TEACE SNYDER: Filmmaker/Artist - Exploring Human Connection and Voluntary Euthanasia - Love Conquers Alz

Episode Transcript
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Don Priess (00:00):
When the world has got you down.
Alzheimer's sucks.
It's an equal opportunitydisease that chips away at
everything we hold dear, and todate there's no cure.
So until there is, we continueto fight with the most powerful
tool in our arsenal Love.
This is.
Love Conquers Alls A real andreally positive podcast that

(00:23):
takes a deep dive intoeverything Alzheimer's the good,
the bad and everything inbetween.
And now here are your hosts,suzy Singer-Carter and me, don
Preece.

Susie Singer Carter (00:40):
Hello, I'm Suzy Singer-Carter.

Don Priess (00:43):
And I'm Don Preece, and this is Love Conquers Alls.
Hello, Susan.

Donald, good morning.
Yes, how are you?

Don Priess (00:49):
Good morning, is it morning?
No, I guess it's morningsomewhere.

I don't know, it's always morning.
Is this like?
I don't know?
I feel like we've gotten into arut of talk show morning show,
chit-chat show like morning show, chit chat.

Don Priess (01:03):
Banter, how's the weather?
We really should have mugs.
We should have coffee mugs.

We need coffee mugs.

Don Priess (01:10):
I don't know, Maybe, a contest.
We can have a contest.

That's what I just said.

Don Priess (01:16):
Do a game I just said that.
You know what we really need isa studio audience.

What do we need?

Don Priess (01:21):
We really need a studio audience.

That would be fun.
Then it's no longer a podcast.
Well, we do really.

Don Priess (01:28):
Yeah, the dogs, but their ability to applaud is
horrible.
It's terrible, it's really bad.

No, it's actually very depressing.
So what's happening?
What's new with you?
What's new?
Tell us something good.

Don Priess (01:46):
As if you don't know , let me think Nope, nothing,
Don't have anything good.
No, that's not true.
We reached a milestone in thedocumentary which is we've?
Got all of our clips and stuffcleared by the fair use
attorneys.
That's.
That's a celebration.
After, is that interesting toeverybody?
I wonder if it's interesting Idon't think so, I don't know but

(02:08):
maybe it is.

I mean, let me just break it down.
It's like, basically, when youdo a documentary that's an uh,
somewhat of an expose you haveto have insurance so that you
don't get sued.
And if you do get sued by somedisgruntled thing, organization
or or person that doesn't likewhat you've said, um, you're

(02:29):
protected.
But in order to get that, youhave to go through what's called
a fair use attorney, who willscour every frame of your
project and make sure thatwhatever you're using has fair
use, or you've licensed it, orthat you have releases and that
you're not breaking the law inany way.

(02:50):
But that is such a tedious joband expensive, I might add.

Don Priess (02:56):
Yeah, Plus, they have to corroborate everything
we say or anything anybody saysin our documentary.
That needs double corroboration.
So yeah, that's a thingboration, you know.
So yeah, and the word's hard tosay too.
The word is hard Corroboration.

Yeah, yeah you do so that's another thing.
But at the end of the day itlets you know that our
documentary, when you see it, isthe real deal.
It's been vetted at least twiceso rock solid everything is rock
solid, as they say yeah, sothat's.

(03:32):
That is exciting because thatlets us get to the next step,
which is to finally do all theclips that are in there, get to
stay and now we can do our finalmixes and and color and and
sound mix and then, um, yeah,get this thing out there, as you
know.

Don Priess (03:48):
So, uh, all you distributors out there, come a
calling, because we need.
I have one other thing I wantedto talk about too.

So over the weekend we got to visit um, a
dear friend of ours who was inour movie my mom and the girl
liz Liz Torres, who is anactress that played the
caregiver to the character of mymom, who is played by Valerie
Harper the amazing ValerieHarper and Liz now I won't say

(04:16):
where, but she is in an assistedliving and it's so interesting
because now the person that wasplaying a caregiver is now
someone who is needing care.
But it was so nice to visit herand spend a couple hours with
her and she's still like apistol in a holding court with

(04:38):
her bright red lipstick and ifyou go to my Instagram you'll
see pictures of her.
So it's so amazing and she'ssuch a powerhouse and, yeah,
she's just uh, so she's not ontv, but she's, she's basically
has her own show at the assistedliving.

