All Episodes

June 27, 2025 33 mins

A socialist, Islamist dem primary winner caused political and statewide chaos!

NY Times best-selling author Jeffrey Konvitz has a new novel, Circus of Satan. We talk to him about how he uses fiction to best educate, where non-fiction fails.  He’s our spotlight interview of the week!

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
To me.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Michael.

Speaker 3 (00:00):
Your morning show can be heard live five to eight
am Central, six to nine Eastern and great cities like Jackson, Mississippi, Akron, Ohio,
or Columbus, Georgia. We'd love to be a part of
your morning routine and we're grateful you're here.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Now. Enjoy the podcast. Good Morning Americans, Friday two.

Speaker 4 (00:17):
Three, Starting your morning off right, A new way of talk,
a new way of understanding because we're in Mitiget.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
This is your morning show with Michael O'Dell join.

Speaker 5 (00:33):
And what a week it's been, right from bombing to
cease fire to everything in between. I mean, I often
say the best part of this relationship, you and I is.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
The living life together.

Speaker 5 (00:52):
I hope we're doing a good job of understanding what's
happening as it's happening. Sometimes we can't figure it out
till after, but we're just closer and closer for having
lived in and boy does time fly. We must be
having fun. It is Friday again. Welcome to Friday, June
the twenty seventh. You have all low twenty twenty five.
I love how Dear God give us some relief from

(01:14):
all of this heat. Okay, here's some chaotic severe thunderstorms
to mess up travel travel heading into a pre fourth
of July week, But that's kind of what we got.
The Senate is hoping to start debate on President Trump's
Big Beautiful Bill today. House members will get an intel
briefing on the Iran strikes. I don't know that's going

(01:35):
to sound much different than our briefing yesterday. But the
defense will deliver its closing arguments today in the sex
trafficking trial of Sean Diddy Coombs.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
You know, from the very beginning we've been saying.

Speaker 5 (01:44):
Well, you approved he's immoral and a scumbag, pervert, whatever
you want to use, have.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
You approved he's a trafficker?

Speaker 5 (01:54):
And then quietly they just lower lesson and drop some
of the charges. You'll wonder what this case has proved
in the courtroom versus the court room of public opinion.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
We're gonna have more on that with Roy O'Neil.

Speaker 5 (02:09):
Following all of our stories, our Spotlight interview is just
first of all, Jeffrey Convits is a best selling author.
He has created movies, television shows. He's brilliant. What I
was most fascinating about him, fascinated about him and what
he has chosen to do is. It's kind of like

(02:33):
he's the opposite of Joel Rosenberg. You're probably going, well,
who's Joel Rosenberg? Joel Rosenberg is writing all these novels
about you know, radical Islam or Russia, you know, and
they're all coming true, and they're not just coming true,
they're coming true by the time the book is printed.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
So he starts getting this reputation.

Speaker 5 (02:52):
Of being like some kind of scary little prophet, and
finally he just ask him, how do you do is?
And then he explained, well, I look at life through
three lenses, biblical, historical, and geopolitical, and it's going to
tend to be right because God's never wrong, history tends
to repeat itself. And the geopolitics, if you don't have

(03:14):
a veil, speak for themselves on what their goals are.
So then he finally decides to write and it's one
of my favorite books ever, his only nonfiction, Epicenter. And
Epicenter just explains to you everything that's happening and going
to happen in the Middle East. And this is from
a Jewish Christian, so it's amazing. Well, Jeffrey Confidence is

(03:38):
the opposite. This is a guy that knows history inside
and out. Could easily do nonfiction, but we live in
such a matrix and divided country we wouldn't listen if
somebody did. So he uses his real gifting of storytelling
to take all of the accurate stuff going on and

(03:59):
teach us through a fictional premise. And he's done it
again with Circus of Satan, and the Circus of Satan
itself is a name worth exploring with them. He's our
Spotlight interview of the week coming up next half hour.
Next week, we're going to visit with Larry Charles. What

(04:19):
a fascinating time that's going to be because Larry Charles
is really I mean, if I say Jerry Seinfeld, well
I take that back. There was a waitress when we
were at the Cubs game who did not know who
Jerry Seinfeld was. Well, the exception of that waitress, I say,
Jerry Seinfeld, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I
say Larry David, you know exactly who I'm talking about.

