March 15, 2026 • 55 mins
Join us for conversations, expert analysis, insight and commentary about today's politics, news, economy and current events including the latest regarding the war in Iran.
(00:00) The claims versus the facts regarding the SAVE America Act and whether there's an actual need for the legislation are examined.
(08:00) Cybersecurity attorney Lisa Sotto, partner with the firm Hunton, Andrews, Kurth LLP and former DHS data privacy official, explains the paths Iran can take to launch cyberattacks in America along with steps companies and individuals need to take to prevent them.
(18:56) Former CIA operative Tim Beard offers ideas about the importance of awareness of surroundings and priorities to rely on when confronted by threats and dangerous times at home and abroad.
(34:07) Olympic and champion pro boxer Danny O'Connor tells how a decades long eating disorder impacted his career, threatened his life as well as how he's created an online platform for men with eating disorders and how he's still involved with boxing via the DO Boxing Academy.
(49:32) Chris DeBello looks at what the Bible teaches and warns about Blind Faith.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Wikipedia.
(00:36):
They don't talk about how to dothat.
They don't talk about anything.
That's what they talked about.
You can end it up that you'regoing to win the midterms at
levels that you can't evenbelieve and you're going to win
every election for a long timeuntil somebody really screws
things up, and hopefully thatwon't happen.
SPEAKER_05 (01:03):
Donald Trump also claimed that the Save Act is all
that you and the rest of theAmerican public is talking
about.
Affordability, oh I'm sorry,affordability, education,
housing, price of gas, price ofoil, price of groceries?
Nah.
You're not concerned about anyof that.
Getting back to what Trump said,to how the Save America Act
(01:24):
would serve Republicans in themidterms, is it fair to say that
Trump is basically saying thatRepublicans would win if fewer
people were voting?
Well, at least in theory, that'swhat the Save America Act has
the potential of doing.
It requires voters to providedocumentary proof of citizenship
(01:46):
at the time of registration, aphoto ID at the time of voting.
It's passed by the House ofRepresentatives.
February.
It's not sure whether it's goingto make it through the Senate.
They've tried this past week.
And there's a whole talk aboutthe filibuster being in the way.
You've probably been hearing alittle bit at least about that.
Let's look at the Save AmericaAct as in the aspect of
(02:08):
citizenship being a requirementto vote and instances of non
citizens voting.
Well that's rare for that tohappen.
But s in effect, the SaveAmerica Act is introducing a
documentation requirement for alaw that's existed for decades.
It's called the IllegalImmigration Reform and Immigrant
(02:29):
Responsibility Act of 1996,which has been around for a
while, which prohibitsnon-citizens from voting in
federal elections.
Period.
End of case.
Now the Safe America Act, it'samending the National Voter
Registration Act of 1993 byintroducing the requirement for
(02:50):
people to provide proof of U.S.
citizenship when registering tovote in federal elections.
Registration voting bynon-citizens, that's as part of
a normal process investigatedand prosecuted by the
appropriate authorities, andthere is no evidence that
attempts to voting bynon-citizens have ever been to
(03:12):
the level that impacted theoutcome of any elections,
federal, state, or local.
In fact, there's there's plentyof evidence to indicate
registration and voting bynon-citizens is far and few in
between.
Many state election offices arealready using it's called the
U.S.
Citizenship and ImmigrationServices.
(03:34):
Systematic Alien Verificationfor Entitlements program started
using this process last year toverify voter citizenship, and
records in this program revealthat just 0.04% of voter
verification cases are returnedas non-citizens.
(03:56):
Now, when it comes to havingdocumentary proof of
citizenship, this is from theU.S.
Department of State.
Examples of primary citizenshipevidence are a birth
certificate, a passport, aconsular report of birth abroad,
a certificate of citizenship ora naturalization certificate.
And while real IDs are oftenassumed to be a reliable proxy
(04:19):
for citizenship, they don'tdefinitively establish
citizenship.
Although at least one of thesedocuments are, again, in theory
available to most citizens, noteverybody has them readily
available.
According to some recentstudies, 9% of all eligible
voters don't have or do not haveeasy access to documentary proof
(04:41):
of citizenship.
52% of registered voters don'thave an unexpired passport with
their current legal name, and11% of registered voters don't
have access to their birthcertificate.
Speaking of birth certificates,they often lack information that
matches a person's currentidentity.
Example, someone who has changedtheir name through marriage, for
(05:04):
example, or court order, youmight need to present a third
document, like a marriagecertificate, to join the proof
of citizenship or birthcertificate with their proof of
identity, like a driver'slicense.
So that further decreases thelikelihood that a voter will
have the appropriatedocumentation on hand to
successfully register.
(05:25):
And even if voters were toprovide documentary proof of
citizenship, verifying that it'sall legit, that's uh not easy to
say the least one that electionofficials and motor vehicle
departments often don't have theresources or even the training
to do.
Now you can say this is why thefederal government needs to get
involved with the administrationof elections for the states.
(05:48):
Just a small problem with thisidea, and I've probably said
this before, but it looks like Ineed to say it again.
It's Article I, Section 4,Clause I of the U.S.
Constitution, affectionatelyknown as the Elections Clause,
that assigns all oversight andadministration of elections to
the individual states.
Now, this isn't to say thatthere are never illegal votes
(06:13):
cast.
There are.
Here are a few examples.
We have James Saunders, this isin 2023 in Ohio.
He was convicted of two felonycounts for voting twice in both
the 2020 presidential electionand 2022 midterms in Minnesota.
We have from 2024 DanielChristine Miller.
(06:36):
She was initially sentenced tojail time for voting in the 2024
presidential election using herdeceased mother's name, but she
got out of that.
The judge told her instead toread a book about voting in the
U.S.
and write a book report.
That's according to the courtrecords.
I'm not making that one up.
Let's go to Pennsylvania, whereBruce Bartman was sentenced to
(06:59):
five years probation after headmitted to illegally casting
his dead mother's ballot in the2020 presidential election.
We have Jay Ketchuk, John Ryder,and Joan Halstead in Central
Florida.
They were arrested for castingmore than one vote during the
(07:20):
2020 presidential election.
They all live in the villages inSumter County, Florida.
They were looking at felonycharges up to five years in
prison for casting more than oneballot in the presidential race.
One more, Barry Morphew.
That's the husband of a Coloradowoman who's been missing for
more than two years.
(07:41):
He pled guilty to casting hermail invalid during the 2020
presidential election.
All those examples I just toldyou about, what do they all have
in common when it came tocasting illegal votes?
They were all casting illegalvotes for Donald Trump.
This past week, Donald Trumpsaid several times that the war
(08:02):
in Iran has been won.
If look at the military side atleast, we've seen continued
missile and drone attacks beinglaunched upon Iran.
But first guest today is here topoint out that Iran also holds a
weapon that they may havealready started to reach for and
use.
It's a weapon that can veryeasily impact your life,
especially your financial lifeand stability.
Joining us to discuss how thislikelihood could unfold is
(08:26):
Cybersecurity Attorney,partnering the firm Hunted
Andrews Curth LLP, former chairof the DHS Data Privacy and
Integrity Advisory Committee.
Lisa Sado, how are you today,Lisa?
SPEAKER_00 (08:38):
I'm just fine.
Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_05 (08:40):
And learn more about the aforementioned Hunted
Andrews Curth L LP.
It's Hunton.com.
We do have a link over at ourhomepage as well.
Mention that Iran is nottechnically illiterate by any
stretch of the imagination, andcertainly are they're capable of
creating turmoil digitally justas much as they are militarily.
(09:04):
As far as what we know aboutIran's capabilities, whether
it's alone or with either thirdparty or even allies, what's the
danger ta uh through technologythat Iran presents?
SPEAKER_00 (09:20):
Yeah, in fact, uh they are extremely technically
proficient, as are theirproxies.
So there are hacktivists who areuh ideologically aligned with uh
with Iran, and they areextremely sophisticated.
We should never, neverunderestimate their level of
sophistication in uh withrespect to cyber espionage.
(09:42):
Um there is real danger, as wesaw uh with their first major
foray uh getting into anAmerican company um from a
global perspective, Stryker.
They they went for the jugular,uh they they attacked a critical
infrastructure company.
This is a a health caresupplier, uh, and they uh they
(10:04):
took down many systems uh allover the world and uh claimed at
least that they stole a vastamount of data.
So we are very concerned aboutthe the the possibility of of uh
a cyber attack uh because ofcourse you don't need boots on
the ground to uh to conduct acyber attack, and not only are
(10:27):
uh Iranian uh uh linked partiesuh uh potentially uh uh in the
mix for for taking action, butso are their proxies.
SPEAKER_05 (10:39):
Is there also a threat of oh I'm I guess I'm
revealing my my fandom andaddiction to Western movies.
Are there hired guns out therethat Iran can recruit and have
them do the dirty work at awider range than Iran could even
do on their own?
SPEAKER_00 (10:57):
Sure.
Uh but there there are manyhired guns.
The uh uh we do know that somenation states, in fact, partner
with straight-on criminalhackers.
So yeah, there are there areplenty of uh very sophisticated
players for hire.
But um I I'm not even sure theyneed to to uh expend resources
(11:18):
on these folks because there arealso uh plenty of sophisticated
um cyber criminals uh who aredirectly linked to Iran and also
directly linked to to some oftheir proxies.
SPEAKER_05 (11:29):
And as you mentioned, militarily you need
numbers where with technologyyou need obviously much much
fewer numbers.
We we assume that the attack isalways going to go directly into
a system, uh a financial systemlike uh Chase, for example, the
New York Stock Exchange, pickthe target that you wish.
(11:51):
Technologically, is it alsopossible to get through in
through a back door through aclient of Chase as an example,
who maybe is leaving an opendoor to get into the main system
through the backdoor?
SPEAKER_00 (12:06):
Absolutely.
Uh and you can wreak havoc thatway.
So where there are connectedsystems and we are all connected
to each other, uh, there'salways the potential for uh for
criminal actors getting to getin through uh through backdoors.
And in fact, we do see when uhcriminal hackers get into
systems, they come in throughone door, but they leave a
(12:28):
number of back doors in thesystem so that they can come
back in if you find that frontdoor and shut it.
So we're always checking forthose other vulnerabilities so
that we can try to shut all thedoors and not just the front
door uh through which theyentered.
There's also, of course, thepotential just to wreak havoc.
So not only could they bringdown uh a system like like a
(12:51):
bank or a utility, electricutility or a municipal water
system, uh, but they can alsowreak uh psychological havoc.
So we're we're very attuned tothat as well.
SPEAKER_05 (13:01):
Well, certainly one havoc would lead to the the to
the psychological havoc as theas the aftermath.
And isn't is it uh is there apriority list because we also
think of brick and mortarlocations, businesses,
industries, and you referencedabout uh utilities and the ease
(13:23):
that really anything thatmatters in any country is is
accessible electronicallybecause we see so often reports
of data breaches, it makes onesuspect just how unprepared are
these large bodies of activityof businesses, corporations
supplying utilities, howunprepared are so many of these
(13:46):
necessities?
SPEAKER_00 (13:48):
We try very hard uh to do uh incident preparedness
work in advance.
Um remember it just takes onesuccessful attack, and we have
to ward off thousands of them aday.
So one one one time is all ittakes for a bad actor to get
into a system and uhsuccessfully and and and wreak
(14:10):
havoc within the system.
Um we are very focused on uhreadiness activities, uh
ensuring that we're testingsystems constantly.
Uh of course, basic hygiene isreally critical, uh, making sure
you have strong uh uhauthentication methods, uh
strong passwords, uh, strongmulti-factor authentication
(14:31):
methods, uh, access controls,segmentation of systems.
So if a bad guy gets into onepart of the system, they can't
traverse into another part ofthe system.