Don Priess (04:57):
So there's basically a camera on her at all times
all times.
It was so much fun in her mind,and it is a show and I highly
recommend it.

If you, if you I mean if you if you haven't
been to you know nursing homeor or assisted living, or you
have someone that you knowthat's there's, I I highly
recommend having a visit.
It is you will walk out feelingso good.
First of all, the people thatyou're going to visit will be so
happy.
Second of all, everyone willthink you're 20 years old.

(05:28):
You'll feel really great.
Everyone's so grateful thatyou're there.
If you sing, they're going totell you you sound just like
Barbra Streisand.
You will feel like a millionbucks.

Don Priess (05:42):
I'm just saying Even I sound like Barbra Streisand.
Yeah, even I sound like.

Barbara Streisand yeah, even Don does.
Everyone's so appreciative andyou'll feel great just because
you've connected with peoplethat really are amazing human
beings, that have histories andyou have these great
conversations.
And we happen to go, because afriend of mine is out of town

(06:06):
for six weeks and her dad isthat the same facility and he's
turning not he's 99, he'sturning 100 this month and we
had like amazing conversationswith him.

Don Priess (06:17):
Right, he was absolutely and and, on top of it
, with the two of them, eventhough they live in the same
place.
They didn't know each other.
Now, now they do, and at theend they're like oh, we are now
friends, so now they have that.

So, boy, we're great, we are good, we
like us, we're terrific.
He was such a player.
He was like at the end, he goesto Liz, I will be seeing you
later and he will, and he will.
I'm telling you they're goingto have a good time.
So, anyway, I just highlyrecommend that.

(06:54):
I miss it, because I used to goall the time when my mom was
alive and I would go, and youknow it really is.
It'll make your day.
So just do it, just do it.
Anyway, we have a good guesttoday.
We'll make your day, so just doit, just do it.
Anyway, we have a good guesttoday.

Don Priess (07:08):
We have a filmmaker, we have a great guest.

We have a colleague with us.

Don Priess (07:12):
We do An exciting one.

Shall I tell you about him, a colleague
with a heart of gold, acolleague with a heart of gold,
absolutely, I'll tell you alittle bit about him right now.

Don Priess (07:23):
T Snyder is a writer , director, producer, editor,
actor, illustrator, aself-proclaimed
anti-establishment aficionadoand host of the podcast
Conspiracy Synergy, and now heis raising public awareness for
his feature film Hold Me, astory of a woman whose job it is
to embrace and console peopleas they are voluntarily

(07:44):
euthanized.
A fictional tale that'sstirring conversation about
hospice, palliative care,doctor-assisted dying and
especially the gravity andimportance of end-of-life care.
It's a fascinating and timelytopic, and we can't wait to dive
in more.
So let's say hello to TeaseSnyder.
Hello Tease.
How do, you do.

Teace Snyder (08:04):
Thanks for having me on.

Hello Nice to have you.
I mean, it's so funny to say wecan't wait to dive in to talk
about assisted suicide.
If you asked me about that likefive years ago, I'd be going
yeah, okay, bye, I'm going tofree people shopping now.
Okay, but there you go.

Don Priess (08:25):
And now it's a party .

And now it's part of the zeitgeist, and
now you're bringing it even moreinto the zeitgeist.
What motivated you to do amovie like this?

So I've been writing for a very long time.
I started writing my first novelwhen I was 10.
It's not any good, nor, for thatmatter, my first four or five
of them, but what my work hasalways centered on in one shape
or another, is controversy.
And it focuses on controversybecause I feel as if the purpose
of art in our lives is that itallows us to approach things

(08:56):
that are otherwise too painfulto bear, and so, when it comes
to the greatest controversiesthat we're saddled with, both as
individuals and as a society,what we're very much in need of
are storytellers who presentthat information to us in a lens
that is palatable anddigestible, so that we can step
back from the movie magic sideof things and say wait a minute,
there's a lot really broken andwrong with our reality.

(09:18):
That's really the importance ofstorytelling, and so it was a
film that I originally had theidea for when I was spooning
with my girlfriend at the timeand I got a vivid flash from an
anthropology textbook of peoplewho had been buried in volcanic
ash.
That was what they had done intheir last moment together is
that they'd held each other, andI thought of how beautiful an
idea that would be to tell thestory of someone whose job it

(09:40):
was to do that, and so for me,it was not necessarily oriented
at that point in my life byfirst-hand caregiving, but more
just a pause in considering whatit is that people who do that
in their lives go through, andthen to create a catalyst of
conversation that spoke to it.