(04:39):
I say mel Brooks, you know exactly who I'm talking about.
But you know what, there's a guy that worked with
these geniuses and made some of their most genius work
even more genius and it's a name nobody knows, Larry Childs.
You'll meet him next week. Also, don't we have Roseanne?
Or is that the week after? Uh? I thought it
was yesterday, So we didn't miss that, did we?

Speaker 2 (05:00):
No? No?

Speaker 5 (05:01):
No, okay, but I slept through one interview in the
history of this show, and I swear I'll never live.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
I had a panic attack yesterday because yesterday I thought,
did we miss Roseanne today?

Speaker 5 (05:13):
But that's next Thursday. We did miss Craig T. Nelson
and that was the biggest nightmare of mind forty. And
who's Who's Nielsen? You speak of Boultergeist coach.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, the one interview I wanted to do. I'm not
gonna let you think about it. I remember.

Speaker 5 (05:26):
It's kind of like when you were back in school,
you know, and the alarm would go off and then
you just hit snooze or you just hit off and
then you lay there, yeah, and then you're just like, oh,
I just feel so good. I don't want to get out.
Oh I can't fall asleep. I wonder if I'm asleep
right now. I think I'm asleep right Well, there's a unicorn,
you know, and that's kind of how it was the
next thing I know, I wake up to all these
messages Craigs try to get a hold of you, but

(05:48):
no Roseanne is I think the week after.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
So we got a lot of fun stuff planned for you.
Today Spotlight interviewed it about Roseanne.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
I've never been I will have never been that close
to Roseanne, and I've always wanted to talk to her,
you know.

Speaker 5 (06:02):
I think if an MRI is fascinating, by the way,
if you've ever had one done on you and then
had the doctor go through it, because it's basically well,
it's just bizarre. You lay there claustrophobic and you're hearing
chong chingong, and you're thinking, if they can invent something
that does this, why can't they invent it to not
make all those noises, you know? And then they put

(06:24):
they put stuff in your ears and then they put
headphones on so you can't even hear the music through
the ear plugs, let alone all the chong. But anyway,
you get all these images and then they can just
they can like slice it like pie.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Oh you want to see from this thing?

Speaker 5 (06:38):
Sure, And you just keep going and going and going
til you get to the to the heart of the
matter and Roseanne I think of like that. You know,
if we'd have taken just a slice of her at
any point, you would have very firm opinions. I can
think of when the right hated her. I can think
of when the left hated her. I mean, she's a
fascinating character. But the point I want to make is

(07:01):
it's easy to form an opinion and then just lock
it for the rest of your life. Now, you don't
want anybody to do that for you. I wouldn't want
anybody who met.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
Me at Let me tell you something.

Speaker 5 (07:14):
If you met me at seventeen years old, not only
had you been fascinated what a great athlete he was
and how smoking hot he was, Oh, but how kind
and warm and godly he was. I mean, this guy
was a mover and a shaker in the Kingdom of God.
You meet that same guy at thirty one and a
bar with a cigarette and a drink, and I'll hide

(07:36):
under a rock for eternity if that's the only me
you knew. Why don't we give everybody the right to
live life, make mistakes, change, get better, and then have
an opinion of the totality of their life. And I think,
what you're saying, is is the totality of rose am
But I wonder how many people listening are thinking of

(07:57):
a MRI slice of rosem that.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah, and she has just been.