Um so we are constantly testinguh these sorts of protections.
In addition to understandingwhether or not we have um
immutable backups, so that if athreat actor wipes the system
(14:55):
clean of data, do we havebackups in a totally segregated
place that we could use to thenrestore the data?
SPEAKER_05 (15:03):
So for organizations really of any size when you
think about, because one can getyou into another and you can go
up the technological chain, whatare some of the priorities
organizations should berevisiting as the likelihood,
not the possibility, I think Ithink likelihood is a more
accurate word, of a cyber attackis going to grow even not just
(15:27):
during the war in Iran, but theaftermath again, because you
don't need numbers to cause thehavoc that we're talking about
here.
So, what are some of thepriorities organizations have to
go back to revisit that theythought they may have already
had set and all alreadyoperating as they hope it would
be?
SPEAKER_00 (15:45):
You're right to say that there's a likelihood that
that companies will be attacked,and uh we we do think that
there's literally no one who'simmune uh from cyber attacks.
So there's no industry sectorthat can feel uh safe from these
sorts of attacks.
Um we worry about the supplychain.
We we've talked about this, butI think that's a real concern
(16:07):
because uh to the extent uh a abad actor gets in um to one
point uphill and thendistributes malware to thousands
of customers of that singlesupplier, um that's that's a way
of of uh doing a one-to-manyattack, and it's it's very
successful and it's veryefficient uh and hard to protect
(16:31):
against.
Um so we we worry about thesupply chain.
You could have a fortress aroundyour system.
You could have a moat with thealligators in the moat around
your own systems, but if you letthat bridge down to others to
get into your system, bad actorsalso could cross that bridge.
So it's very important to have avendor management program in
(16:53):
place, make sure you're you'revetting your vendors, and
particularly the ones who haveany sort of integration within
your system to make sure thatthey have the protections that
you expect of them, uh, havecontractual protections as well
to uh to at least bind themcontractually to uh to
committing to certain securityprotections.
(17:13):
And then do ongoing monitoringof your vendors because you
might have very strongprotections at the beginning of
a relationship, but five yearsdown the road, those protections
may lap.
So it's very important to uh todo ongoing monitoring.
I'll also note that companiesnow routinely do penetration
(17:34):
tests, uh, for example, to seeuh whether their their systems
are um susceptible to uhpenetration from the outside.
And doing something called umred team hacking, I think, is
very useful.
Um you're essentially hiring uha group of folks to try to break
into your system.
Uh and uh in many, many, manycases they are successful.
(17:58):
Uh the hope is that we find thevulnerabilities before the
threat actors do.
SPEAKER_05 (18:03):
There's a lot of ways and a lot of guidance that
Lisa's offered here, as does herfirm, Hunt and Andrews Kirth
LLP.
Find out more about the servicesthey provide at hunting.com.
We have the link at the homepageas well.
Lone being a cybersecurityattorney and partner in the firm
Hunt and Andrews Kirth LLP.
She's former chair of the DHSData Privacy and Integrity
(18:25):
Advisory Committee.
Lisa Soto, thanks so much forhelping us realize the
importance of awareness and notto take what we think as normal
daily activity lightly becausethat leaves us prone, and that's
in this day and time is not aplace we want to be.
Thanks for your very educationaland insightful words today.
SPEAKER_00 (18:48):
Thank you for speaking with me.
SPEAKER_05 (18:50):
If you're listening via your favorite podcast
platform, don't forget to followor subscribe.
It wasn't too long after the warin Iran began that the U.S.
government advised all Americansnot just leave the countries
immediately around Iran, butpretty much the entire Middle
East.
Since embassies had been shutdown, air travel was extremely
(19:10):
limited at best, didn't leaveAmericans in that region with
much to work with, did it?
Now, while you might be thinkingthat this will be a situation
you'll never be in, if you doany foreign travel, who says you
couldn't be, even in a regionthat you thought was stable?
What's that saying?
Uh yeah, failing to plan isplanning to fail.
(19:31):
My next guest is with us.
Help you with that planning,which won't just keep you safe,
but it could save your life.
He offers his expert guidance inhis latest book, Look Twice,
Volume 3, Your Guide When DangerComes to You at Home and
Overseas.
He's a retired CIA operative wholed and managed clandestine
operations around the world.
He also served in the U.S.
(19:52):
Marine Corps, attaining thegrade of captain.
Tim Beard, how are you today,Tim?
SPEAKER_04 (19:57):
Hi, Chris.
Thanks for having me on.
I appreciate the opportunity tocome back on again.
SPEAKER_05 (20:00):
Well, I appreciate your continued work on this very
timely information,TimbeardAuthor.com.
You can find out more about notjust LookTrice Volume 3, but
Volume 2 as well as Volume 1.
Let's build a foundation for thelistener.
And because this is the runningtheme through all of your books,
the LookTwice mindset.
(20:22):
What are a couple of theelements of that?
SPEAKER_04 (20:24):
A couple of the elements on that.
First off, I I as I said before,I want to say this again because
it's so important.
Security doesn't have to behard.
It's doing the fundamentals, thebasics right every single time.
And in your audience, they cando this.
You got to be in the moment.
So these are some of theelements.
You need to be aware and in themoment.
(20:44):
You need to be paying attention,not in a paranoid way, but with
your head up and just be alertand know what's going on around
you.
Don't be staring at your phone.
Don't have headphones on whenyou're exposed on the street.
This applies anywhere in theworld.
Another principle there isplanning and preparation.
A big part of, you know, some ofthe folks get caught, say
(21:07):
they're in Dubai or they're overin the region near Iran, they
it's been 47 years since we ourembassy was overrun, I believe
it was 4 November 1979.
So a long time ago.
There have been problems boilingalong over the years and finally
balled over.
So the thing was by planning andpreparing and trying to see,
(21:30):
hey, what's coming this way,that's where you want to try to
get ahead of problems.
You want to mitigate risk byavoiding.
Because obviously, if you're ina a threat area in a war zone or
an area that's receiving missilestrikes, that's beyond the
capability of any human todefend against, other than
getting out of the way.
(21:50):
And so with a look twicemindset, it's avoiding, it's
planning and preparing, it'sbeing aware, and when you're
planning that travel, hey, do II want to go there.
Things seem like they're heatingup a bit.
And maybe it's not the bestcall.
SPEAKER_05 (22:05):
And also too where you think you can have a
reliance on an outsideindividual or organization
embassies, for example, likelike I said in the introduction.
That's great to think that andhope that's going to be there,
but if not, what's going to fallupon me to take care of?
SPEAKER_04 (22:24):
Yeah, a lot of times you've got to be
self-sufficient.
It's important that you contactthe embassy and that you are on
record as being in the country,that you sign up for
notifications for the localembassy or consulate wherever
you're at, because then they'llknow you're in theater and they
can pay attention.
But if you put yourself intothat environment and the
(22:44):
environment's overwhelmed, thatI mean they're not necessarily
going to be able to come helpyou.
They're going to do their best,but that is that's not in their
mission statement to rescue andget everybody out of there.
You know, one folks, one thing alot of Americans forget about,
they think when they gooverseas, they're like, well,
I'm an American, I have specialrights and privileges.
When you're in a sovereigncountry, somebody else's
(23:06):
country, you're a visitor.
You don't have any specialrights or privileges.
The embassy will try to help youout, the local consulate, which
is subordinate to the embassy,they'll try to help you out as
much as they can, but you aresubject to the laws of that
environment.
And if there's a conflict goingon there and you put yourself
into that situation, um, you mayhave to find a way to get out.
(23:29):
And that can be very, verydifficult, especially something
as large as this.
SPEAKER_05 (23:33):
Certainly, depending on the nation you're in, you can
go from being you might bethinking you're a special
privileged American, but in factyou could quickly become a
target.
SPEAKER_04 (23:42):
Absolutely.
And I would offer that manyAmericans are targets by virtue
of being American in a lot ofplaces around the world.
There are mixed responses toAmericans.
Some people like us a lot, somepeople don't.
And it also varies by times inhistory.
There have been places where youcould go and visit, you and I
could go on a trip to someplace,and they loved us a few years
(24:04):
ago, and maybe they don't loveus now, or they couldn't stand
us a few years ago, and nowthey're best friends with
America.
And that's the thing I wouldoffer to to the listeners.
One thing that is constant ischange.
Just because if you know, I'vebeen to a lot of places around
the world, obviously based on mybackground.
There may be a country I went totwenty years ago.
(24:26):
It has completely changed, andit could be the best friend of
the United States now, or itcould be an enemy.
Things change and sometimes theychange quickly.
So when you're doing yourresearch, you can't say, Well,
I've been going there for years.
I would quickly say, and what'schanged over that period?
What is current as of today?
(24:46):
Here's another one of thesequotes I throw out to your
audience.
Bad news doesn't get better withage.
It's not fine wine or cheese.
So if if you're looking at thesituation, you need to say, This
is what's going on.
I need to be straight.
I need to not lie to myself orthe people I'm with.
I need to say, this is what I'mseeing, and it's ugly.
(25:09):
And now you're gonna have tofigure out how do I deal with
the problem in front of me.
A lot of people try to sugarcoatstuff.
They're like, well, it's notthat bad, or we're gonna be
okay.
Sometimes you're not gonna beokay.
You need to plan for what is infront of you, and you've got to
guide yourself to be okay.
That's a really important point.
Don't don't lie to yourself andsay it'll all work out.
(25:32):
It'll work out because you seethe problem set, and then you
are addressing the problem setlogically, thoughtfully, and
right now, and you're trying tofigure out what to do.
Know your resources before yougo into a particular theater.
Know where the embassy is.
You know what part of town itis, what's the local consulate
if you're away from the capitalcity?
(25:53):
How do you do you have contactnumbers?
Are they aware of you beingthere?
What's historically been theproblems in the local area?
I address a lot of this as youmentioned in volume three.
I have a whole bunch ofquestions I came up with that I
think are important to askbefore you schedule travel to go
someplace.
And just remember environmentschange.
SPEAKER_05 (26:14):
Oh, and Tim Beard with his latest book, Look
Twice, Volume 3, your guide whendanger comes to you at home and
overseas, Timbear.com, thewebsite, and your listing to
Wish Hughes and Ideas, Tim alsowrites about medical concerns
that come about, as well asself-defense, which I've noticed
over recent years, Tim.
A lot of I mean, we always thinkof shooting academies and uh uh
(26:36):
military-based uh training foruh learning how to respect and
use the gun, but I've seen manygun ranges and gun dealers
start.
I mean, for sure it's a way toadd to revenue for a for a
working business, but the onesI've talked to, they say they
want to help people respect andunderstand a firearm, not just
(26:56):
get it and use it, and that's abig difference, I think.
SPEAKER_04 (27:00):
It is.
Just just because you purchase afirearm doesn't make you an
expert in firearms.
Uh when you buy a firearm, youjust took on a whole bunch of
responsibility.
I would offer the number onething if you purchase a firearm,
you've got to train, train,train, learn how to use it.
Just because you buy a guitar ora piano doesn't make you uh Eric
(27:21):
Clapton, a famous guitar player.
It doesn't make you a concertpianist.
You have to practice andpractice.
Now with a firearm, you can getskilled relatively quickly with
good training.
But as you mentioned, there's alot of folks out there who will
offer training.
The best place to go if youreally want to get serious about
(27:42):
it is to go to a professionalshooting school.
There are several of those outthere around the United States
that have been very safe intraining people.
They have expert instructorswith solid backgrounds, and
they've been doing it for many,many, many years.
So you can search online andfind some of those.
The other one, too, and I knowthere are different feelings
(28:02):
about the NRA for differentfolks, but one thing the
National Rifle Association doesdo very well, they train and
they have instructors who arecertified to teach people the
safe handling and storage offirearms.
