean, that's a very interesting observation about yourself,
that you give people what you want to give them,
and not not necessarily what they want from you. You know,
I didn't get paid by your mom to say this,
but I think that, you know, having a missus reeboy,
would really change that perspective. It would, you know, if
you if you were married, you would realize that you
have to just sometimes give the people what they want.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Right. No, No, I I I understand that. I understand that,
and I'm sure my mom is putting the check in
the mail.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Markoitz Show. You write about culture,
you talk about culture, and I like to ask my guests,
what do you think is the largest cultural problem that
we face?
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Man, It's funny every year I think I would say
something different.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
What is it right now?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Right now? Lately, it's it's just it's just it feels
like it feels like people out there have gotten, have
lived like lebotomized themselves. And I really think we're in
an era of increasing ridiculousness, increasing stupidity. It's popular, it's
(19:55):
been popular for forever to talk about, you know, the
the rancorousness and you know, people hating one another and
stuff like that. And yeah, I mean, sure there's a
certain amount of of of truth to that. But even
more damaging is the is the it's just like low
IQ city out there on the on the on the
(20:16):
political landscape, and and uh, you know, so, I mean
I think I think that's a big problem. If we're
getting more specific and we're talking about our people, talking
about like the American political right for example, I think, uh,
one of the major problems, maybe not the biggest, but
(20:38):
the one that that that upsets me a lot is
the fact that we're just culturally illiterate and we're not
interested in you know, really, you know, we're just not
interested in in in anything interesting cultural. And sure we
can say that, you know, donors don't want to fund things,
(21:01):
and you know that's true, but donors don't want to
fund things because the people don't want it.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
I don't know, I feel like donors are open to
suggestion and if people came up with a good pitch
to have cultural funding. I feel like a lot of
donors are always looking for places to put their money,
and so I think it just needs to be pitched
or maybe just introduced to donors better. But I agree.
(21:28):
I think the cultural illiteracy is a big problem, and
I think that we step out of culture so often
on the right. You could see it in so many
different ways, just not wanting to participate, like I just
say something dumb, but like Taylor Swift hatred, like I don't.
You don't have to like Taylor Swift music. That's fine,
and again she's a big lib totally understand, but like
(21:50):
to hate her to be like I, you know, she's
destroying American families. I mean, this is where it ends
up going. And it's just what are you doing. She's
got a hold on all these teenage girls and you're
just going to, like, you know, make sure that they
hate you. It's it's a it's a weird place we get.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
To, right. Well. Look, I mean I don't listen to
Taylor Swift, but I'm also aware that, but I listened
to music all day long. Yeah, and I watch films
and and you know. I mean there's a certain amount
of you know, complaining that I do about the quality
of entertainment out there, But it doesn't affect me that
(22:32):
much because I know that there's a there's one hundred
years of cinema history to catch up on. Yeah, I
think on the right where where you know, we sit
around and we say, oh, this show is so woke,
this is terrible, this is what you know, this this
sport is woke, and et cetera, et cetera. What are
you gonna do? Okay, well, I guess I'm gonna have
to suffer and watch the idea that the idea that
(22:55):
you can go on Amazon or the Criterion Channel or
something like that and see a really good film, right,
rather than waste your time watching the dumb thing that
everyone is talking about on Netflix. I mean that doesn't
occur to a lot of people, though it should.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, I mean, maybe you should have like an arts
you know, I don't know. I'm not telling you to
take on another project.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
I try to. I try to do that. I try
to introduce people to music that they.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Probably I've seen it, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
And jazz and Brazilian music and other things like that,
and you.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Know, I looked up something that you you recommended one time.
People do I mean they do, you know, maybe I
didn't like tell you, but yeah, something resilient.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
It feels like it's met. It does feel like it's
met with indifference, you know, to be honest, because people want,
you know, they want the dopamine hit of you know,
Republicans good, Democrats bad, and like, yeah, of course I agree,
you know, Republicans are better, you know better, Democrats bad.
(23:56):
But there's just a lot more to life. There's a
lot more to life. I mean, one of the things
that I love bringing it back to Florida for a second,
one of the things I love about this place is
that or when I moved here, I was like, Okay, great,
I won't have to fight the weather m And people
don't realize what a huge thing that is huge constantly
(24:19):
fighting the weather all the time. And I mean for
people with like you know, seasonal locute depression to wake
up in the morning and the sun is shining almost
every day, yep, yeah, I mean, it's I mean, you know,
it's it's it's it's wonderful. And I don't understand how
people can kind of take or leave that. I guess
(24:41):
it's a personality thing. There are folks who live in
Alaska and.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, and people in the world. I'm not one of
those people. The weather was always a minus for me
in New York. Like I loved everything about New York,
but the weather was like it was never right. It
was always like a little off, you know, it was full,
and it was like, oh, it's full, and now it's
a cold but maybe or maybe hot. It just it's
never it never felt correct to me. So I love
(25:08):
New York despite the weather. But so every day in
Florida and I feel like people complain about the heat
and we've had like a really chilly winter, like it's
still is not as warm as I would like it personally.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
So I heard from the start. Yeah, yeah, right, no,
I mean I hear you. Let me ask you a question.