Interesting .
It's like it's yeah.
Well, that's what I think is.
What you need is a basiccuriosity as a storyteller,
right?
So your curiosity to to see howthat would play out, that's,
you know, it's like pompeii.
You see, I guess that's whatyou're talking about all those
families that you would find, ofpeople cuddling and, you know,

(10:19):
being frozen in time, as it were, when they were dying, like
that.
I, we watched your film,watched it last night and found
it really fascinating andthought is this real?
Are there people that areholders?
I mean, are there actual peopleout there that that's their job
description?
I am a holder, but I'm guessingthat's not the case or, but I'm

(10:48):
guessing that's not that's notthe case.

Well, that would actually be a spectrum.
If you got into the theterminology that would be used
in New York there's a woman whowill have naps next to you, just
like a stranger who has naps,to the idea of a person who's
willing to be close in yourcomfort.
One of the correspondence thatI received in the time when I
was emailing people from thefilm was an individual who had
done this in a professionalcapacity, uh, as a nurse, on

(11:10):
multiple occasions.
Uh, so insofar as theterminology of someone who holds
people that it's grown such a acommon uh notion that we now
have it as like a resume.
For I don't think we're at thatpoint yet, but in in the
broader kind of just spectrum ofpeople wanting human connection
and then turning to theappropriate avenue to try and

(11:31):
afford that to them in verytender and vulnerable moments of
their life, maybe it does existsomewhere, but we're not at the
point where it's everywhere andthat's where we kind of are in
the conversation that surroundsDr Assisted Dying.

Right, let me just backtrack, just so we
make it clear what the movie'sabout a little bit.
Just in a nutshell, give us thelogline of what it's about.

Sure.
So first of all, the film isavailable online for everyone to
watch for free atholdmethemoviecom.
So holdmethemoviecom, soholdmethemoviecom.
And the film Hold Me is about awoman whose job it is to hold
and console people who are beingvoluntarily euthanized.
It's set in a fictional place inthe United States, so that I

(12:17):
don't get too bogged down by theregional bureaucracies and
instead can kind of speak in away that is evocative of
whatever personal unresolvedgrief an individual has in
watching it or whatever justunresolved kind of
conversational threads are tiedto themselves that they've yet
to explore and can explore inwatching it.

(12:38):
So it's one of those thingswhere the film itself is very
much about the mother anddaughter relationship as it
approaches end of life care andthey haven't really been talking
to each other and they haven'treally been completely honest
and present and it's sort ofjust like going through the the
introductory fledgling steps ofhaving more visceral and
vulnerable conversations right,I mean I, I I found it

(13:02):
interesting that you know, Ididn't know where you were going
to go with this story, like Iknew what it was about, I knew
the area and that there was, youknow, there was a bit of the.

There still was a bit of the bureaucracy,
you know, sprinkled in in termsof, you know, the kind of
covertness of this voc, thisvocation, as it were, as opposed
to it being there, seemed to besomething nefarious attached to

(13:34):
this, this, this vocation thatthis woman was doing and that
you know, and I'm wondering whatmade you, what made you bring
that into the story in terms ofthe funding of her job more or
less Seemed to have somenefarious ties, or am I wrong?

No.
So a lot of the way that Istructured the film is using the
unconscious assumptions of theviewer and a lot of what they
feel sort of not provoked, butthat the suggestion of something
elicits from them.
Anytime that you're watching afilm, an active participant in
watching that film are yourassumptions, and so that applies

(14:15):
to everyone.
So what I do, knowing thatpeople are going to have their
own assumptions about aparticular presentation of
something, even if there are amultitude of different
interpretations for the correctanswer, simply by leaving it
slightly ambiguous, I can thenmake it so that it makes for a
more lush and engagingconversation.
After the fact, my intention asa filmmaker is actually to be
targetedly ambiguous, such thatI'll allow something to kind of

(14:37):
go out there near an idea, but Iwon't hammer it home.
I'll leave it to you to say Igot this impression because of
this, but I won't hammer it home.
I'll leave it to you to say Igot this impression because of
this, and for whomever isviewing the film, that's not
wrong.
For yourself, it's gravitatingtowards the idea that this seems
to be a for-profit venture.
If it's a for-profit venturethat is removing people from
end-of-life care, then that'ssomething where there's a

(14:59):
nefarious or for-profit motivethere.
You could also view it in theother side that the reason that
they get paid the things thatthey get paid for providing the
service that they do is thatit's entirely donation-based.
So it's up to the people whoare turning to them for that
service what they do or do notpay them.
So I don't say that one way orthe other.
In the film I sort of justpaint this picture around the

(15:21):
characters and then I say,whatever your assumption is, run
with it, and then view the filmthrough that lens and then have
a conversation about someoneelse and we'll see where it
starts and where it ends.