That is a great resource aswell.
The third one, and uh a smartway to go, wherever you purchase
the firearm from, you know, sayI'd really like to learn how to
(28:26):
use this and get you knowintimately comfortable with this
this particular weapon becauseit's a tool.
You've got to know how to useit.
Talk to the people at the gunshop, and a lot of them can
direct you towards really goodtraining resources.
Chris, the thing that folks needto be careful of is when they
talk to somebody who they knowand they go, Yeah, I'll teach
you how to shoot.
(28:47):
Well, they may be teaching thema lot of bad habits.
I learned to shoot in the UnitedStates Marine Corps, and the
United States Marine Corps isreally, really good at teaching
people to shoot.
Because it's they've been doingit for for you know almost 250
years.
So it's something that um thereare people who will learn in the
(29:07):
military, but you just need toknow what's their background and
are they a good teacher of it.
That's a really important piecethough.
SPEAKER_05 (29:15):
I have to wrap up on this with um I'm gonna I want to
wrap up what you begin the bookwith, the section on civil
unrest.
Typically, short of anassassination, the first one
comes to mind was theassassination of Martin Luther
King Jr.
and civil unrest quicklydeveloped after that.
But typically, civil unrest is along-term developing situation.
(29:37):
How important is it for someoneto understand the difference
between possible and probable?
SPEAKER_04 (29:44):
And that is also a piece of the look twice mindset.
First, let me define that forthe listeners.
The possible versus theprobable, the example I'll give.
A meteor could follow me rightnow and crush me.
Is that possible?
Sure.
Is it probable?
No, it's not.
I cannot, I have limitedresources.
Everybody does.
Limited attention.
(30:05):
If I'm worried about everypossibility, I'm gonna be
frustrated, paranoid, nervous,on edge all the time, in a
self-made prison.
That is not any way to live.
What folks should do is look atthe three, four, five most
probable things from a securityperspective that can happen in a
situation.
(30:25):
You're driving through adifficult neighborhood, you know
you're gonna have to stop at astoplight or a stop sign.
Is it possible I could have mycar jacked or have somebody
approach me while the car isstationary?
It's possible.
I would say in someenvironments, especially if
there's a history of that, itmay be probable.
So think ahead of time, what amI gonna do?
What would I do while you'reclear in mind, while you don't
(30:47):
have adrenaline surging throughyour body when you start making
bad decisions and you lose yourfine motor skills and can't work
levers or push buttons verywell.
What am I gonna do in thatsituation?
Right to that hard drive in yourbrain.
So that's where you're gonna gowhen something happens for real.
So that's the possible versusthe probable.
If you're going to anenvironment, for example, where
(31:10):
there has been boiling unrest,that can be overseas.
When I wrote these books, it canpertain to the United States.
It can also pertain to a lot ofcountries around the world where
they have unrest.
There are difficult situationsthat are on the verge of boiling
all the time.
I would certainly question whyam I going there?
Maybe for work, but am I goingthere for fun?
(31:31):
If I'm going for fun and I get alook over my shoulder, that's
that's not such fun as a goodtime.
So maybe I don't want to gothere.
So then that comes back to theplanning and preparation.
But in volume three, I talkabout civil unrest and I I give
a little planning process thatanyone can use to help you plan
in advance what happens if theunthinkable comes true and stuff
(31:54):
starts to boil over.
Where are you gonna go?
How are you gonna get there?
What are you gonna carry?
And what are you gonna do alongthe way?
Who are you moving with?
If you're moving with somebodythat has disabilities who can't
run or can't walk very far,you've got to take that into
account if that's a familymember or a friend, somebody
you're moving with.
So I really go into detail onthat, and that'll help a lot of
(32:16):
folks.
But does stuff boil upovernight?
We've had some challenges in theUnited States where there may be
a shooting and people and theyget very upset and something
starts to boil up quickly andcan boil over.
And that's something that youmay want to have a plan in place
if you live in a major urbancenter, and something like
(32:36):
that's happened historically.
It doesn't hurt to plan.
It doesn't hurt to have an ideaof what you're gonna do.
And if something does happen,you'll be grateful for the time
you put into it.
SPEAKER_05 (32:47):
That's really what Tim teaches with all of us look
twice books, the importance ofplanning, and what will surprise
you is your capability ofcreating and executing a
sustainable, effective plan.
He gives you the steps and showsyou really how realistic it is.
You're not you don't you won'tbe called upon to build a
backyard bunker.
(33:07):
It's a realistic uh easy-to-do,easy to accept tools and
strategies to keep it safe nomatter what happens to explode
either here in America.
Is it a possibility?
Well, at this point I could saypossibility.
Probability, well, maybe that'swhat the that's the benefit of
24-7 news uh uh stream that wecan always see whether a
(33:29):
possible is becoming a probable,certainly overseas.
That's more obvious more thanever, perhaps.
Find out more about all of Tim'swritings.
More importantly, get them foryour uh education, your
awareness, and your safety atTimbeardauthor.com.
Tim, you are a you are afountain of factual, uh
(33:51):
necessary truth for us to berealistic about the world around
us.
I thank you for that for beinghere today.
SPEAKER_04 (33:57):
Thanks so much, Chris.
SPEAKER_05 (33:58):
Uh we've got the next No Kings rallies coming up
on Saturday, March 28th.
You can find out the one nearyou at no kings.org.
We've really become aself-conscious society, have we
not?
Sometimes it's vanity, othertimes it's just outside
influence.
One of the main points of focusis right weight, they call it
(34:20):
too.
Social media plays a huge rolein how people all ages see
themselves while comparingthemselves with others in, let's
say, really unrealistic ways.
Assumptions and biases, theyalso add to this emotional and
physical turmoil.
(34:42):
Left him with a decades-longeating disorder.
He tells a story, what he had toconfront and overcome, and
provides, I believe, very vitalfirst-hand knowledge and
guidance about SQ, which is notlimited to only women.
That's what you might believe,but he helps you understand
otherwise his book is weightclass, A Fighter's Life or Death
(35:03):
Battle with an eating disorder,being an award-winning amateur
boxer, member of the 2008Olympics team as a pro.
He was also the WVCInternational Silver Super
Lightweight Champion, DannyO'Connor.
Thanks for being here today,Danny.com.
(35:29):
And like I said, we have thoseover at our homepage.
It's a general term that I thinkpeople don't take seriously
enough.
So talk about your eatingdisorder, how it impacted more
specifically your training andyour fighting, because one l one
(35:52):
coexisted with the other.
SPEAKER_03 (35:55):
Uh yeah, well, I think it's important to realize
that there's two parallels here.
Like um the unhealthy theunhealthy tactics that I use to
manipulate my body to make aweight class, that's one
parallel.
I mean, you can compete in acombat sport free of uh eating
disorder and and still have ayou know great purpose in the
sport.
The unfortunate part was, youknow, I I had been in a weight
(36:18):
class sport since adolescence,and I did uh a lot of negative
things to my body to manipulateit to try to fit into a weight
class.
And so ultimately an eatingdisorder is the other parallel,
and that is something thatdeveloped over time.
It didn't happen overnight, itit developed over time, and um I
(36:39):
view that as a as a wholeseparate thing because even when
I came away from the sport andaway from the weight class, the
eating disorder was still there.
It didn't leave because the theweight class left.
And so um 2013 was about when Ikind of realized like that I had
a problem and it was affectingmy health, and um ultimately
this eating disorder, I view itas something that was beyond
(37:01):
control.
Like I had such discipline inall aspects of my life as a
professional athlete, um and andthe ability to not eat um and to
make weight and to do thesedifferent things, then all of a
sudden it felt like overnightwhere it just changed.
I got a binge eating diagnosisand then I couldn't stop.
(37:21):
Something I controlled soaggressively for so many years,
um, then I was out of control ofit.
And so that's where I view theeating disorder separate than
the tactics that I was using tomake weight, which were
unhealthy in their own, youknow, restricting my food, w you
know, taking water out, usinglaxatives, things that um that
(37:43):
that I was doing to make weight.
And so those two thingsseparate, um, the eating
disorder itself was kind of nowa a whole nother aspect of my
life that kind of took over andI had a whole professional team
of people.
I mean, that eating disorderalmost killed me numerous times,
and uh I ended up in the ICU onprobably one of the biggest
(38:05):
nights of my life, the stages ofmy life when I was trying to
fight for that worldchampionship belt that I had
basically been following for tenyears, ten years straight.
I had that that goal and thatand that vision and that thing
that I was working to, and umultimately I didn't get to
fulfill that.
Because you gotta understand theeating disorder was separate
(38:26):
than making weight, but makingweight was my job, it was my
livelihood, and those two thingswent in direct conflict with
each other.
The the more the eating disorderdeveloped and got out of
control, the the more thetactics to make my weight class
and fulfill my duties becamemore extreme, and so it was just
a really, really chaoticnegative cycle.
SPEAKER_05 (38:46):
Sure, without a doubt.
And you you you observedyourself as a disciplined
professional, and with thatvision you had of yourself,
before you got the diagnosis,did you think your eating habits
were were normal as far as youwere concerned?
Was there a level of level ofnormalcy at any time?
SPEAKER_03 (39:05):
No, definitely not.
And that and that's the pointI'm trying to get.
Like, there's two parallelshere.
Like, anyone that's affected byeating disorder, you know, I I
hope that that my message canlike give you some connection
and and hope that you understandthat you can seek help and find
supports.
But then there's also some kidsstepping on a scale somewhere in
the world right now that doesn'thave an eating disorder, and you
know, I hope that they learnedfrom my lesson to not do any of
(39:27):
the things that I was doingbecause I never accepted them as
dangerous in the long run.
I knew they were acutelydangerous, and I kind of
normalized that to make weightbecause you know I started at an
early age, there wasn't a lot ofeducation, and I kind of just
fell into a way of doing thingsto maintain a weight and and
still compete.
(39:48):
Um but ultimately I normalizedthat, but I never once asked
myself, like, if what am I doingnow, you know, how's that gonna
affect me in in ten years?
And that was the problem becauseum, you know, I just figured I'm
gonna do what I'm gonna do tomake weight, and then eventually
I'll I'll go back to what youthink normal would be when my
career is over and I'm a and I'ma a regular person, regular day
(40:10):
activities, not professionalathlete.
Um and I never once said likeyou know, maybe that wouldn't be
an option, and I didn't realizethat um in until kind of too
late in the game, it it hadalready progressed.
So um two different types of ofdangers.
One acutely, when you're makingweight in the moment, you're
putting your life at risk, butthen the eating disorder, which
(40:31):
is it's not acute, it's it'saccumulative.
So like you know, that thingdevelops and people don't
realize I think there's a lot ofmisunderstanding in eating
disorders.
They're very, very complex, andit's your physical, your mental,
and your emotional.
And when you go against thenatural cues of your body, like
when your body tells you to eatand you don't eat, and you know,
you you induce going to thebathroom with laxatives, like
(40:53):
you can create serious problemsin your health that affect
systems of your body.
Um, and so I've had many healthissues I had to remedy over the
years because of you knowsomething that I was doing or or
wasn't doing.
So it it's it's about awarenessto understand the severity of
these things, and it doesn'tmatter if you're a guy or a
girl, like anybody can beaffected by food.
That's why it's it's kind oflike hidden in plain sight, and
(41:15):
and that's the reality of it,because my wife of 15 years, who
is my number one support, like Iwouldn't have been able to do it
without her, and then theprofessional team of people
keeping me alive.
Outside of that, no one reallyknew the depths of this.
It was a very lonely, isolateddisorder that spanned 20 years
of my life.
SPEAKER_05 (41:34):
Or Danny O'Connor, who tells about his life in
weight class, the fighter's lifeor death battle with an eating
disorder, bitelike a man.com getinto what his work with that is
all about, as well asdooboxingacademy.com and you are
listening to It's Using Ideas.