Let's say I show up with the time machine. Yeah,
and I say I could take you back to New
York nineteen ninety seven, Right, do you go? Do you go? Well,
(25:43):
it's tough, easy New York four.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Oh, you're totally right. So the thing is New York
nineteen ninety seven. I'm single, I don't have kids. It
was amazing, it was a magical time. I would even
say in the early days. My oldest was born in
twenty ten, and we lived in Manhattan for the first
two kids. And when I kind of feel warm and
(26:08):
fuzzy about New York, it's not that end period in
Park Slope where we actually achieved our immigrant dream of
having a townhouse in Park Slope. It's it's the living
in like the one my husband's like bachelor apartment on
the Upper West Side, and having two kids and taking
them to the nearby park. And I mean, is it
nineteen ninety seven New York was amazing, but I didn't
(26:29):
have a family, and I don't know what that would
be like in nineteen ninety seven New York and I
graduated college in ninety nine. So I feel like that
that whole time period after things really got good in
the early two thousands, it was like the best time
for New York. It was really alive and safe. It
was really really safe, which you know they managed to undo, Yes.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yes they did. I don't know. I thought when I
left New York in two thousand and three, I was like,
this place is over. This place, Oh, it's over. It's
never going to be like it was it's never going
to be like it was in the nineties. And I
could see that.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, it wasn't like the nineties. It wasn't as unique
and independent as the nineties. But the safety, you really
can't overlook that. The fact that you could like walk
around New York at any time and feel a real
sense of security. It's that's it's a draw.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Well by then, by then we were starting to take
it for granted.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Oh yeah, justification, you know, yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yeah, yeah. By by two thousand, two thousand and one,
two thousand and two, we were starting to take the
safety of the city for granted, for sure, and we
just assumed it was always going to be safe. You know.
After Juliana came Bloomberg, and he you know, he contained that.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, so five terms altogether of like normalcy and safety
and you know, kind of again normal ish policies. I mean,
Bloomberg had his wacky stuff, as did Giuliani, but in general,
it was like not crazy ideas, like let's not prosecute criminals.
So do you feel like Florida is in its heyday?
(28:17):
This is going longer than my normal interviews go, just
because you know, super interested. Okay, so I'll ask you
two more questions. One is, do you feel like Florida
is in its nineteen nineties New York moment where everything
is just blooming and amazing.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
I think so. I the history of Florida is interesting
because this is really the first time that we've had
a statewide boom, like like we're going through now. There
have been booms from Miami or for Orlando or Tampa
(28:56):
and places like that where you know, people come from
you know, different parts of the country and you know
it gets a little more expensive and there's more amenities
and and things like that. But really this is this
is this boom is affecting you know, small towns in
the middle of Florida.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Right.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Everyone wants to be here. Everyone wants to be here,
and of course with that come all kinds of problems
because you know, this is this is reality we're dealing with.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Right.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
So, you know, you do have you do have prices
going up, you do have more traffic, you do have
you know, quality of life things that that are a
little bit you know harder now than you know they
would have been five ten years ago. But on the
(29:47):
other hand, is now you you just have an optimism
and an energy that that that I haven't seen here before.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, I feel it.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
And yeah, yeah, absolutely feel it. Every day going around.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
People are just so excited to be here. They're like,
I said this somewhere else recently. But the people that
moved here, I feel like in the last four years,
especially like they moved for I don't want to say
a movement, but it really is some it's like ideological.
It's not just for the weather and the taxes. It's
it's like they came here to be something, to do
(30:25):
something together. You can sense it everywhere.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yes, it's definitely New Florida, New Florida, the Free State
of Florida. But it's definitely New Florida because it's not
the place that it once was. I mean, now, when
you meet somebody, one of the first things you asked
is when you get here? Yes, number one regretted it. Yeah, right,
(30:51):
you know are you? You? Are you? Kind of you? Have?