Don Priess (15:30):
And I thought that was a strong suit of the film is
that it allowed you to.
You know, I didn't know, as youthe filmmaker, what your
opinion was on assisted suicide,if it was a good or a bad thing
, because it just was.
And I think that was a strongsuit because it did allow us to
make you know how I'm going towatch it very differently than
somebody who you know and I'mstill not even sure you know,

(15:52):
because I think there's.
I think when somebody issuffering and they want to and
that's their choice, that'sgreat.
There are pitfalls also alongthe way, you know, like when is
it actually their decision?
Who's actually making thedecision?
Is it family and what?
What are your, what are?
What are you?
Tease the person?
What are your viewpoints onassisted suicide?

Oh yeah.
So when it like I, I've hadfamily members who have gone
through the process.
Uh, depending on where you areuh in the world, it's a wildly
different legislative orbureaucratic assembly that is
either rushing to your side tooffer you things, or it's the
cultural expectation that you'llgo through that period of time
with your family.
So it's hugely, hugelydifferent everywhere around the

(16:37):
world for every different person, depending on their
circumstances.
I think that, in so far as myopinion goes, there are certain
thresholds that can be reachedwhere there is absolutely no
quality of life whatsoever, andyou can understand that at a
certain threshold, someone wouldwant to go early.
I do not think that, given theway in which the medical
establishment has been created,that it's something that should

(16:59):
be afforded to them.
Nor, for that matter, it'ssomething that we should afford
the majority of our time when itcomes to the conversation,
because we should be trying totalk about how we can keep
people's quality of life thererather than how we can move them
closer and closer to the ideaof simply being pushed off of a
convenient ledge in a societythat no longer wants them around
.
So it's one of those thingswhere, in an interpersonal

(17:21):
capacity.
We should have mercy.
We should have the ability torecognize when that threshold
has been reached.
But we should not be leaningtowards a medical establishment
which is largely a for-profitmotive, telling us who or who
should not live.
That's why the film is set inthis ambiguous mold, because
when you get into the largebureaucratic conversation, it is

(17:41):
every different tier of society, all the way from the poor,
impoverished person who needssomeone there with them, all the
way up to the rich ceo whodoesn't care and sees it as
nothing but profit margins.
And so by telling a story inthe ambiguous lens that allows
us to then talk about it afterthe fact, without me as a
filmmaker touching on any ofthat, we as viewers can touch on

(18:03):
all of it right, right, no, you, of course you're, you're, you
know, treading into our, ourterritory, with my, with, you
know, no country for old people,because that's what happened to
my mom.

She was basically being pushed out the
door, they.
But you know, and that beforeshe was ready to go, and you
know that's a business model,that is is very, um, you know,
uh, embraced here, you know, andit's, it's embraced by our, by
our corporate and the industryside, but, but the but the

(18:33):
public doesn't really know what.
So, but just getting back toyour film, about, you know, the,
your protagonist, the holder,who I, you know it was
interesting because she and Iknow that you know the way that
you set it up this is myperception is that she needed,
she needed the money, and thiswas something she could do,

(18:54):
although it did have a very, youknow, it had a very impactful
effect on her emotionally.
You know, it was, it was, itwasn't great and it was like and
, and maybe that's due to thefact that you know there are
there, it is, it is so such acovert thing and not really
embraced, you know, and so, andalso it's a it's I found I love.

(19:20):
I'm trying to articulate thisbetter hold on.
Let me bring it back here.
She she is choosing to do this,which was very generous of her
soul and her generosity.
The actress was able to reallyshow her generosity of spirit at
those really tender momentslike you coined it as the

(19:42):
person's dying for her to reallyembrace them.
So they felt held and comforted.
And yet you saw the toll it tookon her, because death is death
and we don't really talk aboutit and we don't really
understand it and we don't wantit, we don't like it, I don't

(20:02):
like it.
I was there with my mom, but Idon't really understand it and
we don't, we don't want it, wedon't like it, I don't like it.
I was there with my mom, but Idon't like it and it is a very.
It's a very, you know it.
Transition is is as beautiful asbirth and I think it's very
sacred.
And I'm glad I was there.