Speaker 5 (08:02):
She's fascinating and you know, and then the whole woke
somewhere in the Death of wokeness is trying to pull
off Roseanne's show without Roseanne over a ridiculous cancel culture comment.
And what a failure that was for the network and
the entire cast. Who would have had a second chance

(08:23):
of life. So the iconic Roseanne coming up. But today
Spotlight interview Jeffrey Convicts on his new book, Circus of Satan.
It is Friday. It's been an extraordinary week for the president.
I mean, he takes out but how many presidents he's
talked about but didn't do.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
He takes out the nukes of Iran.

Speaker 5 (08:42):
And negotiates the ceasefire, all within thirty six.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Hours of each other.

Speaker 5 (08:48):
Can anybody come up with another character in history that's
pulled that off?

Speaker 1 (08:52):
They said, sir, They said, sir, of course, will stop.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
It's your morning show with Michael del Choano.

Speaker 5 (09:02):
You know how this is one of the more fascinating
things in life. Think about everything in your closet, and
how rarely you ever bump into somebody wearing one of them.
I mean, there's only so many shirts today in a rack, right,
How is it we're not always bumping into people that
have a shirt we have? And then you start thinking, well,
is my taste bad and there's this great? Or is
my taste great and there's this bad? How did they

(09:24):
miss the shirt I'm wearing? And why on earth would
Jeffrey be wearing the shirt he's wearing right now? Sure,
so that never happens. Sometimes we'll wear the same color,
but never the same not I think red and I
kind of dressed. So you have the same shirt on
today you had on yesterday. Don't bring that up to
the listeners. Yes, I apologize, but anyway, I digress my
point being. But with us, what happened that was strange

(09:45):
is we all got haircuts at the same time. Did
you notice mine? Is it? By the way, I had
a dream last night I was golfing with jim Nance.
Oh it was it was great, and I was doing
jim nantz to jim Nant's while he was So this
is a ticklish little punt, right, This could actually cause
a blemish on his carr and here we go. Jim

(10:05):
was like, can I hit please? I said, of course,
you can do it like Freddy the old roommate. I
couldn't stop. Then I started doing the bios as he
was coming up the fairway anyway, but we all got
our haircuts. Now look we all look what are the
odds of that got You both got yours?

Speaker 2 (10:22):
What day before yesterday? And I got mine yesterday. That's it.
So we all looked. Just swell in time for your
top five day.

Speaker 5 (10:34):
Twenty four minutes after the hour. Good morning, and welcome
to Friday, June the twenty seventh. This is your morning show.
These are your top five stories of to day. The
United States and China have reached a deal over rare
earth elements, materials critical to the production of everything from
automobiles and electronics to fighter jets.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Mark Mayfield has the report.

Speaker 6 (10:52):
President Trump said Thursday a deal had been signed the
day before, with the White House confirming it would help
both countries reach an understanding over how to exponite shipments
to the US.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
Western companies have had.

Speaker 6 (11:03):
Difficulties getting the rare earth medals they need from Beijing.
In the US, China has been carefully looking at buyers
to make sure that rare earth medals aren't being used
by the military.

Speaker 5 (11:12):
I'm Mark Mayfield, the nation's top military officer, says the
underground nuclear plant in Iran was studied for fifteen years
prior to being bombed.

Speaker 7 (11:21):
He also made it clear that the airstrikes on multiple
sites went according.

Speaker 5 (11:24):
To plan, the weapons all guided to their intended targets.

Speaker 7 (11:28):
Speaking at a news conference at the Pentagon, General Dan
Kain said the bombs dropped on for Dow hit at
the speed intended, and added they used vents to deliver them.
Kane showed a video of a test of a bunker
busting bomb, but didn't share more about the other nuclear
sites the US hit. It all comes after a classified
initial intelligence assessment indicated the strikes likely only set back

(11:48):
Iran's nuclear program by a matter of months and was
not the total obliteration that the Trump administration claims. I'm
Tammy tr heo.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Oh, let's got that in.