You know what's going on, youunderstand it uh as as best you
(41:55):
can, hopefully with help aroundyou.
It's uh it's just like with anymedical treatment.
You need a team of professionalsand a team of uh personal people
in your life to get throughthis.
But as for yourself, uh Can youpinpoint a uh was it that day in
that night in July of 2018?
Was there a specific time whenyou looked at yourself and you
(42:16):
had to confess that things haveto change or I'm dead?
SPEAKER_03 (42:21):
Um I I would say 2013 was that like pivotal
moment where I kind of was like,damn, I have an eating disorder
right now.
There was no delusion.
And then I kind of was like,wait a minute, what's an eating
disorder?
How does it affect me?
That's like 2013.
I was in a wicked negative cyclewith the binge eating and the
(42:42):
making weight, and um, you know,I I knew that something was
wrong because when I was tryingto, you know, you say like I I
like to think I understand thisbecause it it's you know, I
spent eight, ten years goingthrough the recovery process to
understand it, but some days Ijust still feel baffled the
complexity of it.
Like you don't just quit aneating disorder, you don't quit
(43:04):
food like a typical drug, likeyou can have abstinence, like
you have to put the out ofcontrol back in control while
you're still maintaining arelationship with food, because
you have to eat for survival.
So it was a very tricky thing.
But that day in 2013, when Irealized like there is a problem
right now, that's when I kind ofwent on the journey to eliminate
it, and it humbled me a lotbecause at that time I actually
(43:27):
stepped away from the sport.
I left the sport, and sincethere's no seasons in boxing,
there's really no questions tobe asked because it's it's you
fight at your own leisure.
At at any at any time a fightercan step away or come back.
So it was a very private thing,and at that time I thought like
naively, I'm just gonna takecare of this overnight.
(43:47):
Like I look at everything aslike an athlete.
If something you know, you getan injury on your your arm, you
heal it, you rehab it, youoptimize, you get back, you
compete, like nothing happened.
And so I look at everythingmental, emotional, physical.
Like if there's something wrong,you address it and then you get
back into the game, right?
So I thought it would be anovernight fix.
Like, you know, I'm just gonnaquit this thing and get back to
(44:09):
my career.
And, you know, I was humbledreal quick, and you know, five
years later, as I'm still goingthrough the journey, like um it
it it's just a really complexthing that that I had to
understand and understand how Iwas affected by it and
understand how I was gonna beable to overcome it, which
ultimately I did.
Today I feel free of an eating,sort of like I know I'm gonna
(44:32):
have a relationship with foodfor the rest of my life.
We already explained how it'sdifferent, and my relationship
with food will be a lotdifferent than other people's,
so I always have to keep that inmind.
But the action of binge eating,which you know was the most
chaotic, craziest thing ever, Idon't do that anymore.
And I haven't in a long time,and I feel very free of all the
(44:53):
mental and emotional baggagethat comes with the eating
disorder, because like we talkedabout it before, it touches so
many areas of your life.
So it just took a long time toget there.
SPEAKER_05 (45:02):
And certainly too, for you listening, you can hear
how Danny had so much in frontof him, but in spite of that,
the eating disorder overtook thegoals that he set for himself
professionally, and now todayyou have uh two operations that
you're you're overseeing BiteLike a Man, which is
BiteLikeAMan.com, and yourBoxing Academy deal,
(45:22):
BoxingAcademy.com.
What do you hope to accomplishwith these two uh these two
works that you're doing?
SPEAKER_03 (45:29):
Um I try to make my life to involve business but
also helping people at the sametime.
Uh you know, and I like to dothings that are purposeful to
me.
So um the Boxing Academy isusing the platform that was
gifted to me because I wouldn'tbe here if it wasn't for boxing.
Boxing came into my life at apivotal pivotal time when I was
(45:52):
uh adolescent when I was eithergonna face jail or death, and
boxing saved my life.
So for all the hardships thathad to do with weight, the
eating disorder, or boxing overthe years, I still always have a
special love for the sport.
So um it's a platform thatreally can change lives and
elevate lives.
It doesn't matter where you comefrom or how much money you have,
(46:13):
and so I wanted to be able togive that back to the community.
And obviously, if you read thebook, you'll see the journey
that I went on that was veryunorthodox.
Like I went to your typical likehospital setting intensive
outpatient like eating disorderprogram, but then there was a
lot of unorthodox things that Idid because I never really felt
(46:35):
like I fit anywhere becauseobviously there's a lack of
mail, so I didn't have guys totalk to freely.
Um I did a lot of other stuff.
Mindfulness, the uh UMassmedical program.
I I went through that and so Iincorporate a lot of the
mindfulness because boxing isjust not the physical, it's very
much emotional control andmental control.
And so I I created a programthat I thought would uh try to
(46:58):
give at-risk kids the sameplatform that I had, and so um
that's pretty purposeful to me,and also bite like a man.com.
We just talked about it.
I didn't have a true connectionto a lot of males in the eating
disorder world over the years.
You know, I think I only talkedto four and and one was a a
child.
So I wanted to make a platformwhere if you had an issue and
(47:21):
you were a man, you could comelike talk about it.
Not mental health services, butjust kind of a community where
you know, if you got somethinggoing on, maybe you can come get
some education, some awareness,because you know, I always look
back to like when I firststepped on a scale and that you
know, we're talking about like1999, 2000s, there wasn't the
internet wasn't awesome, therewasn't a lot of awareness.
(47:43):
You know, I I think if I justknew a lot more, I could have
made better decisions with mydiet, with the way I was making
weight, and I could have justenjoyed the sport, but instead
my whole focus was on theweight, on manipulating my body
to to make that weight, and itit caused some some serious harm
(48:03):
into my adult years and into myfuture.
So um I just wanted a placewhere guys could come and get
information and and be a part ofa community.
SPEAKER_05 (48:11):
Well, as you can hear, Danny is not just telling
a story to sell a book, he'sworking to make a difference in
a variety of ways.
First, with one of the most openbooks of a life that you'll ever
want to read and learn from, andDanny re referenced to how back
in 1999 the internet wasn'treally a go-to.
Well, today it is, and like Isaid back in the introduction,
(48:32):
it's giving a huge negativeinfluence for both young men and
young women, with body image inparticular, what they think they
need to be to be liked orfollowed, or whatever whatever
the case may be.
And Danny, with his story andweight class, the fighters, life
or death battle with an eatingdisorder, helps you understand
the value of life and how it'sso easy to jeopardize it through
(48:56):
our own actions, decisions, wiseand unwise, and more
importantly, the steps it takes,and it's always plural, it's
never a singular.
It's steps to take to recover,overcome, and restore the life
that you want to have.
Two websites bitelikeaman.comand for Danny's Boxing Academy,
DOBoxingAcademy.com.
(49:17):
Again, the book, Weight Class, aFighter's Life or Death Battle
with an Eating Disorder.
Danny O'Connor, thank you somuch for giving so much to
people to learn from and to bestrengthened by, and thanks for
being here today.
SPEAKER_02 (49:28):
I appreciate it.
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_05 (49:32):
At first it was just a small number of Americans, and
that number grew.
If you're on social media to anydegree, you no doubt saw this,
or maybe you were even a part ofit yourself.
Supporters of Donald Trump beganturning away from him.
Most common cause for theirnewly found rejection of Trump
has been their saying, I didn'tvote for this, meaning that they
(49:53):
didn't agree with Trump'sactions or his decisions.
Then it was the voices on very,very public platforms who joined
the chorus saying, I didn't votefor this.
Most prominent names, of course,Joe Rogan, Marjorie Taylor
Green, but there are more.
These are all people who votedfor and supported Donald Trump
based on what he said he woulddo.
(50:15):
They never asked for detailsabout how he was going to do it,
just what he was going to do.
That's called blind faith.
So what's changed within thesepeople?
I think the answer is found inthe song that we probably know
very well, Amazing Grace.
I'm not going to sing it, don'tworry, but the lyrics say this
(50:36):
Amazing Grace, how sweet thesound that saved a wretch like
me.
I once was lost, but now I'mfound, was blind, but now I see.
How precious did that graceappear, the hour I first
believed.
Amazing Grace was written byJohn Newton back in 1772 and
(50:57):
first published in 1779.
What's important to know aboutJohn Newton is he was a slave
ship captain who rebuked hispast and became a pastor.
His hymn, which has becomereally the definition of a
timeless song, is based on whatwe read in 1 Chronicles chapter
17, verses 16 and 17, with KingDavid praising God's grace.
(51:20):
Then King David went in and satbefore the Lord, and he said,
Who am I, O Lord God, and whatis my house that you have
brought me this far?
And yet this was a small thingin your sight, O God, and you
have also spoken of yourservant's house for a great
while to come, and have regardedme according to the rank of a
man of high degree, O Lord God.
(51:43):
Let's go back to the idea ofblind faith.
What is faith?
Let's start with that.
Here's what we read in Romanschapter ten, verse seventeen.
So then faith comes by hearing,and hearing by the word of God.
So we can call that ourfoundation, right?
Now let's look at some of theways people apply the Bible to
their act of what they considerto be blind faith.
(52:06):
An often quoted Bible verse bythose seeking justification of
their blind faith is 2Corinthians chapter 5, verse 7,
which declares, For we walk byfaith, not by sight.
But you wind up lost unless youalso read verse 8.
We are confident, yes, wellpleased, rather to be absent
from the body and to be presentwith the Lord.
(52:29):
This teaches us that our faithshould only be placed with God
and his promise.
Now, how does that align withwhat James teaches us in James
chapter 2, verse 14?
What does it profit, mybrethren, if someone says he has
(52:51):
faith but does not have works?
Can faith save him?
Right, it it doesn't.
In the twentieth chapter of thebook of John, Jesus comes to his
disciples after his death andresurrection.
Thomas had to, he wasn't there,he had to make the post office
run that day, so he wasn'tthere.
When Thomas came back and wastold what happened, he said, I
(53:13):
don't believe it unless I seeit.
Which now you know where theterm doubting Thomas comes from.
Jesus did indeed appear again,so Thomas could see him.
Jesus then says this to Thomas.
In John chapter 20, verse 29,Jesus said to him, Thomas,
because you have seen me, youhave believed.
Blessed are those who have notseen and yet believed.
(53:37):
This is not just a lesson forThomas, but for all, place your
faith where the testimony ofothers rests.
If you're hearing a mixedmessage, then that's no place
for any kind of faith, blind orotherwise.
If you're hearing a message oflove, of truth, of grace,
placing your blind faith therewill certainly bring you God's
blessings.
Are you asking what your filtershould be for all this?
(53:59):
How can I know without fallinginto a false faith?
Well, not only should you beasking those questions, you
should be studying and absorbinghow John answers them in first
John chapter 4, verses 1 through3.
Beloved, do not believe everyspirit, but test the spirits,
whether they are of God, becausemany false prophets have gone
(54:20):
out into the world.
By this you know the Spirit ofGod.
Every spirit that confesses thatJesus Christ has come in the
flesh is of God, and everyspirit that does not confess
that Jesus Christ has come inthe flesh is not of God, and
this is the spirit of theAntichrist, which you have heard
was coming and is now already inthe world.
(54:41):
While it's our duty to proclaimour love of God with a full loud
voice, it's also our duty toreveal those who seek blind
faith pretending to be ofheaven, but in truth are of just
the earth.
Remember that everything of theearth is temporary, while
everything of God and heaven iseternal.
Let's end with this from firstJohn chapter two verse fifteen
(55:04):
through seventeen.
Do not love the world or thethings in the world, if anyone
loves the world, the love of theFather is not in him.
For all that is in the world,the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride oflife, is not of the Father, but
is of the world, and the worldis passing away, and the lust of
it.