You been here for thirty years? You know almost nobody
was born here.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Right, I do meet a killbody? Yes, yeah, but that
is a question. It's like it's a gauge. Right, you
came in the last four years. I know right away
that you and I are going to align pretty closely
on a lot of things. I just it's it's you know,
it's a known thing. So okay, I'm gonna my final
(31:17):
question and hear your best tip for my listeners on
how they can improve their lives.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Oh my gosh, that's a hard one. I mean, I'll
say I'll say the easy thing. No, No, I'll say
the thing that I believe is most true. I think
more people should have a personal relationship with art and
the creative process.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Wow. I thought you were going to say God, and
I was going to be like, wow, I what Okay,
relationship with art. No, that makes a lot of sense. Okay,
go ahead, continue.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
I mean, you know, you know, in lieu of in
lieu of the divine, you know, create activity is definitely
in that in that category because at the end of
the day, you're creating something from nothing right and learning
how that process works, how that mysterious process works through
a variety of tiny micro decisions that are completely imperceptible
(32:18):
most mostly is completely imperceptible to you. You know what
leads you. You know, you're you're making a painting, you're
writing something, You're you're creating another you're creating a piece
of music. What are the things that are going or
here or beyond that that influence you into into doing
(32:40):
these things. A lot of people will will talk online,
especially about you know, they'll they'll go and have photos
of old cathedrals and you know, Renaissance art and things
like that and Caravaggio, and yes, of course they're beautiful. Yeah,
I mean, who doesn't love that? But when you kind
(33:02):
of venerate that too much as a as an aesthetic ideal,
I think I think you're giving short trip to the
creative process, which everybody would, in my opinion, would benefit
from being more engaged with. So what does that mean
(33:24):
on a practical level, Try to create something from nothing,
see how it goes. And if you create something from
nothing every day or every week, and it could be
a piece of writing, it could be music, it could
be you know, you could be playing around in photoshop. Yeah,
see how that goes, and see how that will kind
(33:46):
of change the way you think. Because I think it
really I think it really does. And exploring your own creativity,
you know, and if you've got kids and you know
other folks like that, you know, certainly get them to
get them to do it because a love of art
and you know, creative things from you know, music to cinema,
(34:07):
to books to to what have you. They can be
life changing.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Thank you so much. He is David Reeboy. Check out
his Late Republic Nonsense podcast. Really love talking to you.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Thank you, David, Thank you, thanks so much for joining
us on The Carol Marcowitch Show. Subscribe wherever you get
your podcast
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
A week ago, in my monologue, I talked about how
I think bystanderism is one of the largest cultural problems
we face, that people don't step in when they see
something bad happening that they were able to stop, and
of course even worse the modern problem where they just
(00:32):
kind of stand around and film it. And then on
Thursday's show, I monologued about the frat boys who protected
the flag at UNC Chapel Hill and how America just
fell in love with them. Last I looked, the GoFundMe
for them was over four hundred and fifty two thousand dollars.
(00:53):
And I said on Thursday that we needed this, We
needed to see people step in and be here and
remind us how it's done, because it wasn't that long
ago that we thought of that as what should happen
when something goes wrong. And you know, I pointed to
nine to eleven. But I also lived in New York
(01:14):
during the blackout of two thousand and three, and people
wanted to help, They wanted to step in. They got
on the street and they directed traffic, They helped old
ladies carry their bags. I mean, I talked about this already,
but it really showed me something and I thought that
that's how it was always going to be. But like
I said in the first episode about this, people are
(01:34):
afraid because they've seen people get targeted for it. Daniel
Penny in New York stepped in to save a subway
car full of people and now is a waiting trial
for killing a man. And I think a lot of
people are waiting for the inevitable backlash right now. The
milkshake ducking of the Boys as it's called when someone
(01:55):
becomes instantly famous and their old tweets get calmed through
to find something. But that's the whole thing we know,
and they knew there are risks to stepping in. These
boys did it anyway, and we should all follow their example.
People are hungry for heroes, and I think we can
(02:15):
overcome the risks that people face when they step in
by making it something that we expect to happen, something
that we prefer happen. If the boys do get targeted
for protecting the American flag from being torn down on
their college campus, then we should be the ones who
step in for them. We should protect them. We should
defend them. It will be a better society and that
(02:37):
should be our overall goal. Coming up next and interview
with David Reboy. Join us after the break.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. My
guest today is Claremont fellow and podcaster at Late Republic Nonsense.
David Reboy.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Hi, David, Hi, It's great to be with you.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Really nice to have you. I was actually just thinking,
I absolutely never call you Dave like you are David
one hundred percent of the time.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Is that really?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Is that the case for everybody or no?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Well, that was the case growing up, and then at
some point around middle school, I had one friend that
started to call me Dave, and then that just kind
of took off. So we have usually it's women who
say David and guys who say Dave.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, I almost always refer to you as Reboy, but
if I'm already saying your first name, it's going to
be David. It just you know, we have more than
one David and our group of friends in Florida, and uh, usually, yeah,
it's easier to just do last names at that point,
but I actually do last names for all the guys
I don't know. Maybe I'm having some realizations here as
(03:48):
I introduce you. So you are a South Florida pioneer.