Speaker 5 (11:57):
Well, most of you are following how Donald Trump is
making America great aga. But they're still making America healthy again.
And that's under the watchful eye of Robert F. Kennedy
Junior and now more companies he keeps piling up the
victories are agreeing to end the use of certain synthetic
dies in food and drink products.

Speaker 8 (12:15):
Brian Shook has details. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior
announced on Thursday. Nesley and ConAgra say they will eliminate
their use in all of their products by twenty twenty
six and twenty twenty seven, respectively.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
We're getting this extraordinary outpouring of enthusiasm and cooperation.

Speaker 8 (12:32):
Kennedy said he's pleased the companies are volunteering to make
the moves without his agency getting involved. Last week, Kraft
Hines and General Mills announced they're ending the use of
dies in their products.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
I'm Brian Shook. Well.

Speaker 5 (12:46):
Still no word from the former governor of New York,
Andrew Cuomo about whether he'll run as an independent for
New York City mayor this fall, but the speculation is
an overdrive.

Speaker 9 (12:56):
On Thursday, CNN reported, citing sources, that Cuomo will stay
on the ballot in November on the Fight and Deliver
party line, as he said during the primary campaign. But
that report says Cuomo quote has not fully committed to
running an active campaign through the summer and fall. A
report Wednesday from The New York Post, citing sources, said

(13:18):
Cuomo would not run this fall. Cuomo's only said publicly
he's still considering his options. Andrew Whitman NBC News Radio,
New York.

Speaker 5 (13:27):
The prosecution is resting in the case of sex trafficking
trial of Sean P. Ditty Combs in New York City.
Christian Marks as this report after.

Speaker 7 (13:36):
Twenty nine days of testimony.

Speaker 10 (13:38):
The prosecution told jurors Thursday, it's time to find Diddy kilty.
The government argued the hip hop mogul led a criminal
enterprise in order to conduct illegal activity like kidnapping, drug deals,
forced labor, and sex trafficking, and that he used his
power intimidation, violence, and drugs to force two ex girlfriends
to take part in free gops. The defense will make
its case Friday, after the government we'll get to speak

(14:01):
to the jury again before jury deliberations. Diddy's pleaded not
guilty to all charges and decided against taking the stand
in his own defense. Kristin Marx NBC News Radio.

Speaker 5 (14:14):
One of the co founders of the legendary R and
B group The Whispers, has passed away.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Walter Scott started.

Speaker 5 (14:19):
The singing act with his twin brother Wallace in the
early sixties, but the Whispers didn't achieve fame until the seventies.
They had an R and B hit and a seventy
nine disco classic and the Beat goes on, but their
biggest hit actually came in nineteen eighty seven, rock Steady.
A lot of you are familiar with that hit song
listening to your morning show. It's one of my favorite
rejoins that rarely airs because Jeffrey has a really faulty

(14:43):
rotation system in place.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
His family has.

Speaker 5 (14:46):
Confirmed Walter Scott died Thursday in Los Angeles at his
home after a long bout with cancer. He was eighty
one years old. And that's your top five stories Waking
up in sports, Tigers shut out the A's eight nothing,
Guardians lost six nothing to the j Cubs beat the
Cardinals three to nothing.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
A lot of shoutouts yesterday, I think four Gray.

Speaker 5 (15:05):
Shut out the Royals for zip, Dodgers beat the Rockies
three to one, Giants fell to the Marlins twelve to five,
and the Twins beat the Marlins ten to one. Birthdays
Spider Man himself, Toby Maguire, the Big Five, Oh fifteen,
director JJ Abrams fifty nine, R and B. Singer Her
twenty eight. If it's your birthday, Happy birthday. We're so

(15:25):
glad you were born, and thanks for waking up with
your morning show.