But he who does the will of Godabides forever.
(55:29):
Be sure to check out ourwebsite, Issues and
IdeasRadio.com.
That's where we have moreinformation about the guests who
joined us here on the showtoday.
If you're listening to us onyour favorite podcast platform,
be sure to follow or subscribe.
That way you'll never miss aminute.
Always grateful and thankful foryour time and attention.
Look forward to being with youright here this time next week
(55:49):
for our next edition of Issuesand Ideas.
Hello and welcome to Wikipedia.
(00:36):
They don't talk about how to dothat.
They don't talk about anything.
That's what they talked about.
You can end it up that you'regoing to win the midterms at
levels that you can't evenbelieve and you're going to win
every election for a long timeuntil somebody really screws
things up, and hopefully thatwon't happen.
SPEAKER_05 (01:03):
Donald Trump also claimed that the Save Act is all
that you and the rest of theAmerican public is talking
about.
Affordability, oh I'm sorry,affordability, education,
housing, price of gas, price ofoil, price of groceries?
Nah.
You're not concerned about anyof that.
Getting back to what Trump said,to how the Save America Act
(01:24):
would serve Republicans in themidterms, is it fair to say that
Trump is basically saying thatRepublicans would win if fewer
people were voting?
Well, at least in theory, that'swhat the Save America Act has
the potential of doing.
It requires voters to providedocumentary proof of citizenship
(01:46):
at the time of registration, aphoto ID at the time of voting.
It's passed by the House ofRepresentatives.
February.
It's not sure whether it's goingto make it through the Senate.
They've tried this past week.
And there's a whole talk aboutthe filibuster being in the way.
You've probably been hearing alittle bit at least about that.
Let's look at the Save AmericaAct as in the aspect of
(02:08):
citizenship being a requirementto vote and instances of non
citizens voting.
Well that's rare for that tohappen.
But s in effect, the SaveAmerica Act is introducing a
documentation requirement for alaw that's existed for decades.
It's called the IllegalImmigration Reform and Immigrant
(02:29):
Responsibility Act of 1996,which has been around for a
while, which prohibitsnon-citizens from voting in
federal elections.
Period.
End of case.
Now the Safe America Act, it'samending the National Voter
Registration Act of 1993 byintroducing the requirement for
(02:50):
people to provide proof of U.S.
citizenship when registering tovote in federal elections.
Registration voting bynon-citizens, that's as part of
a normal process investigatedand prosecuted by the
appropriate authorities, andthere is no evidence that
attempts to voting bynon-citizens have ever been to
(03:12):
the level that impacted theoutcome of any elections,
federal, state, or local.
In fact, there's there's plentyof evidence to indicate
registration and voting bynon-citizens is far and few in
between.
Many state election offices arealready using it's called the
U.S.
Citizenship and ImmigrationServices.
(03:34):
Systematic Alien Verificationfor Entitlements program started
using this process last year toverify voter citizenship, and
records in this program revealthat just 0.04% of voter
verification cases are returnedas non-citizens.
(03:56):
Now, when it comes to havingdocumentary proof of
citizenship, this is from theU.S.
Department of State.
Examples of primary citizenshipevidence are a birth
certificate, a passport, aconsular report of birth abroad,
a certificate of citizenship ora naturalization certificate.
And while real IDs are oftenassumed to be a reliable proxy
(04:19):
for citizenship, they don'tdefinitively establish
citizenship.
Although at least one of thesedocuments are, again, in theory
available to most citizens, noteverybody has them readily
available.
According to some recentstudies, 9% of all eligible
voters don't have or do not haveeasy access to documentary proof
(04:41):
of citizenship.
52% of registered voters don'thave an unexpired passport with
their current legal name, and11% of registered voters don't
have access to their birthcertificate.
Speaking of birth certificates,they often lack information that
matches a person's currentidentity.
Example, someone who has changedtheir name through marriage, for
(05:04):
example, or court order, youmight need to present a third
document, like a marriagecertificate, to join the proof
of citizenship or birthcertificate with their proof of
identity, like a driver'slicense.
So that further decreases thelikelihood that a voter will
have the appropriatedocumentation on hand to
successfully register.
(05:25):
And even if voters were toprovide documentary proof of
citizenship, verifying that it'sall legit, that's uh not easy to
say the least one that electionofficials and motor vehicle
departments often don't have theresources or even the training
to do.
Now you can say this is why thefederal government needs to get
involved with the administrationof elections for the states.
(05:48):
Just a small problem with thisidea, and I've probably said
this before, but it looks like Ineed to say it again.
It's Article I, Section 4,Clause I of the U.S.
Constitution, affectionatelyknown as the Elections Clause,
that assigns all oversight andadministration of elections to
the individual states.
Now, this isn't to say thatthere are never illegal votes
(06:13):
cast.
There are.
Here are a few examples.
We have James Saunders, this isin 2023 in Ohio.
He was convicted of two felonycounts for voting twice in both
the 2020 presidential electionand 2022 midterms in Minnesota.
We have from 2024 DanielChristine Miller.
(06:36):
She was initially sentenced tojail time for voting in the 2024
presidential election using herdeceased mother's name, but she
got out of that.
The judge told her instead toread a book about voting in the
U.S.
and write a book report.
That's according to the courtrecords.
I'm not making that one up.
Let's go to Pennsylvania, whereBruce Bartman was sentenced to
(06:59):
five years probation after headmitted to illegally casting
his dead mother's ballot in the2020 presidential election.
We have Jay Ketchuk, John Ryder,and Joan Halstead in Central
Florida.
They were arrested for castingmore than one vote during the
(07:20):
2020 presidential election.
They all live in the villages inSumter County, Florida.
They were looking at felonycharges up to five years in
prison for casting more than oneballot in the presidential race.
One more, Barry Morphew.
That's the husband of a Coloradowoman who's been missing for
more than two years.
(07:41):
He pled guilty to casting hermail invalid during the 2020
presidential election.
All those examples I just toldyou about, what do they all have
in common when it came tocasting illegal votes?
They were all casting illegalvotes for Donald Trump.
This past week, Donald Trumpsaid several times that the war
(08:02):
in Iran has been won.
If look at the military side atleast, we've seen continued
missile and drone attacks beinglaunched upon Iran.
But first guest today is here topoint out that Iran also holds a
weapon that they may havealready started to reach for and
use.
It's a weapon that can veryeasily impact your life,
especially your financial lifeand stability.
Joining us to discuss how thislikelihood could unfold is
(08:26):
Cybersecurity Attorney,partnering the firm Hunted
Andrews Curth LLP, former chairof the DHS Data Privacy and
Integrity Advisory Committee.
Lisa Sado, how are you today,Lisa?
SPEAKER_00 (08:38):
I'm just fine.
Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_05 (08:40):
And learn more about the aforementioned Hunted
Andrews Curth L LP.
It's Hunton.com.
We do have a link over at ourhomepage as well.
Mention that Iran is nottechnically illiterate by any
stretch of the imagination, andcertainly are they're capable of
creating turmoil digitally justas much as they are militarily.
(09:04):
As far as what we know aboutIran's capabilities, whether
it's alone or with either thirdparty or even allies, what's the
danger ta uh through technologythat Iran presents?
SPEAKER_00 (09:20):
Yeah, in fact, uh they are extremely technically
proficient, as are theirproxies.
So there are hacktivists who areuh ideologically aligned with uh
with Iran, and they areextremely sophisticated.
We should never, neverunderestimate their level of
sophistication in uh withrespect to cyber espionage.
(09:42):
Um there is real danger, as wesaw uh with their first major
foray uh getting into anAmerican company um from a
global perspective, Stryker.
They they went for the jugular,uh they they attacked a critical
infrastructure company.
This is a a health caresupplier, uh, and they uh they
(10:04):
took down many systems uh allover the world and uh claimed at
least that they stole a vastamount of data.
So we are very concerned aboutthe the the possibility of of uh
a cyber attack uh because ofcourse you don't need boots on
the ground to uh to conduct acyber attack, and not only are
(10:27):
uh Iranian uh uh linked partiesuh uh potentially uh uh in the
mix for for taking action, butso are their proxies.
SPEAKER_05 (10:39):
Is there also a threat of oh I'm I guess I'm
revealing my my fandom andaddiction to Western movies.
Are there hired guns out therethat Iran can recruit and have
them do the dirty work at awider range than Iran could even
do on their own?
SPEAKER_00 (10:57):
Sure.
Uh but there there are manyhired guns.
The uh uh we do know that somenation states, in fact, partner
with straight-on criminalhackers.
So yeah, there are there areplenty of uh very sophisticated
players for hire.
But um I I'm not even sure theyneed to to uh expend resources
(11:18):
on these folks because there arealso uh plenty of sophisticated
um cyber criminals uh who aredirectly linked to Iran and also
directly linked to to some oftheir proxies.
SPEAKER_05 (11:29):
And as you mentioned, militarily you need
numbers where with technologyyou need obviously much much
fewer numbers.
We we assume that the attack isalways going to go directly into
a system, uh a financial systemlike uh Chase, for example, the
New York Stock Exchange, pickthe target that you wish.
(11:51):
Technologically, is it alsopossible to get through in
through a back door through aclient of Chase as an example,
who maybe is leaving an opendoor to get into the main system
through the backdoor?
SPEAKER_00 (12:06):
Absolutely.
Uh and you can wreak havoc thatway.
So where there are connectedsystems and we are all connected
to each other, uh, there'salways the potential for uh for
criminal actors getting to getin through uh through backdoors.
And in fact, we do see when uhcriminal hackers get into
systems, they come in throughone door, but they leave a
(12:28):
number of back doors in thesystem so that they can come
back in if you find that frontdoor and shut it.
So we're always checking forthose other vulnerabilities so
that we can try to shut all thedoors and not just the front
door uh through which theyentered.
There's also, of course, thepotential just to wreak havoc.
So not only could they bringdown uh a system like like a
(12:51):
bank or a utility, electricutility or a municipal water
system, uh, but they can alsowreak uh psychological havoc.
So we're we're very attuned tothat as well.
SPEAKER_05 (13:01):
Well, certainly one havoc would lead to the the to
the psychological havoc as theas the aftermath.
And isn't is it uh is there apriority list because we also
think of brick and mortarlocations, businesses,
industries, and you referencedabout uh utilities and the ease
(13:23):
that really anything thatmatters in any country is is
accessible electronicallybecause we see so often reports
of data breaches, it makes onesuspect just how unprepared are
these large bodies of activityof businesses, corporations
supplying utilities, howunprepared are so many of these
(13:46):
necessities?
SPEAKER_00 (13:48):
We try very hard uh to do uh incident preparedness
work in advance.
Um remember it just takes onesuccessful attack, and we have
to ward off thousands of them aday.
So one one one time is all ittakes for a bad actor to get
into a system and uhsuccessfully and and and wreak
(14:10):
havoc within the system.
Um we are very focused on uhreadiness activities, uh
ensuring that we're testingsystems constantly.
Uh of course, basic hygiene isreally critical, uh, making sure
you have strong uh uhauthentication methods, uh
strong passwords, uh, strongmulti-factor authentication
(14:31):
methods, uh, access controls,segmentation of systems.
So if a bad guy gets into onepart of the system, they can't
traverse into another part ofthe system.
Um so we are constantly testinguh these sorts of protections.
In addition to understandingwhether or not we have um
immutable backups, so that if athreat actor wipes the system
(14:55):
clean of data, do we havebackups in a totally segregated
place that we could use to thenrestore the data?
SPEAKER_05 (15:03):
So for organizations really of any size when you
think about, because one can getyou into another and you can go
up the technological chain, whatare some of the priorities
organizations should berevisiting as the likelihood,
not the possibility, I think Ithink likelihood is a more
accurate word, of a cyber attackis going to grow even not just
(15:27):
during the war in Iran, but theaftermath again, because you
don't need numbers to cause thehavoc that we're talking about
here.