I owe you a lot of credit for changing my
mind on Florida, or not even changing my mind on Florida,
opening my eyes to Florida. And I really do think
you were the impetus for a lot of people making
(04:09):
the move. You were just already in Florida. You were
talking about how amazing it was. So how does it
feel to be so right?
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It feels. It feels great to be vindicated. It feels
great to be right about something you know that seems
got in retrospect so obvious. But I mean I didn't.
I I know, I've been talking about how wonderful Florida
is for a number of years, But truth be told,
I was resistant to coming here for decades, right because
(04:42):
my yeah, yeah, I mean, my my grandparents started to
be snowbirds here when I was a year old, and
my family, my parents and my sister has decided to
move down here in two thousand.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And so you were like, absolutely not.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
I said absolutely. My grandparents would say I'll move to Florida,
so nice, You'll be with you your family and I
would say, but you know, Grandma, Florida doesn't have you know,
hipster coffee shops. It doesn't have you know, wrap house theaters.
It doesn't have you know, great bookstores and and jazz
clubs and all the things that were essential to my
(05:20):
life at that time when I lived in New York
or in San Francisco and and you know, these are
the things that that I wanted, that that to me
made living in a city, uh essential, right at that
particular point in point in my life. And then you know,
and then things changed.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So was it Florida the change or was it that
you need it didn't need those things.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Honestly, I think I think it was a little. I
think it was a little of both. I definitely changed.
You know, when I was a kid, the thing that
I wanted the most in the world was to live
in a loft, in a you know, huge industrial loft.
And so that's just what I wanted when I was
twelve years old. And I got that not in Soho,
(06:04):
but you know, in Bushwick. And then I really got
it in Dallas, where I lived in deep Ellum in
a giant, beautiful loft. And then Donald Trump won the
election in twenty sixteen, and I said, wait, I have
to go back to d c because it's going to
(06:25):
be like the wild West, and many of my friends
are going to be working in the administration and I
need to be there. And it was an important lesson
because here I was at that time in Dallas in
the most beautiful apartment that I've ever had.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I remember it so tru clearly. I really remember that. Yeah,
it was just from the picture.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, it was amazing. It was the kind of place
that you just wanted to sit and just take pictures
of all day. And on one hand, it was great
and I had that and it was wonderful, but then
I really that I had. I celebrated my fortieth birthday
at the same week that that that Donald Trump won
in twenty sixteen, and and many of my friends came
(07:11):
from all over the country to join me in celebrating,
and I realized it was like, why am I here
in Dallas where I know next to no one while
all my friends are, you know, scattered around.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
And why were you? Actually was it a girl?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
It was? But it was like, hey, let's move to Dallas.
So we moved to Dallas because Dallas was bigger, than Austin,
and and we thought, hey, maybe you know, bigger is
better and yeah, and you know, so that was a
big lesson. And the lesson is that you know, you
(07:52):
have to go where your friends are. And and I'd
already by that point I probably picked up and moved
to a new place fourteen times in my life before then. Literally,
so I was, you know, you get tired, You're like,
you know what the home is, where your people are
at the end of the day. And when I my
(08:16):
grandparents passed away in twenty seventeen and I started coming
down here to Florida and using their apartment. I was
living in DC, and every time I would go back
after spending you know, several wonderful days living like I'm retired,
you know, playing shuffleboard, going to the beach, going to
the gym. At one pm, I would go back to
(08:36):
DC and I would say, what's wrong with me? Why
am I going back to this cold you know nonsense?
And so I decided to move down here, and that
was in early twenty nineteen, and to be honest with you,
I almost left. I enjoyed it great for six months,
and then I said, I'm kind of lonely. Because nobody's
(08:58):
here then yeah, and you're no more right and you know,
so that was that was a kind of big deal.
And the way I refer I've moved around so often
in life, the way I refer to Florida now is
the final destination.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I love that states. I have a friend that makes
a joke like Jews moving to Florida.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
No way.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
You know, yeah, never heard of it, but.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yes, it makes sense as the destination. And I also
just can't see leaving. It's funny because you make fun
of me because you said, oh, I said that to
you recently, like, oh, I can't you know I would
never leave Florida And you were like, well, you never
saw yourself leaving New York either, which is true. I actually,
if I can give myself credit, it's that I did
leave New York, even though I was so committed to
(09:45):
it and I loved it so much and I was
so sure that I wouldn't. But when it was time
to go, it was time to go. And I think
that that's an important lesson that I will try to
in part to my kids. Sometimes it's time to leave.