Speaker 11 (15:31):
I'm Daniel Colsey in Tampa and my morning show is
your morning show with Michael Jill Jornam.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
Hey, it's Michael reminding you that your morning show can
be heard live each weekday morning five to eighth Central,
six to nine Eastern and great cities like Nashville, Tennessee
two below, Mississippi and Sacramento, California. We'd love to be
a part of your morning routine and take the drive
to work with you, but better late than never. We're
greatfull you're here now, enjoy the podcast.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
Now.

Speaker 5 (16:02):
Roger in Sacramento starts emailing me. While my father owned
a big plumbing company, I've been a plumber my whole life.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
You got ripped off. Well, thanks well live in Franklin. Yeah,
and they did.

Speaker 5 (16:13):
Have to do some other things, so I'm border alone.
I think they took me for a couple hundred, but
note thousand. This is a big time. What do I
do do? I like radio host to put some hot
water in balloons and give them out for Christmas, because
it's going to be a.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
While until I have this paid off.

Speaker 5 (16:28):
Uh yeah, never mind the never mind the herniated discs.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
It's that bill suffocating me.

Speaker 5 (16:34):
Thirty six minutes after the hour coming up, We're going
to connect a few dots. I had a premonition. By
the way, I can see Katie Kirk. You know, she's
either doing goofball things in the garden or cooking in
the kitchen, or she still takes her phone and does
serious interviews with her Katie Kirk stink eye, you know,

(16:56):
like like she's still on you know, the CBS Evening News.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
Can't you see her already?

Speaker 5 (17:02):
You know she's going to do an interview with Zoran
Mom Donnie and just take him all serious. You know,
she used to be so hot. If it was I
never thought that. If it was you know, Sarah Palin,
she'd rip her apart. If it was Donald Trump, she'd

(17:23):
rip him apart. This guy who has only been a
citizen for seven years. Ashia Muslim is Lomist, by the way,
All Muslims are not his Lomist, but all Islamists are Muslim.
She would ignore all that and just be so fascinated
with him. The guy's only been a citizen for seven years,
he's only been an assemblyman for three years, and now

(17:45):
watch the media coort him like he's the second coming
of Barack Obama. Well maybe he is actually, now that
you mention it, Am I talking to myself right now?

Speaker 2 (17:53):
I am?

Speaker 5 (17:54):
I'm even answering myself, aren't I? Anyway, make a long
story short, we've got to connect to Coop a few
dots morning with him. I said this yesterday and I
stand by it. I first of all, I don't think
he's going to win the general. I think they're gonna
try to push him over the top. I think they're
going to try to create this as an inner city wave.
The inner cities have always been my greatest concern. I mean,

(18:15):
that's that's where the civil war is really taking shape,
these inner cities versus the rest of America, not even
really about issues as much as that turf. And they're
going to try to propel this into a movement for
inner cities, and they're.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Going to rot out.

Speaker 5 (18:31):
I mean, what was the movie Escape from New York,
Escape from LA Did they have any others? I don't
know why they stopped it. They should have done Escape
from Chicago. Oh maybe they didn't. He didn't escape, That's
why they didn't release it. But you know, it's actually
going to start playing out. That's the new movement with
this mom Donnie. But watch how luxury real estate bankers

(18:52):
are responding to just the chance of him winning. Look
at how stephan Stefanic has made it clear she's ready
to roll for governor. And I had made this this
dude comment. I think he's going to run and lose.
It's going to get a lot of attention, attention. They're
going to try to propel into other city victories, not
necessarily New York City. And what I think is the
immediate effect is going to have is it's going to propel.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
They've been dying.

Speaker 5 (19:17):
It's been close twice now, but this should be enough
to push Stephanic over the top for governor. May cost
him the governor's race because the state will want to
protect the craziness at seeing within the Democrat Party.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
We'll do that analysis just after six, in less.

Speaker 5 (19:35):
Than thirty minutes. All right, we do our Spotlight Interview
of the week. In case you missed it, this is
Jeffrey Convits he is a New York Times best selling author,
and he's got a new book out.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
He's once again.