So, what are some of thepriorities organizations have to
go back to revisit that theythought they may have already
had set and all alreadyoperating as they hope it would
be?
SPEAKER_00 (15:45):
You're right to say that there's a likelihood that
that companies will be attacked,and uh we we do think that
there's literally no one who'simmune uh from cyber attacks.
So there's no industry sectorthat can feel uh safe from these
sorts of attacks.
Um we worry about the supplychain.
We we've talked about this, butI think that's a real concern
(16:07):
because uh to the extent uh a abad actor gets in um to one
point uphill and thendistributes malware to thousands
of customers of that singlesupplier, um that's that's a way
of of uh doing a one-to-manyattack, and it's it's very
successful and it's veryefficient uh and hard to protect
(16:31):
against.
Um so we we worry about thesupply chain.
You could have a fortress aroundyour system.
You could have a moat with thealligators in the moat around
your own systems, but if you letthat bridge down to others to
get into your system, bad actorsalso could cross that bridge.
So it's very important to have avendor management program in
(16:53):
place, make sure you're you'revetting your vendors, and
particularly the ones who haveany sort of integration within
your system to make sure thatthey have the protections that
you expect of them, uh, havecontractual protections as well
to uh to at least bind themcontractually to uh to
committing to certain securityprotections.
(17:13):
And then do ongoing monitoringof your vendors because you
might have very strongprotections at the beginning of
a relationship, but five yearsdown the road, those protections
may lap.
So it's very important to uh todo ongoing monitoring.
I'll also note that companiesnow routinely do penetration
(17:34):
tests, uh, for example, to seeuh whether their their systems
are um susceptible to uhpenetration from the outside.
And doing something called umred team hacking, I think, is
very useful.
Um you're essentially hiring uha group of folks to try to break
into your system.
Uh and uh in many, many, manycases they are successful.
(17:58):
Uh the hope is that we find thevulnerabilities before the
threat actors do.
SPEAKER_05 (18:03):
There's a lot of ways and a lot of guidance that
Lisa's offered here, as does herfirm, Hunt and Andrews Kirth
LLP.
Find out more about the servicesthey provide at hunting.com.
We have the link at the homepageas well.
Lone being a cybersecurityattorney and partner in the firm
Hunt and Andrews Kirth LLP.
She's former chair of the DHSData Privacy and Integrity
(18:25):
Advisory Committee.
Lisa Soto, thanks so much forhelping us realize the
importance of awareness and notto take what we think as normal
daily activity lightly becausethat leaves us prone, and that's
in this day and time is not aplace we want to be.
Thanks for your very educationaland insightful words today.
SPEAKER_00 (18:48):
Thank you for speaking with me.
SPEAKER_05 (18:50):
If you're listening via your favorite podcast
platform, don't forget to followor subscribe.
It wasn't too long after the warin Iran began that the U.S.
government advised all Americansnot just leave the countries
immediately around Iran, butpretty much the entire Middle
East.
Since embassies had been shutdown, air travel was extremely
(19:10):
limited at best, didn't leaveAmericans in that region with
much to work with, did it?
Now, while you might be thinkingthat this will be a situation
you'll never be in, if you doany foreign travel, who says you
couldn't be, even in a regionthat you thought was stable?
What's that saying?
Uh yeah, failing to plan isplanning to fail.
(19:31):
My next guest is with us.
Help you with that planning,which won't just keep you safe,
but it could save your life.
He offers his expert guidance inhis latest book, Look Twice,
Volume 3, Your Guide When DangerComes to You at Home and
Overseas.
He's a retired CIA operative wholed and managed clandestine
operations around the world.
He also served in the U.S.
(19:52):
Marine Corps, attaining thegrade of captain.
Tim Beard, how are you today,Tim?
SPEAKER_04 (19:57):
Hi, Chris.
Thanks for having me on.
I appreciate the opportunity tocome back on again.
SPEAKER_05 (20:00):
Well, I appreciate your continued work on this very
timely information,TimbeardAuthor.com.
You can find out more about notjust LookTrice Volume 3, but
Volume 2 as well as Volume 1.
Let's build a foundation for thelistener.
And because this is the runningtheme through all of your books,
the LookTwice mindset.
(20:22):
What are a couple of theelements of that?
SPEAKER_04 (20:24):
A couple of the elements on that.
First off, I I as I said before,I want to say this again because
it's so important.
Security doesn't have to behard.
It's doing the fundamentals, thebasics right every single time.
And in your audience, they cando this.
You got to be in the moment.
So these are some of theelements.
You need to be aware and in themoment.
(20:44):
You need to be paying attention,not in a paranoid way, but with
your head up and just be alertand know what's going on around
you.
Don't be staring at your phone.
Don't have headphones on whenyou're exposed on the street.
This applies anywhere in theworld.
Another principle there isplanning and preparation.
A big part of, you know, some ofthe folks get caught, say
(21:07):
they're in Dubai or they're overin the region near Iran, they
it's been 47 years since we ourembassy was overrun, I believe
it was 4 November 1979.
So a long time ago.
There have been problems boilingalong over the years and finally
balled over.
So the thing was by planning andpreparing and trying to see,
(21:30):
hey, what's coming this way,that's where you want to try to
get ahead of problems.
You want to mitigate risk byavoiding.
Because obviously, if you're ina a threat area in a war zone or
an area that's receiving missilestrikes, that's beyond the
capability of any human todefend against, other than
getting out of the way.
(21:50):
And so with a look twicemindset, it's avoiding, it's
planning and preparing, it'sbeing aware, and when you're
planning that travel, hey, do II want to go there.
Things seem like they're heatingup a bit.
And maybe it's not the bestcall.
SPEAKER_05 (22:05):
And also too where you think you can have a
reliance on an outsideindividual or organization
embassies, for example, likelike I said in the introduction.
That's great to think that andhope that's going to be there,
but if not, what's going to fallupon me to take care of?
SPEAKER_04 (22:24):
Yeah, a lot of times you've got to be
self-sufficient.
It's important that you contactthe embassy and that you are on
record as being in the country,that you sign up for
notifications for the localembassy or consulate wherever
you're at, because then they'llknow you're in theater and they
can pay attention.
But if you put yourself intothat environment and the
(22:44):
environment's overwhelmed, thatI mean they're not necessarily
going to be able to come helpyou.
They're going to do their best,but that is that's not in their
mission statement to rescue andget everybody out of there.
You know, one folks, one thing alot of Americans forget about,
they think when they gooverseas, they're like, well,
I'm an American, I have specialrights and privileges.
When you're in a sovereigncountry, somebody else's
(23:06):
country, you're a visitor.
You don't have any specialrights or privileges.
The embassy will try to help youout, the local consulate, which
is subordinate to the embassy,they'll try to help you out as
much as they can, but you aresubject to the laws of that
environment.
And if there's a conflict goingon there and you put yourself
into that situation, um, you mayhave to find a way to get out.
(23:29):
And that can be very, verydifficult, especially something
as large as this.
SPEAKER_05 (23:33):
Certainly, depending on the nation you're in, you can
go from being you might bethinking you're a special
privileged American, but in factyou could quickly become a
target.
SPEAKER_04 (23:42):
Absolutely.
And I would offer that manyAmericans are targets by virtue
of being American in a lot ofplaces around the world.
There are mixed responses toAmericans.
Some people like us a lot, somepeople don't.
And it also varies by times inhistory.
There have been places where youcould go and visit, you and I
could go on a trip to someplace,and they loved us a few years
(24:04):
ago, and maybe they don't loveus now, or they couldn't stand
us a few years ago, and nowthey're best friends with
America.
And that's the thing I wouldoffer to to the listeners.
One thing that is constant ischange.
Just because if you know, I'vebeen to a lot of places around
the world, obviously based on mybackground.
There may be a country I went totwenty years ago.
(24:26):
It has completely changed, andit could be the best friend of
the United States now, or itcould be an enemy.
Things change and sometimes theychange quickly.
So when you're doing yourresearch, you can't say, Well,
I've been going there for years.
I would quickly say, and what'schanged over that period?
What is current as of today?
(24:46):
Here's another one of thesequotes I throw out to your
audience.
Bad news doesn't get better withage.
It's not fine wine or cheese.
So if if you're looking at thesituation, you need to say, This
is what's going on.
I need to be straight.
I need to not lie to myself orthe people I'm with.
I need to say, this is what I'mseeing, and it's ugly.
(25:09):
And now you're gonna have tofigure out how do I deal with
the problem in front of me.
A lot of people try to sugarcoatstuff.
They're like, well, it's notthat bad, or we're gonna be
okay.
Sometimes you're not gonna beokay.
You need to plan for what is infront of you, and you've got to
guide yourself to be okay.
That's a really important point.
Don't don't lie to yourself andsay it'll all work out.
(25:32):
It'll work out because you seethe problem set, and then you
are addressing the problem setlogically, thoughtfully, and
right now, and you're trying tofigure out what to do.
Know your resources before yougo into a particular theater.
Know where the embassy is.
You know what part of town itis, what's the local consulate
if you're away from the capitalcity?
(25:53):
How do you do you have contactnumbers?
Are they aware of you beingthere?
What's historically been theproblems in the local area?
I address a lot of this as youmentioned in volume three.
I have a whole bunch ofquestions I came up with that I
think are important to askbefore you schedule travel to go
someplace.
And just remember environmentschange.
SPEAKER_05 (26:14):
Oh, and Tim Beard with his latest book, Look
Twice, Volume 3, your guide whendanger comes to you at home and
overseas, Timbear.com, thewebsite, and your listing to
Wish Hughes and Ideas, Tim alsowrites about medical concerns
that come about, as well asself-defense, which I've noticed
over recent years, Tim.
A lot of I mean, we always thinkof shooting academies and uh uh
(26:36):
military-based uh training foruh learning how to respect and
use the gun, but I've seen manygun ranges and gun dealers
start.
I mean, for sure it's a way toadd to revenue for a for a
working business, but the onesI've talked to, they say they
want to help people respect andunderstand a firearm, not just
(26:56):
get it and use it, and that's abig difference, I think.
SPEAKER_04 (27:00):
It is.
Just just because you purchase afirearm doesn't make you an
expert in firearms.
Uh when you buy a firearm, youjust took on a whole bunch of
responsibility.
I would offer the number onething if you purchase a firearm,
you've got to train, train,train, learn how to use it.
Just because you buy a guitar ora piano doesn't make you uh Eric
(27:21):
Clapton, a famous guitar player.
It doesn't make you a concertpianist.
You have to practice andpractice.
Now with a firearm, you can getskilled relatively quickly with
good training.
But as you mentioned, there's alot of folks out there who will
offer training.
The best place to go if youreally want to get serious about
(27:42):
it is to go to a professionalshooting school.
There are several of those outthere around the United States
that have been very safe intraining people.
They have expert instructorswith solid backgrounds, and
they've been doing it for many,many, many years.
So you can search online andfind some of those.
The other one, too, and I knowthere are different feelings
(28:02):
about the NRA for differentfolks, but one thing the
National Rifle Association doesdo very well, they train and
they have instructors who arecertified to teach people the
safe handling and storage offirearms.
That is a great resource aswell.
The third one, and uh a smartway to go, wherever you purchase
the firearm from, you know, sayI'd really like to learn how to
(28:26):
use this and get you knowintimately comfortable with this
this particular weapon becauseit's a tool.
You've got to know how to useit.
Talk to the people at the gunshop, and a lot of them can
direct you towards really goodtraining resources.
Chris, the thing that folks needto be careful of is when they
talk to somebody who they knowand they go, Yeah, I'll teach
you how to shoot.