So you mentioned you go to the gym. This is
a thing you do.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, I go. I go when I can.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And if you're listening to this on audio, David is
a bodybuilder and so that's why it's it's funny that yes,
of course he goes to the gym. So can you
tell us a little bit about the bodybuilding journey and
how you got into it?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Sure. So it's something that I've kind of always wanted
to do, but I never I never sat down and
kind of did it right. And there's the right way
to do it, and there's the wrong way to do it,
or or let's put it more specifically, there's an easy
way to do it, which is when you think things
out and plan and and you know, apply energy and
(10:38):
and and and discipline to something. And then there's the
other thing, which is like, hey, let's just you know,
make a mess and and then you know, and then
the people who go and they do it in then
make a mess mode are always surprised that, you know,
that they don't see results or you know, or and
(10:59):
then and then what ends up happening is they abandon
it because they think, oh, this is impossible, this is
not for me. I can't you know, I'll never be
able to do this. It's too hard, you know, when
in fact, it's a lot harder to go into things
willy nilly without a plan and without being organized. And
it took me a long time to get there.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
So when you first started, you you did do it
the wrong way.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Of course I did it the wrong way for like
eight years.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
What would you say to somebody, right, So, what would
you say to somebody who wanted to get started? What
would what advice would you give them?
Speaker 3 (11:37):
I would say Number one is I would go and
I would find a good coach. And there's a big
difference between a coach and a trainer. Everybody kind of
knows a trainer. A trainer, you know, will you will
show up with you at the gym and sort of
teach you how to do things, and that's fine, that's okay.
But a coach will have a comprehensive approach to whatever
(12:01):
your goals are. And especially if you go and you
find someone who who is a competing bodybuilder, they will know, like, okay,
I have to go from point you know A to B,
you know, to get on stage, to get in shape
over a you know, specified amount of time. So that
person is always going to be a lot more results
(12:24):
oriented results focused than than just a trainer. I mean,
the trainer is happy to take your money every week,
right so and and be your you know, and be
your you know, amateur psychiatrist while you make no progress.
And that's I mean, that's not sliding people who are trainers.
That's just saying, like, you.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Know, I always saw the trainer as like you pay
them to make yourself show up. You know, like once
you've paid your trainer, like you have, you have to go,
Like you can't not go. You've paid somebody already. It's
the same, you know, same concept as like signing up
for exercise classes. But if if you have somebody who
does not work out, I mean I'm pretty open about it.
(13:04):
I don't work out, not that I'm planning to start so,
but I'm just asking how does somebody like find a coach,
for example, if they're not planning to be bodybuilders, if
they're just wanting to get out on a working out journey.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
I would set a goal higher, and I would set
a goal that's a little more concrete, like I want
to look like X, you know y or is it
you know, like maybe I want to do you know,
maybe I do want to compete, or maybe I want
to get to the point where I could just maybe
compete if I wanted to. That's I think that's the
(13:38):
thing to do, you know. I ideally, Yes, I made
a mistake by not going and you know, at least
trying to compete, so sooner I should have done that,
you know, two years into.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
It and you did it because it Yeah, you did.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
I did. I did it in twenty twenty, twenty twenty two,
and I'm going to do it again before the end
of the year. And it was a great experience. It
was hard, but it was one of those things where
it's like it's hard, but it's not impossible, and those
are the things that are most rewarding, you know, hard
but not impossible.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So you do all these things. You have a podcast,
you write, you compete in bodybuilding competitions. Do you feel
like you've made it?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
I make trouble on Twitter.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
You make a lot of trouble on Twitter. We'll get
to that. But do you feel like you've made it?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
No? I mean, am I am I content? Am I happy? No?
Do I want more?
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yes? I thought you were going to be like, am
I content? Am I happy? Yes? But I don't feel
like I've made it.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
I'm not content or happy, so right, right, right, it's
against my nature to be either content or happy. But no,
But I mean the bottom line is I think I
mean to be to be completely serious for a moment.
Is the world, the universe that we work in is
(15:05):
changing so fast and technology is changed. I mean that's
kind of of a piece with the way technology changes
in social media and things like that. How do people
take on information? What kinds of information do they take on?
You know, I mean people aren't reading anymore, you know,
they're seeing teets, tweets are passing off. I mean, you know,
(15:28):
you are a you know, I mean, you write columns.