Speaker 5 (19:46):
Using fiction to teach real historical non fiction lessons. And
the title there's an eye grabber Circus of Satan. And
as I always say, you'll never get the book if
you don't get the So we asked Jeffrey right off
the bat, why circus at Satan?

Speaker 12 (20:04):
Well, there was an area of New York the upper class,
I should the upper class is a funny word, but
the upper the upper vice district was called the Tenderloin
named it was named that by a police officer who
who now said, I'd been getting chuck meat before. Now

(20:25):
I have Tenderloyd. But the Protestant preachers, who are advocating
the destruction of vice and were at war with the
Catholic Church called that district the Tenderloin, which is Times Square. Basically,
they called it Satan's Circus. The reason I switched the
title around is there's a non fiction book called Satan's

(20:46):
Circus about a famous trial that led me to write
this book. To Becca Rosenfield trial and my character whose
life starts off in a great deal of violence in
one of the most violent period in the Mecca American history,
and spends his life dealing with that. He views his
life at the end of the book as a circus

(21:07):
of Satan, that everything that happened came out of darkness
until he saw the light. It's a very complicated character,
so it has a double meaning double meanings indeed, and
at the end of the book, I have circus, demonic circus,
clowns and everything else jumping all over the place, loads
of fun.

Speaker 5 (21:27):
You mentioned nonfiction. This particular book is fiction. Why did
you choose to tell really kind of historic, real battles,
some of them even current in fiction form. There is
something about that that I think you can almost educate
in general better by not getting it, because America's got

(21:48):
so many First of all, a lot of people aren't
educated on the very issues they have very firm opinions on.
But everybody gets polarized and takes a permanent position and
a polarized position without having all the fact it's almost
the best way to introduce the topic and a general
understanding to someone.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
It would seem to me.

Speaker 12 (22:08):
Well, I can tell you this. I in the seventies
when I wrote The Sentinel, which was one of the
biggest best sellers of all times called Six Copies. I
had read a book called Against the Evidence, about the
Becca Rosenfeld murders, which ended Irish control in the United States.
Between nineteen hundred and nineteen thirteen, Irish politicians controlled virtually

(22:30):
every city in the United States, particularly in New York
and Chicago, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Saint Louis was horrendously violent,
and they did that to corrupt police. The police department
would totally corrupt, and the police department collected, grafted and

(22:52):
oversaw gambling and prostitution and drugs and everything else. And
I originally tried to do a fictional version of it.
Didn't work. I put it away for sixteen years. I
got married again. My wife found it that this is
an interesting story. I read it again. I didn't like it,
and then I realized the only way to tell the
story was to run nineteen hundred through nineteen thirteen, through

(23:16):
all real events and real characters. The book is filled
with real characters all the way, from Moses and Max
Annenberg to Arnold Rothstein to Bigtim Sullivan to Franklin Delna Roosevelt,
William Randolph Hirst, and our plot weaves through it. So
basically what you get is a what I think is

(23:37):
a fascinating, powerful fiction story, but a massive amount of
history of an era of people don't know. And I
can give you a frame of reference. There was a
picture called Gangs in New York with Leonardo DiCaprio, and
there was a very famous television series called a Boardwalk Empire.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
This connects the too.

Speaker 12 (24:00):
This is the middle period. It shows how you got
from the Irish control in the eighteen sixties all the
way up to Jewish and Italian organized crime in the
nineteen twenties.

Speaker 5 (24:11):
And thank you and thank you for not bringing up
how that corruption in Chicago may have led to the
election of John F.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
Kennedy.

Speaker 5 (24:18):
The Circus of Satan, It's the latest from New York
Times best selling author Jeffrey Convicts.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Who is You're just a fascinating human being.