(20:24):
I didn't want to be, but I'mglad I was.
And so I think that your film,at its very minimum core, in the
big broad strokes, it bringsattention to this topic that we
hate to talk about, and I thinkthat for me the pain was

(20:47):
watching her and the residualeffect of your protagonist and
what it did to her emotionally,um, and I think that that that
is why people her very, her veryemotional baggage that she was
carrying from that is why wedon't look at it, because we
don't want that, because ithurts, correct?

yeah, so really fantastic insights and, uh,
insofar as you having thepersonal experience for
contextualizing how you viewedthe film and what it is to take
on that caregiver role and to bepresent with people at the end
of life, even if you don't likeit, you do it and you're glad
that you did it, because that isa side of death that we have
tried to whitewash from thethings that we view in this

(21:29):
world.
One of the greatest connectionsyou can make with another
person is being with them inthat transition.
It's something that we'veremoved from ourselves and we
don't feel connected to, butit's a huge, visceral,
fundamental part of ourconnection while we're here in
this world together.
So the industries themselveshave created a synthetic kind of
womb that we push people into,as if that's the transition into

(21:53):
the next realm.
But really, if you look at liketibetan or egyptian books of
the dead, that preparing fordeath used to be something which
was a much more prevalent partof our lives and that's been
removed.
So the idea of allowing someoneto be present in that and it
really does speak to themetaphor that you alluded to in
that we don't really talk aboutit and so her being in that

(22:15):
position in that sort of covertmedical provider and yet not
really providing medicine, moretrying to keep people out of the
machinations of the medicalmachine.
Well, is that mercy?
Well, they don't have to gothrough the painful process of
remaining in that system anymore.
So maybe that's mercy and itbecomes just this long,

(22:36):
complicated stretch of things.
But as far as what she's goingthrough, it's just painful
because you don't have anyone totalk to about it.
And if you're going throughsomething like that and you're
going through it alone, thatmakes it so much worse.
So it really is just speakingto the idea that in a Western
cultural climate, we don't feelas if we can really speak openly
about our grief.
It's like oh, that's your grief.

(22:57):
No, it's something that's meantto be shared.

And if we came back to a point where that
was something that we couldembrace, then maybe we'd start
to change that and that kind ofworld that we want would more
and more be there, right, right,yeah, it's very complicated
because I think that again I'mgoing back to your character,
hannah, because I think that shereally she framed, she was a

(23:26):
great representation of all ofour fears, you know, and for
people that are brave becauseI'm brave, but I know that, like
her feeling of just being, it'sjust and it's so hard because
it is a very solitary experienceand it shouldn't be.
That's the thing, it shouldn'tbe, because it is a difficult,

(23:46):
it's letting go is reallydifficult, um, and and that, and
even though that she was astranger to these people, right,
I think we saw that duringCOVID, that that was very much
illuminated during COVID forpeople that were living in
long-term facilities.
Many people died without theirfamily members there, which was
a tragedy, and so a lot offrontline providers were there

(24:11):
trying to be substitutes forfamily members, holding up
telephones and then holdingtheir hands to people that were
dying because they couldn't havetheir loved ones there.
And I think you know there's awe talk about the silver linings
.
That was a silver liningbecause we really that it was
very, very amplified that thatthat idea of dying alone, and

(24:36):
how awful it is to be alone inthat, in that transition.
No one should if they don'thave to, and and what a tragedy
that was, what a just an awfultragedy like.
It's heartbreaking to thinkabout people being afraid or not
having their loved ones there.
It just despicable really, butthat that is a huge issue, you

(25:02):
know, and when you, when youmake it clinical and it's
anything but clinical, it's likecalling a nursing home a
facility, because it's anythingbut a home yeah.

so we've created industries that are for profit
out of things that are supposedto be deep, tender contours in
our hearts, that are supposed tocreate a way of living.
So by not having the way ofliving that you're describing by
de facto, we fall into thesystem that is isolating people
at end-of-life care and, if youthink of like from the prison
industrial complex, that issolitary confinement being

(25:35):
torture.
If you think of the medicalindustrial complex, we are so
negligent that we have allocatedpeople to what is torturous.
So that's just two differentsides of our neglect in a
broader societal lens and itrequires talking about it.