You know, there was there was the old joke. I'm
forgetting who told it, or maybe it was an observation
that you know, at first we were reading big, long books,
and then we started to read book reviews and you
know articles, and from the articles we got to be
(15:52):
to read you know, tweets. And now we're basically at
the meme at the mean portion of you know of
things where we just kind of grunt, right, you know,
to to you know, to to one another, and and
and you know, maybe you know, we'll be using hands
and signals and and things like that. So the marketplace,
(16:13):
let's say, the intellectual marketplace, is changing, and I don't
think it's changing for the better. So one of the
things that I've been thinking about a lot is like,
where do I see myself and what I do and
you know, what my friends and colleagues do, right, you know,
like where can we have the most impact? And there's
(16:35):
a you know, there's wanting to have some impact and
to do and two, you know, do something great for
you know, the world and our people and and and
and things like that. On one hand, On the other
hand is we have to do what we like because
I mean, now, you know, if someone showed up tomorrow
and said, hey, you need to make feature films, it's
(16:57):
a little bit you know, beyond what you know what
to what I be particularly interested in doing.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I feel like you could totally do that. I feel
like if I had to say which of your friends
could make feature films tomorrow, I'd like David Reeboy could
make future films tomorrow. You have a very like artistic vision.
One of the questions I ask on this show a
lot is like, what would be your plan be in life?
Like if you weren't doing this like it's something fun,
(17:23):
not like you know, not like a writer in a
different sense or whatever. But I could totally I've said
this to you before. I could see you being specifically
an interior designer for men. You make these amazing, you know,
design spaces. I think you do such a good job
of making masculine design spaces, and I almost don't think
that should be a joke. I think you should go
(17:44):
do that. And I could see you making feature films
and making arty work.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, I mean I appreciate that. Look, I would love
to do it. I would love to do design. I
mean I could never be an interior designer of any
of any quality because you're called upon to do a
variety of different esthetic sensibilities.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
And you're doing this, and that's it, right, right, I'm like,
I know what you want, but no, you can't have it.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
You can't have it, right, Which, at the end of
the day is the theme of my life, I think,
which is that I will I will I refuse to
give people what they want. I want to give them
what I I want to give them what I think
is good for them, as as opposed to you know,
the candy that they that they think they want, and
you know, maybe that's a personality defect. It's certainly a
(18:37):
career defect, you know, but it is it is the
way it is.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
That's I mean, that's a very interesting observation about yourself,
that you give people what you want to give them,
and not not necessarily what they want from you. You know,
I didn't get paid by your mom to say this,
but I think that, you know, having a missus reeboy,
would really change that perspective. It would, you know, if
you if you were married, you would realize that you
have to just sometimes give the people what they want.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Right. No, No, I I I understand that. I understand that,
and I'm sure my mom is putting the check in
the mail.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Markoitz Show. You write about culture,
you talk about culture, and I like to ask my guests,
what do you think is the largest cultural problem that
we face?
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Man, It's funny every year I think I would say
something different.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
What is it right now?
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Right now? Lately, it's it's just it's just it feels
like it feels like people out there have gotten, have
lived like lebotomized themselves. And I really think we're in
an era of increasing ridiculousness, increasing stupidity. It's popular, it's
(19:55):
been popular for forever to talk about, you know, the
the rancorousness and you know, people hating one another and
stuff like that. And yeah, I mean, sure there's a
certain amount of of of truth to that. But even
more damaging is the is the it's just like low
IQ city out there on the on the on the
(20:16):
political landscape, and and uh, you know, so, I mean
I think I think that's a big problem. If we're
getting more specific and we're talking about our people, talking
about like the American political right for example, I think, uh,
one of the major problems, maybe not the biggest, but
(20:38):
the one that that that upsets me a lot is
the fact that we're just culturally illiterate and we're not
interested in you know, really, you know, we're just not
interested in in in anything interesting cultural. And sure we
can say that, you know, donors don't want to fund things,
(21:01):
and you know that's true, but donors don't want to
fund things because the people don't want it.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
I don't know, I feel like donors are open to
suggestion and if people came up with a good pitch
to have cultural funding. I feel like a lot of
donors are always looking for places to put their money,
and so I think it just needs to be pitched
or maybe just introduced to donors better. But I agree.
(21:28):
I think the cultural illiteracy is a big problem, and
I think that we step out of culture so often
on the right. You could see it in so many
different ways, just not wanting to participate, like I just
say something dumb, but like Taylor Swift hatred, like I don't.