Speaker 5 (24:26):
By the way, just as you glossed over your divorce,
you don't mention it was to a supermodel. You've lived
such an amazing life, and it reflects in your work.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
It is a powerful way to tell these stories.

Speaker 5 (24:41):
I would imagine I'm asking a question I think I
know the answer to. It's important to visit these because
history tends to repeat itself.

Speaker 12 (24:51):
Well, it does. And let me make an interesting point,
and it's a very important point. Even though this period
was the most violent period in Americans and there were
gangs all over the place and the Irish controlled everything,
and then the Jews, the Jewish syndicates came along in
labor racketeering, and then the Jews and the Italians and bootlegging.

(25:14):
Every one of these gangs and gangsters or politicians wanted
to be Americans when you compare it to trenda at igua,
and they don't want to be Americans, they want to
use them.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Big difference, Yeah, very big and very and very important
to bring out.

Speaker 5 (25:31):
And it's very important for my listeners to trust that
you get that before they order the book. I think
the first thing is, you know, for everything that's invented,
including a great country based in liberty, liberty that comes
from God not man, and freedom and opportunity, you're going
to have some that come they denounced where they left,

(25:53):
they come, they assimilate where they are, but you're going
to have others that come through as well. And then
as these groups come in, sometimes you know they're struggling
to make ends meet, and they turned to bad things.
But the point is that this is not something new.
It must be learned from. And I guess what we
would take away is because the past is now history,

(26:16):
the ways we defeated it before, and how that may
teach us to deal with it now, because we don't
seem to be dealing well with it now very well
either well.

Speaker 12 (26:28):
Organized crime in a way has changed, Michael. Today it's
medicare fraud, SBA fraud, banks fraud, all kinds of nonsense
like that that didn't exist back then. In fact, my
plot couldn't have existed today because you have cell phones right,
all would have unwound everything in my book. You didn't

(26:48):
have that then. There was no communications. It allowed control
to be exerted upon people that had no power to
oppose it.

Speaker 5 (27:02):
I want to this is me because I'm talking to you,
wanting to know. Jeffrey Convicts, a New York Times bestselling author.
His latest is The Circus of Satan, the long history
of immigrant gangs and battles that we've had. How you
know you brought up the Sentinel, which was such a
huge How different are you today as a writer and.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
How important is this book.

Speaker 5 (27:30):
I hope, I pray it's not a final say, I
hope you've got other books in you. But how different
are you as a writer today and now that it's
out and it's done and it's terrific. How much have
you changed as a writer? And what does this book
accomplish for you? I'm curious.

Speaker 12 (27:49):
I as a very amusing story. My first creative writing
paper at Cornell when I was a freshman, I got
a D on it. The professor wrote, you are illiterate,
So I guess I got it. I came a bit
of way. I got to see you before.

Speaker 5 (28:05):
I went to summer school for English and I wrote
a book.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Believe me, I get it.

Speaker 5 (28:10):
And the one class I hated most was current events.
And that's all I do every day on the radio.
So oh, God has plans when we're not looking, doesn't he?

Speaker 2 (28:17):
What?

Speaker 5 (28:18):
What?

Speaker 2 (28:18):
What? What is different?

Speaker 12 (28:20):
Is in my writing today? It's much more sophisticated. But
I have to give some credit to my law practice
as a practicing trial lawyer and a Pellet lawyer. I've
written briefs to the California Supreme Court. I've learned how
to self edit. I when I wrote the Sentinel I'll

(28:42):
never forget. My agent said, what a fabulous book. Cut
the first one hundred and fifty pages. I said, what
do you bought all the background?

Speaker 2 (28:49):
He says, no one gives a damn.

Speaker 12 (28:51):
And I edited and edited, I edited and wound up
one page. So I learned how to self self discipline.
In fact, the first draft of Circus of Satan was
twelve hundred pages long. Wow, and I said, this is ridiculous.
There was so much information even I couldn't handle it.