(28:47):
Well, they may be teaching thema lot of bad habits.
I learned to shoot in the UnitedStates Marine Corps, and the
United States Marine Corps isreally, really good at teaching
people to shoot.
Because it's they've been doingit for for you know almost 250
years.
So it's something that um thereare people who will learn in the
(29:07):
military, but you just need toknow what's their background and
are they a good teacher of it.
That's a really important piecethough.
SPEAKER_05 (29:15):
I have to wrap up on this with um I'm gonna I want to
wrap up what you begin the bookwith, the section on civil
unrest.
Typically, short of anassassination, the first one
comes to mind was theassassination of Martin Luther
King Jr.
and civil unrest quicklydeveloped after that.
But typically, civil unrest is along-term developing situation.
(29:37):
How important is it for someoneto understand the difference
between possible and probable?
SPEAKER_04 (29:44):
And that is also a piece of the look twice mindset.
First, let me define that forthe listeners.
The possible versus theprobable, the example I'll give.
A meteor could follow me rightnow and crush me.
Is that possible?
Sure.
Is it probable?
No, it's not.
I cannot, I have limitedresources.
Everybody does.
Limited attention.
(30:05):
If I'm worried about everypossibility, I'm gonna be
frustrated, paranoid, nervous,on edge all the time, in a
self-made prison.
That is not any way to live.
What folks should do is look atthe three, four, five most
probable things from a securityperspective that can happen in a
situation.
(30:25):
You're driving through adifficult neighborhood, you know
you're gonna have to stop at astoplight or a stop sign.
Is it possible I could have mycar jacked or have somebody
approach me while the car isstationary?
It's possible.
I would say in someenvironments, especially if
there's a history of that, itmay be probable.
So think ahead of time, what amI gonna do?
What would I do while you'reclear in mind, while you don't
(30:47):
have adrenaline surging throughyour body when you start making
bad decisions and you lose yourfine motor skills and can't work
levers or push buttons verywell.
What am I gonna do in thatsituation?
Right to that hard drive in yourbrain.
So that's where you're gonna gowhen something happens for real.
So that's the possible versusthe probable.
If you're going to anenvironment, for example, where
(31:10):
there has been boiling unrest,that can be overseas.
When I wrote these books, it canpertain to the United States.
It can also pertain to a lot ofcountries around the world where
they have unrest.
There are difficult situationsthat are on the verge of boiling
all the time.
I would certainly question whyam I going there?
Maybe for work, but am I goingthere for fun?
(31:31):
If I'm going for fun and I get alook over my shoulder, that's
that's not such fun as a goodtime.
So maybe I don't want to gothere.
So then that comes back to theplanning and preparation.
But in volume three, I talkabout civil unrest and I I give
a little planning process thatanyone can use to help you plan
in advance what happens if theunthinkable comes true and stuff
(31:54):
starts to boil over.
Where are you gonna go?
How are you gonna get there?
What are you gonna carry?
And what are you gonna do alongthe way?
Who are you moving with?
If you're moving with somebodythat has disabilities who can't
run or can't walk very far,you've got to take that into
account if that's a familymember or a friend, somebody
you're moving with.
So I really go into detail onthat, and that'll help a lot of
(32:16):
folks.
But does stuff boil upovernight?
We've had some challenges in theUnited States where there may be
a shooting and people and theyget very upset and something
starts to boil up quickly andcan boil over.
And that's something that youmay want to have a plan in place
if you live in a major urbancenter, and something like
(32:36):
that's happened historically.
It doesn't hurt to plan.
It doesn't hurt to have an ideaof what you're gonna do.
And if something does happen,you'll be grateful for the time
you put into it.
SPEAKER_05 (32:47):
That's really what Tim teaches with all of us look
twice books, the importance ofplanning, and what will surprise
you is your capability ofcreating and executing a
sustainable, effective plan.
He gives you the steps and showsyou really how realistic it is.
You're not you don't you won'tbe called upon to build a
backyard bunker.
(33:07):
It's a realistic uh easy-to-do,easy to accept tools and
strategies to keep it safe nomatter what happens to explode
either here in America.
Is it a possibility?
Well, at this point I could saypossibility.
Probability, well, maybe that'swhat the that's the benefit of
24-7 news uh uh stream that wecan always see whether a
(33:29):
possible is becoming a probable,certainly overseas.
That's more obvious more thanever, perhaps.
Find out more about all of Tim'swritings.
More importantly, get them foryour uh education, your
awareness, and your safety atTimbeardauthor.com.
Tim, you are a you are afountain of factual, uh
(33:51):
necessary truth for us to berealistic about the world around
us.
I thank you for that for beinghere today.
SPEAKER_04 (33:57):
Thanks so much, Chris.
SPEAKER_05 (33:58):
Uh we've got the next No Kings rallies coming up
on Saturday, March 28th.
You can find out the one nearyou at no kings.org.
We've really become aself-conscious society, have we
not?
Sometimes it's vanity, othertimes it's just outside
influence.
One of the main points of focusis right weight, they call it
(34:20):
too.
Social media plays a huge rolein how people all ages see
themselves while comparingthemselves with others in, let's
say, really unrealistic ways.
Assumptions and biases, theyalso add to this emotional and
physical turmoil.
(34:42):
Left him with a decades-longeating disorder.
He tells a story, what he had toconfront and overcome, and
provides, I believe, very vitalfirst-hand knowledge and
guidance about SQ, which is notlimited to only women.
That's what you might believe,but he helps you understand
otherwise his book is weightclass, A Fighter's Life or Death
(35:03):
Battle with an eating disorder,being an award-winning amateur
boxer, member of the 2008Olympics team as a pro.
He was also the WVCInternational Silver Super
Lightweight Champion, DannyO'Connor.
Thanks for being here today,Danny.com.
(35:29):
And like I said, we have thoseover at our homepage.
It's a general term that I thinkpeople don't take seriously
enough.
So talk about your eatingdisorder, how it impacted more
specifically your training andyour fighting, because one l one
(35:52):
coexisted with the other.
SPEAKER_03 (35:55):
Uh yeah, well, I think it's important to realize
that there's two parallels here.
Like um the unhealthy theunhealthy tactics that I use to
manipulate my body to make aweight class, that's one
parallel.
I mean, you can compete in acombat sport free of uh eating
disorder and and still have ayou know great purpose in the
sport.
The unfortunate part was, youknow, I I had been in a weight
(36:18):
class sport since adolescence,and I did uh a lot of negative
things to my body to manipulateit to try to fit into a weight
class.
And so ultimately an eatingdisorder is the other parallel,
and that is something thatdeveloped over time.
It didn't happen overnight, itit developed over time, and um I
(36:39):
view that as a as a wholeseparate thing because even when
I came away from the sport andaway from the weight class, the
eating disorder was still there.
It didn't leave because the theweight class left.
And so um 2013 was about when Ikind of realized like that I had
a problem and it was affectingmy health, and um ultimately
this eating disorder, I view itas something that was beyond
(37:01):
control.
Like I had such discipline inall aspects of my life as a
professional athlete, um and andthe ability to not eat um and to
make weight and to do thesedifferent things, then all of a
sudden it felt like overnightwhere it just changed.
I got a binge eating diagnosisand then I couldn't stop.
(37:21):
Something I controlled soaggressively for so many years,
um, then I was out of control ofit.
And so that's where I view theeating disorder separate than
the tactics that I was using tomake weight, which were
unhealthy in their own, youknow, restricting my food, w you
know, taking water out, usinglaxatives, things that um that
(37:43):
that I was doing to make weight.
And so those two thingsseparate, um, the eating
disorder itself was kind of nowa a whole nother aspect of my
life that kind of took over andI had a whole professional team
of people.
I mean, that eating disorderalmost killed me numerous times,
and uh I ended up in the ICU onprobably one of the biggest
(38:05):
nights of my life, the stages ofmy life when I was trying to
fight for that worldchampionship belt that I had
basically been following for tenyears, ten years straight.
I had that that goal and thatand that vision and that thing
that I was working to, and umultimately I didn't get to
fulfill that.
Because you gotta understand theeating disorder was separate
(38:26):
than making weight, but makingweight was my job, it was my
livelihood, and those two thingswent in direct conflict with
each other.
The the more the eating disorderdeveloped and got out of
control, the the more thetactics to make my weight class
and fulfill my duties becamemore extreme, and so it was just
a really, really chaoticnegative cycle.
SPEAKER_05 (38:46):
Sure, without a doubt.
And you you you observedyourself as a disciplined
professional, and with thatvision you had of yourself,
before you got the diagnosis,did you think your eating habits
were were normal as far as youwere concerned?
Was there a level of level ofnormalcy at any time?
SPEAKER_03 (39:05):
No, definitely not.
And that and that's the pointI'm trying to get.
Like, there's two parallelshere.
Like, anyone that's affected byeating disorder, you know, I I
hope that that my message canlike give you some connection
and and hope that you understandthat you can seek help and find
supports.
But then there's also some kidsstepping on a scale somewhere in
the world right now that doesn'thave an eating disorder, and you
know, I hope that they learnedfrom my lesson to not do any of
(39:27):
the things that I was doingbecause I never accepted them as
dangerous in the long run.
I knew they were acutelydangerous, and I kind of
normalized that to make weightbecause you know I started at an
early age, there wasn't a lot ofeducation, and I kind of just
fell into a way of doing thingsto maintain a weight and and
still compete.
(39:48):
Um but ultimately I normalizedthat, but I never once asked
myself, like, if what am I doingnow, you know, how's that gonna
affect me in in ten years?
And that was the problem becauseum, you know, I just figured I'm
gonna do what I'm gonna do tomake weight, and then eventually
I'll I'll go back to what youthink normal would be when my
career is over and I'm a and I'ma a regular person, regular day
(40:10):
activities, not professionalathlete.
Um and I never once said likeyou know, maybe that wouldn't be
an option, and I didn't realizethat um in until kind of too
late in the game, it it hadalready progressed.
So um two different types of ofdangers.
One acutely, when you're makingweight in the moment, you're
putting your life at risk, butthen the eating disorder, which
(40:31):
is it's not acute, it's it'saccumulative.
So like you know, that thingdevelops and people don't
realize I think there's a lot ofmisunderstanding in eating
disorders.
They're very, very complex, andit's your physical, your mental,
and your emotional.
And when you go against thenatural cues of your body, like
when your body tells you to eatand you don't eat, and you know,
you you induce going to thebathroom with laxatives, like
(40:53):
you can create serious problemsin your health that affect
systems of your body.
Um, and so I've had many healthissues I had to remedy over the
years because of you knowsomething that I was doing or or
wasn't doing.
So it it's it's about awarenessto understand the severity of
these things, and it doesn'tmatter if you're a guy or a
girl, like anybody can beaffected by food.
That's why it's it's kind oflike hidden in plain sight, and
(41:15):
and that's the reality of it,because my wife of 15 years, who
is my number one support, like Iwouldn't have been able to do it
without her, and then theprofessional team of people
keeping me alive.
Outside of that, no one reallyknew the depths of this.
It was a very lonely, isolateddisorder that spanned 20 years
of my life.
SPEAKER_05 (41:34):
Or Danny O'Connor, who tells about his life in
weight class, the fighter's lifeor death battle with an eating
disorder, bitelike a man.com getinto what his work with that is
all about, as well asdooboxingacademy.com and you are
listening to It's Using Ideas.
You know what's going on, youunderstand it uh as as best you
(41:55):
can, hopefully with help aroundyou.
It's uh it's just like with anymedical treatment.
You need a team of professionalsand a team of uh personal people
in your life to get throughthis.
But as for yourself, uh Can youpinpoint a uh was it that day in
that night in July of 2018?
Was there a specific time whenyou looked at yourself and you
(42:16):
had to confess that things haveto change or I'm dead?