You don't have to like Taylor Swift music. That's fine,
and again she's a big lib totally understand, but like
(21:50):
to hate her to be like I, you know, she's
destroying American families. I mean, this is where it ends
up going. And it's just what are you doing. She's
got a hold on all these teenage girls and you're
just going to, like, you know, make sure that they
hate you. It's it's a it's a weird place we get.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
To, right. Well. Look, I mean I don't listen to
Taylor Swift, but I'm also aware that, but I listened
to music all day long. Yeah, and I watch films
and and you know. I mean there's a certain amount
of you know, complaining that I do about the quality
of entertainment out there, But it doesn't affect me that
(22:32):
much because I know that there's a there's one hundred
years of cinema history to catch up on. Yeah, I
think on the right where where you know, we sit
around and we say, oh, this show is so woke,
this is terrible, this is what you know, this this
sport is woke, and et cetera, et cetera. What are
you gonna do? Okay, well, I guess I'm gonna have
to suffer and watch the idea that the idea that
(22:55):
you can go on Amazon or the Criterion Channel or
something like that and see a really good film, right,
rather than waste your time watching the dumb thing that
everyone is talking about on Netflix. I mean that doesn't
occur to a lot of people, though it should.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yeah, I mean, maybe you should have like an arts
you know, I don't know. I'm not telling you to
take on another project.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
I try to. I try to do that. I try
to introduce people to music that they.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Probably I've seen it, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
And jazz and Brazilian music and other things like that,
and you.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Know, I looked up something that you you recommended one time.
People do I mean they do, you know, maybe I
didn't like tell you, but yeah, something resilient.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
It feels like it's met. It does feel like it's
met with indifference, you know, to be honest, because people want,
you know, they want the dopamine hit of you know,
Republicans good, Democrats bad, and like, yeah, of course I agree,
you know, Republicans are better, you know better, Democrats bad.
(23:56):
But there's just a lot more to life. There's a
lot more to life. I mean, one of the things
that I love bringing it back to Florida for a second,
one of the things I love about this place is
that or when I moved here, I was like, Okay, great,
I won't have to fight the weather m And people
don't realize what a huge thing that is huge constantly
(24:19):
fighting the weather all the time. And I mean for
people with like you know, seasonal locute depression to wake
up in the morning and the sun is shining almost
every day, yep, yeah, I mean, it's I mean, you know,
it's it's it's it's wonderful. And I don't understand how
people can kind of take or leave that. I guess
(24:41):
it's a personality thing. There are folks who live in
Alaska and.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, and people in the world. I'm not one of
those people. The weather was always a minus for me
in New York. Like I loved everything about New York,
but the weather was like it was never right. It
was always like a little off, you know, it was full,
and it was like, oh, it's full, and now it's
a cold but maybe or maybe hot. It just it's
never it never felt correct to me. So I love
(25:08):
New York despite the weather. But so every day in
Florida and I feel like people complain about the heat
and we've had like a really chilly winter, like it's
still is not as warm as I would like it personally.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
So I heard from the start. Yeah, yeah, right, no,
I mean I hear you. Let me ask you a question.
Let's say I show up with the time machine. Yeah,
and I say I could take you back to New
York nineteen ninety seven, Right, do you go? Do you go? Well,
(25:43):
it's tough, easy New York four.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Oh, you're totally right. So the thing is New York
nineteen ninety seven. I'm single, I don't have kids. It
was amazing, it was a magical time. I would even
say in the early days. My oldest was born in
twenty ten, and we lived in Manhattan for the first
two kids. And when I kind of feel warm and
(26:08):
fuzzy about New York, it's not that end period in
Park Slope where we actually achieved our immigrant dream of
having a townhouse in Park Slope. It's it's the living
in like the one my husband's like bachelor apartment on
the Upper West Side, and having two kids and taking
them to the nearby park. And I mean, is it
nineteen ninety seven New York was amazing, but I didn't
(26:29):
have a family, and I don't know what that would
be like in nineteen ninety seven New York and I
graduated college in ninety nine. So I feel like that
that whole time period after things really got good in
the early two thousands, it was like the best time
for New York. It was really alive and safe. It
was really really safe, which you know they managed to undo, Yes.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yes they did. I don't know. I thought when I
left New York in two thousand and three, I was like,
this place is over. This place, Oh, it's over. It's
never going to be like it was it's never going
to be like it was in the nineties. And I
could see that.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Yeah, it wasn't like the nineties. It wasn't as unique
and independent as the nineties. But the safety, you really
can't overlook that. The fact that you could like walk
around New York at any time and feel a real
sense of security. It's that's it's a draw.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
Well by then, by then we were starting to take
it for granted.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Oh yeah, justification, you know, yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yeah, yeah. By by two thousand, two thousand and one,
two thousand and two, we were starting to take the
safety of the city for granted, for sure, and we
just assumed it was always going to be safe. You know.