(29:13):
But I had to whittle it down through five hundred
and thirty one pages, which is still a big book.
But I have to do this myself. So I guess
the word is discipline. Have to learn discipline yourself and
not fall in love with yourself. I'm a much better
writer than was back then, although I got pretty good
back then too. When you sell six million books.

Speaker 5 (29:35):
Well, I don't have to tell you whether you're hosting
a show on wor or whether you're in a courtroom
laying out an opening argument, closing argument or a case,
or whether you're writing a film or writing a book.
It's storytelling, right, And I mean what I hear is
the wisdom from having lived come out it may be

(29:56):
your best work. You made a mention Jeffrey that this
my fallen between two really great motion pictures. What are
the odds the circus of Satan? Either as a documentary
or a film, it just has to be right, because
the middle of the trilogy's missing.

Speaker 12 (30:13):
Well that's an interesting point because I don't think it
could be a movie. It's almost too big. There's a
lot of years in here and a lot of characters.
But as a mini series could be. I kind of
write visually. I write in a way for the screen.
You could divide this book up into a ten part

(30:34):
mini series or a six pot mini series.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
At some point.

Speaker 12 (30:39):
Because I'm in the entertainment business, I will get to
work on that.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Right now.

Speaker 5 (30:44):
You need you need like a really Italian looking guy,
you know, you could cast me.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
That would be my way to meet you. I think
it would be huge, whether.

Speaker 5 (30:51):
It's whether it's Netflix, Apple, Amazon, wherever it ends up,
this would be a huge I would venture to say
the minute it's done, it would be the biggest series
of the year, and there hasn't been one like this
for a long time.

Speaker 12 (31:03):
You may get to meet me. You're in Nashville, right Nashville. Yes,
my wife's entire family is in mes As we go
up to Nashville quite a bit.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
I would love to meet you. Give me a bit
part of this movie. I've acted in movies before. I'll
do it.

Speaker 5 (31:18):
The great Jeffrey Convicts, New York Times best selling author,
maybe his best work. I'm not going to say saved
for last. It's so easy for that to flow off
the tongue. I hope you got more in you or
maybe this turned into a series. Is the big one
before retirement? The long history of immigragrant gangs in America
told fictionally and you can trust its author and you
can trust its story. Barnes and Noble or Amazon Online

(31:40):
to get your copy of the Circus of Satan.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
Jeffrey, thanks so much for your time. As an honor
to meet you, sir.

Speaker 12 (31:45):
This was a great, great, great interview. I appreciated so much.
Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
This is your morning show with Michael del Chona.

Speaker 5 (31:57):
If you were listening to that interview with Jeffrey Convicts
and at any point your mind just began to naturally
connect some dots, So wait a minute, this isn't the
first time gangs have tried to take over major cities.
And they used to do it in the past by
corrupting the police. Now are they trying to do it
by just getting rid of the police. How relevant is

(32:18):
Jeffrey Convins's novel to what may be playing out in
New York City? If you're starting to connect some of
those dots, that's the power of history repeating itself if
you don't learn from it, or if you just get
forgetful of it. And there's a lot of forgetful of
it going on in New York twenty five years after
nine to eleven. All Right, the Senate is hoping to

(32:41):
start debate on President Trump's Big Beautiful Bill as early
as today. House members are going to get an intel
briefing on the Iran strikes. The whole world got won yesterday,
and the defense will deliver its closing arguments today. In
the sex trafficking trial of Sean Diddy Combs, We're going
to visit with Roy O'Neil about that. There's been a
lot to prove the guys scumbag, but have they proved

(33:02):
trafficking yet?

Speaker 2 (33:03):
I'm not so sure.

Speaker 5 (33:04):
Have we get a little cool down, but with it
severe weather, it's causing chaos with their trap that Morse
Draight Ahead is Your Morning Show.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Continues, We're all in this together. This is Your Morning
Show with Michael Nheld Joe Now
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club

Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club

Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.