SPEAKER_03 (42:21):
Um I I would say 2013 was that like pivotal
moment where I kind of was like,damn, I have an eating disorder
right now.
There was no delusion.
And then I kind of was like,wait a minute, what's an eating
disorder?
How does it affect me?
That's like 2013.
I was in a wicked negative cyclewith the binge eating and the
(42:42):
making weight, and um, you know,I I knew that something was
wrong because when I was tryingto, you know, you say like I I
like to think I understand thisbecause it it's you know, I
spent eight, ten years goingthrough the recovery process to
understand it, but some days Ijust still feel baffled the
complexity of it.
Like you don't just quit aneating disorder, you don't quit
(43:04):
food like a typical drug, likeyou can have abstinence, like
you have to put the out ofcontrol back in control while
you're still maintaining arelationship with food, because
you have to eat for survival.
So it was a very tricky thing.
But that day in 2013, when Irealized like there is a problem
right now, that's when I kind ofwent on the journey to eliminate
it, and it humbled me a lotbecause at that time I actually
(43:27):
stepped away from the sport.
I left the sport, and sincethere's no seasons in boxing,
there's really no questions tobe asked because it's it's you
fight at your own leisure.
At at any at any time a fightercan step away or come back.
So it was a very private thing,and at that time I thought like
naively, I'm just gonna takecare of this overnight.
(43:47):
Like I look at everything aslike an athlete.
If something you know, you getan injury on your your arm, you
heal it, you rehab it, youoptimize, you get back, you
compete, like nothing happened.
And so I look at everythingmental, emotional, physical.
Like if there's something wrong,you address it and then you get
back into the game, right?
So I thought it would be anovernight fix.
Like, you know, I'm just gonnaquit this thing and get back to
(44:09):
my career.
And, you know, I was humbledreal quick, and you know, five
years later, as I'm still goingthrough the journey, like um it
it it's just a really complexthing that that I had to
understand and understand how Iwas affected by it and
understand how I was gonna beable to overcome it, which
ultimately I did.
Today I feel free of an eating,sort of like I know I'm gonna
(44:32):
have a relationship with foodfor the rest of my life.
We already explained how it'sdifferent, and my relationship
with food will be a lotdifferent than other people's,
so I always have to keep that inmind.
But the action of binge eating,which you know was the most
chaotic, craziest thing ever, Idon't do that anymore.
And I haven't in a long time,and I feel very free of all the
(44:53):
mental and emotional baggagethat comes with the eating
disorder, because like we talkedabout it before, it touches so
many areas of your life.
So it just took a long time toget there.
SPEAKER_05 (45:02):
And certainly too, for you listening, you can hear
how Danny had so much in frontof him, but in spite of that,
the eating disorder overtook thegoals that he set for himself
professionally, and now todayyou have uh two operations that
you're you're overseeing BiteLike a Man, which is
BiteLikeAMan.com, and yourBoxing Academy deal,
(45:22):
BoxingAcademy.com.
What do you hope to accomplishwith these two uh these two
works that you're doing?
SPEAKER_03 (45:29):
Um I try to make my life to involve business but
also helping people at the sametime.
Uh you know, and I like to dothings that are purposeful to
me.
So um the Boxing Academy isusing the platform that was
gifted to me because I wouldn'tbe here if it wasn't for boxing.
Boxing came into my life at apivotal pivotal time when I was
(45:52):
uh adolescent when I was eithergonna face jail or death, and
boxing saved my life.
So for all the hardships thathad to do with weight, the
eating disorder, or boxing overthe years, I still always have a
special love for the sport.
So um it's a platform thatreally can change lives and
elevate lives.
It doesn't matter where you comefrom or how much money you have,
(46:13):
and so I wanted to be able togive that back to the community.
And obviously, if you read thebook, you'll see the journey
that I went on that was veryunorthodox.
Like I went to your typical likehospital setting intensive
outpatient like eating disorderprogram, but then there was a
lot of unorthodox things that Idid because I never really felt
(46:35):
like I fit anywhere becauseobviously there's a lack of
mail, so I didn't have guys totalk to freely.
Um I did a lot of other stuff.
Mindfulness, the uh UMassmedical program.
I I went through that and so Iincorporate a lot of the
mindfulness because boxing isjust not the physical, it's very
much emotional control andmental control.
And so I I created a programthat I thought would uh try to
(46:58):
give at-risk kids the sameplatform that I had, and so um
that's pretty purposeful to me,and also bite like a man.com.
We just talked about it.
I didn't have a true connectionto a lot of males in the eating
disorder world over the years.
You know, I think I only talkedto four and and one was a a
child.
So I wanted to make a platformwhere if you had an issue and
(47:21):
you were a man, you could comelike talk about it.
Not mental health services, butjust kind of a community where
you know, if you got somethinggoing on, maybe you can come get
some education, some awareness,because you know, I always look
back to like when I firststepped on a scale and that you
know, we're talking about like1999, 2000s, there wasn't the
internet wasn't awesome, therewasn't a lot of awareness.
(47:43):
You know, I I think if I justknew a lot more, I could have
made better decisions with mydiet, with the way I was making
weight, and I could have justenjoyed the sport, but instead
my whole focus was on theweight, on manipulating my body
to to make that weight, and itit caused some some serious harm
(48:03):
into my adult years and into myfuture.
So um I just wanted a placewhere guys could come and get
information and and be a part ofa community.
SPEAKER_05 (48:11):
Well, as you can hear, Danny is not just telling
a story to sell a book, he'sworking to make a difference in
a variety of ways.
First, with one of the most openbooks of a life that you'll ever
want to read and learn from, andDanny re referenced to how back
in 1999 the internet wasn'treally a go-to.
Well, today it is, and like Isaid back in the introduction,
(48:32):
it's giving a huge negativeinfluence for both young men and
young women, with body image inparticular, what they think they
need to be to be liked orfollowed, or whatever whatever
the case may be.
And Danny, with his story andweight class, the fighters, life
or death battle with an eatingdisorder, helps you understand
the value of life and how it'sso easy to jeopardize it through
(48:56):
our own actions, decisions, wiseand unwise, and more
importantly, the steps it takes,and it's always plural, it's
never a singular.
It's steps to take to recover,overcome, and restore the life
that you want to have.
Two websites bitelikeaman.comand for Danny's Boxing Academy,
DOBoxingAcademy.com.
(49:17):
Again, the book, Weight Class, aFighter's Life or Death Battle
with an Eating Disorder.
Danny O'Connor, thank you somuch for giving so much to
people to learn from and to bestrengthened by, and thanks for
being here today.
SPEAKER_02 (49:28):
I appreciate it.
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_05 (49:32):
At first it was just a small number of Americans, and
that number grew.
If you're on social media to anydegree, you no doubt saw this,
or maybe you were even a part ofit yourself.
Supporters of Donald Trump beganturning away from him.
Most common cause for theirnewly found rejection of Trump
has been their saying, I didn'tvote for this, meaning that they
(49:53):
didn't agree with Trump'sactions or his decisions.
Then it was the voices on very,very public platforms who joined
the chorus saying, I didn't votefor this.
Most prominent names, of course,Joe Rogan, Marjorie Taylor
Green, but there are more.
These are all people who votedfor and supported Donald Trump
based on what he said he woulddo.
(50:15):
They never asked for detailsabout how he was going to do it,
just what he was going to do.
That's called blind faith.
So what's changed within thesepeople?
I think the answer is found inthe song that we probably know
very well, Amazing Grace.
I'm not going to sing it, don'tworry, but the lyrics say this
(50:36):
Amazing Grace, how sweet thesound that saved a wretch like
me.
I once was lost, but now I'mfound, was blind, but now I see.
How precious did that graceappear, the hour I first
believed.
Amazing Grace was written byJohn Newton back in 1772 and
(50:57):
first published in 1779.
What's important to know aboutJohn Newton is he was a slave
ship captain who rebuked hispast and became a pastor.
His hymn, which has becomereally the definition of a
timeless song, is based on whatwe read in 1 Chronicles chapter
17, verses 16 and 17, with KingDavid praising God's grace.
(51:20):
Then King David went in and satbefore the Lord, and he said,
Who am I, O Lord God, and whatis my house that you have
brought me this far?
And yet this was a small thingin your sight, O God, and you
have also spoken of yourservant's house for a great
while to come, and have regardedme according to the rank of a
man of high degree, O Lord God.
(51:43):
Let's go back to the idea ofblind faith.
What is faith?
Let's start with that.
Here's what we read in Romanschapter ten, verse seventeen.
So then faith comes by hearing,and hearing by the word of God.
So we can call that ourfoundation, right?
Now let's look at some of theways people apply the Bible to
their act of what they considerto be blind faith.
(52:06):
An often quoted Bible verse bythose seeking justification of
their blind faith is 2Corinthians chapter 5, verse 7,
which declares, For we walk byfaith, not by sight.
But you wind up lost unless youalso read verse 8.
We are confident, yes, wellpleased, rather to be absent
from the body and to be presentwith the Lord.
(52:29):
This teaches us that our faithshould only be placed with God
and his promise.
Now, how does that align withwhat James teaches us in James
chapter 2, verse 14?
What does it profit, mybrethren, if someone says he has
(52:51):
faith but does not have works?
Can faith save him?
Right, it it doesn't.
In the twentieth chapter of thebook of John, Jesus comes to his
disciples after his death andresurrection.
Thomas had to, he wasn't there,he had to make the post office
run that day, so he wasn'tthere.
When Thomas came back and wastold what happened, he said, I
(53:13):
don't believe it unless I seeit.
Which now you know where theterm doubting Thomas comes from.
Jesus did indeed appear again,so Thomas could see him.
Jesus then says this to Thomas.
In John chapter 20, verse 29,Jesus said to him, Thomas,
because you have seen me, youhave believed.
Blessed are those who have notseen and yet believed.
(53:37):
This is not just a lesson forThomas, but for all, place your
faith where the testimony ofothers rests.
If you're hearing a mixedmessage, then that's no place
for any kind of faith, blind orotherwise.
If you're hearing a message oflove, of truth, of grace,
placing your blind faith therewill certainly bring you God's
blessings.
Are you asking what your filtershould be for all this?
(53:59):
How can I know without fallinginto a false faith?
Well, not only should you beasking those questions, you
should be studying and absorbinghow John answers them in first
John chapter 4, verses 1 through3.
Beloved, do not believe everyspirit, but test the spirits,
whether they are of God, becausemany false prophets have gone
(54:20):
out into the world.
By this you know the Spirit ofGod.
Every spirit that confesses thatJesus Christ has come in the
flesh is of God, and everyspirit that does not confess
that Jesus Christ has come inthe flesh is not of God, and
this is the spirit of theAntichrist, which you have heard
was coming and is now already inthe world.
(54:41):
While it's our duty to proclaimour love of God with a full loud
voice, it's also our duty toreveal those who seek blind
faith pretending to be ofheaven, but in truth are of just
the earth.
Remember that everything of theearth is temporary, while
everything of God and heaven iseternal.
Let's end with this from firstJohn chapter two verse fifteen
(55:04):
through seventeen.
Do not love the world or thethings in the world, if anyone
loves the world, the love of theFather is not in him.
For all that is in the world,the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride oflife, is not of the Father, but
is of the world, and the worldis passing away, and the lust of
it.
But he who does the will of Godabides forever.
(55:29):
Be sure to check out ourwebsite, Issues and
IdeasRadio.com.
That's where we have moreinformation about the guests who
joined us here on the showtoday.
If you're listening to us onyour favorite podcast platform,
be sure to follow or subscribe.
That way you'll never miss aminute.
Always grateful and thankful foryour time and attention.
Look forward to being with youright here this time next week
(55:49):
for our next edition of Issuesand Ideas.
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