After Juliana came Bloomberg, and he you know, he contained that.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Yeah, so five terms altogether of like normalcy and safety
and you know, kind of again normal ish policies. I mean,
Bloomberg had his wacky stuff, as did Giuliani, but in general,
it was like not crazy ideas, like let's not prosecute criminals.
So do you feel like Florida is in its heyday?
(28:17):
This is going longer than my normal interviews go, just
because you know, super interested. Okay, so I'll ask you
two more questions. One is, do you feel like Florida
is in its nineteen nineties New York moment where everything
is just blooming and amazing.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
I think so. I the history of Florida is interesting
because this is really the first time that we've had
a statewide boom, like like we're going through now. There
have been booms from Miami or for Orlando or Tampa
(28:56):
and places like that where you know, people come from
you know, different parts of the country and you know
it gets a little more expensive and there's more amenities
and and things like that. But really this is this
is this boom is affecting you know, small towns in
the middle of Florida.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Right.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Everyone wants to be here. Everyone wants to be here,
and of course with that come all kinds of problems
because you know, this is this is reality we're dealing with.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Right.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
So, you know, you do have you do have prices
going up, you do have more traffic, you do have
you know, quality of life things that that are a
little bit you know harder now than you know they
would have been five ten years ago. But on the
(29:47):
other hand, is now you you just have an optimism
and an energy that that that I haven't seen here before.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Yeah, I feel it.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
And yeah, yeah, absolutely feel it. Every day going around.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
People are just so excited to be here. They're like,
I said this somewhere else recently. But the people that
moved here, I feel like in the last four years,
especially like they moved for I don't want to say
a movement, but it really is some it's like ideological.
It's not just for the weather and the taxes. It's
it's like they came here to be something, to do
(30:25):
something together. You can sense it everywhere.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Yes, it's definitely New Florida, New Florida, the Free State
of Florida. But it's definitely New Florida because it's not
the place that it once was. I mean, now, when
you meet somebody, one of the first things you asked
is when you get here? Yes, number one regretted it. Yeah, right,
(30:51):
you know are you? You? Are you? Kind of you? Have?
You been here for thirty years? You know almost nobody
was born here.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Right, I do meet a killbody? Yes, yeah, but that
is a question. It's like it's a gauge. Right, you
came in the last four years. I know right away
that you and I are going to align pretty closely
on a lot of things. I just it's it's you know,
it's a known thing. So okay, I'm gonna my final
(31:17):
question and hear your best tip for my listeners on
how they can improve their lives.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
Oh my gosh, that's a hard one. I mean, I'll
say I'll say the easy thing. No, No, I'll say
the thing that I believe is most true. I think
more people should have a personal relationship with art and
the creative process.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Wow. I thought you were going to say God, and
I was going to be like, wow, I what Okay,
relationship with art. No, that makes a lot of sense. Okay,
go ahead, continue.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
I mean, you know, you know, in lieu of in
lieu of the divine, you know, create activity is definitely
in that in that category because at the end of
the day, you're creating something from nothing right and learning
how that process works, how that mysterious process works through
a variety of tiny micro decisions that are completely imperceptible
(32:18):
most mostly is completely imperceptible to you. You know what
leads you. You know, you're you're making a painting, you're
writing something, You're you're creating another you're creating a piece
of music. What are the things that are going or
here or beyond that that influence you into into doing
(32:40):
these things. A lot of people will will talk online,
especially about you know, they'll they'll go and have photos
of old cathedrals and you know, Renaissance art and things
like that and Caravaggio, and yes, of course they're beautiful. Yeah,
I mean, who doesn't love that? But when you kind
(33:02):
of venerate that too much as a as an aesthetic ideal,
I think I think you're giving short trip to the
creative process, which everybody would, in my opinion, would benefit
from being more engaged with. So what does that mean
(33:24):
on a practical level, Try to create something from nothing,
see how it goes. And if you create something from
nothing every day or every week, and it could be
a piece of writing, it could be music, it could
be you know, you could be playing around in photoshop. Yeah,
see how that goes, and see how that will kind
(33:46):
of change the way you think. Because I think it
really I think it really does. And exploring your own creativity,
you know, and if you've got kids and you know
other folks like that, you know, certainly get them to
get them to do it because a love of art
and you know, creative things from you know, music to cinema,
(34:07):
to books to to what have you. They can be
life changing.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Thank you so much. He is David Reeboy. Check out
his Late Republic Nonsense podcast. Really love talking to you.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Thank you, David, Thank you, thanks so much for joining
us on The Carol Marcowitch Show. Subscribe wherever you get
your podcast
Host
Karol Markowicz
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