A hundred percent.
You're taking the words rightout of my mouth.
I've said the same exact words,that it is as bad as solitary
confinement was what they weredoing to my mother and I was
there every day and I said waswhat they were doing to my
mother and I was there every dayand I said you don't do this to
someone who you know convictedof murder.
I mean, they get better, youknow, and even then we know you
just said you know, in terms ofour criminal industrial complex,

(26:12):
that is equally as bad.
But I mean, here's these peoplethat are having.
They are not criminals, theyare.
The only crime is getting oldor sick and that's their crime.
And now they're being torturedfor it.
And it is torture.
What's happening?
Like my mom was tortured and Iwas there.
And it's interesting, you know,when I make posts and people

(26:33):
that don't understand it becausethey haven't been there, been
through a nursing home situation, long-term care, they'll say,
well, why don't you take yourmom out of there?
Well, where are you gonna takeher?
Our system doesn't pay for homecare.
I'm not a doctor or a nurse.
Now most people their acuityget it gets worse and worse when

(26:55):
they're in a nursing homebecause they're not being cared
for.
And now you can't really you.
You need to.
You would need to be in the 1%in order to actually care for
somebody with quality care inyour home.
So you are stuck.
There is, you are stuck and youare stuck in this system.
That is a lose-lose period.

Yeah.
So the way that you describedthat it perfectly encapsulates
the situation is that you'd haveto be a part of the 1% in order
to actually get the care fromsuch an institution or service
providers or anything, in orderto actually have it measure up
to the portrayal that um,mainstream movies and kind of
just like the assumptions thatwe have.
Oh well, that service exists toprovide that service.

(27:36):
No, that service to exist toextinguish our connection with
other people so that thatservice can be more profitable,
with the expectation that wethen shuffle people into it.
It's a back and forth kind ofpendulum swing that was created
deliberately because people findthemselves being trapped by
that assumption.
That means, come time that it'sactually the reality, they're

(27:56):
trapped.
So it's one of those thingswhere the longer it's a stagnant
conversation, the more itbecomes an inevitable
consequence.
That puts future people in thatsituation, which ties into the
conversation about doctorassisted dying, because if
you're looking at medicalmandates or the degree to which
you're receiving reimbursalprograms as the determinant of

(28:17):
what care is or is not provided,you can look at a film like how
to Die in Oregon and one of thethings that was presented in
that, and this is a documentary,so it talks about euthanasia in
Oregon.
One of the people who had beendiagnosed with cancer was
interested in getting treatmentfor the cancer, but they sent
him a not really a brochure, butbasically a sales pitch for

(28:37):
doctor-assisted dying instead.
So that's a really scarysituation when we have a
propagandized version of realitythat is told by the people who
prop up these organizations, whothen when you're in there it
feels like a trap and oh, by theway, you might be offered
incentives to off yourselfprematurely.
That's a nightmare and it'spainted like it's some kind of
pleasant Wilbur shirt.

Wow, it's just so depressing.
What you're saying just mirrors, you know, our hospice system.
Hospice is big business.
We talk about that now in ourdocumentary.
It is, you know.
It's that's why they werepushing my mom into hospice
before she was necessary,because they it's it's very cost
effective.
They get, they get the biggestreimbursements and they do the

(29:21):
let and they don't have to doanything because all they have
to do is keep them comfortable,which they don't even do.

Don Priess (29:29):
I mean they keep them comfortable with drugs,
with here's some morphine,here's some fentanyl.
Now we don't even have to takecare of you because you're just
lying there, which also takesaway that end end of life
experience with whoever.
If you have family members, youyou cannot have that connection
anymore because you're just ina drug state in the guise of

(29:53):
making them more comfortable.
Yes, there's times when peopleare in pain.
You don't want them to be inpain, you don't want them to be
in pain.
But when it's just chemicallytethering them and putting them
out, then you cannot have thatbeautiful end-of-life experience
.
It's impossible and that'swhere things are.
It is euthanasia, as one of ourinterviewees in our documentary

(30:16):
says.
It's slow-motion euthanasia andthat needs to change.

But it's all it's all money-based, but
it's all based on it's allfollow the money and that's, and
, and you know, and I am, and itis.
I am a I am not a conspiracy,conspiracy theorist at all.
I am like pollyanna girl but I'mI am not, and I never have been
like I'm the girl that was like, oh, this person's having a bad

(30:45):
day or this facility, there'ssomething wrong here or I'm not
communicating, right, whateverthe case may be.
But I I'm also not stupid and Ialso have done, you know, a
tremendous amount of research onthis and working with the top
people that have been doing thisfor 50 years.
Folks, right, 50 years this,this model, has been in business
, and and that's only since it'sbeen talked about it.

(31:07):
It's been around forever, youknow.
But the but the point is, isthat it what you're saying, does
exist.
That is absolutely what drivesthis industry, you know, and and
it is always money, it isalways money, and there are good
, there are good actors, butthey can't do their job and

(31:28):
they're hated as bad becauseeveryone's bad.

Don Priess (31:30):
You know, the good actors have it tough.
They hate this more than any,as more than anybody, because
they're like wait, wait.
All hospice isn't bad, we'renot not all bad, but when the
majority is, that's a problem.

So it's such important points across the
board, insofar asdifferentiating and delineating
between the verbiage ofconspiracy theorist versus a
person who eventually reaches apoint of understanding the depth
of corruption, that yourecognize that it is a
for-profit conspiracy and thatfor-profit conspiracy if you get
into like the I believe it wasCambridge study that basically

(32:05):
said that the United States isan oligarchy.
You can look at the number onemedical or the number one reason
for financial bankruptcy in theUnited States is medical debt.
If you look at the 2016 thirdleading cause of death is
medical malpractice.
You can look at pharmaceuticalprescriptions falling as an
offshoot of that.
If you factor in the astroturfindustry which I'm not talking

(32:25):
about fake grass there, I'mtalking about the industry that
exists to keep you fromunderstanding what the reality
of these systems are.
And when you add up all of thesedifferent variables, what it is
is something that sources backto the Flexner Report in the
early 1900s, and there were twoof those that were conducted at
the same time, and it was by theFlexner brothers.
One of them was to determinethe future of education and the

(32:50):
other was to determine thefuture of how we thought of
medicine.
So that's when you start toshut down medical schools in
order to see them fall under theframework of a particular
diagnostic of what we think ofmedicine as that, being the
allopathic model.
It becomes less holistic, lessnaturopathic, less homeopathic
and, most of all, less human.
It becomes more about life overlimb, triage care kind of thing
.
So that's when you understandthat Rockefeller medicine men

(33:11):
are the oligarchic underpinningswho are also social engineers
that see those sorts of systemsinto existence so that they can
have a monopoly over them, solong as they're deeply entwined
with insurance, reimbursals, allthese other kind of like
seemingly separate sides of themedical system, but they're so
interwoven that there is noseparation.
So when it's so interwoven thatthere is no separation, it

(33:33):
becomes less conspiracy theoryand more bureaucratic,
oligarchic reality of thevarious different convergence of
the systems in which we live.
And I've been studying that forlike 15 plus years and it's
interdisciplinary.
And I'll put it this way Ispent nine years of dotting my
i's and crossing my t's tounderstand how broken it
actually is.
For nine years straight, Irefuse to accept how corrupt the

(33:54):
world actually is.
It's like house of cards onnetflix.
That's nothing compared to thereality of the situation that
we're in, and so that's one ofthose things where we can sit
there aghast in the utmostterror that we found ourselves
here, or we can be honest andhave the conversations that we
need to have in order to makethe world better, and your
documentary and my film are bothprojects designed to do just

(34:15):
that.

Absolutely.
I mean, one of the things thatyou know we get questioned a lot
is like well, is this like agloom and doom situation with
your documentary, you know?
Are we going to?
Are people just going to wantto go and, just like you know,
hang themselves afterwards?
You know, and I don't think so.
I think what I, what I hope itdoes, is that it wakes everybody
up and that they go.
Like you know, when my managerfinally got to see the our first

(34:40):
cut, we didn't show anybody andhe was like, oh my God, I had
no idea what you were puttingtogether.
And he said all I can think ofis what's going to happen to me.
What's going to happen to me,and that's what we hope that
everybody goes, what's going tohappen to me.
Because, you know, we are allmy mom in this lifetime.

(35:00):
We are all my mom this lifetime.
We are all my mom.
This is not her story, this isall of our stories and we will
all, unless we're the 1%, we'llbe either caring for someone
like this or being cared for,and you don't want to do either.
They're both horrible.
I don't recommend it.

(35:21):
I don't.
I don't recommend it.
I don't.
I don't recommend it to anybodyNot fun, not good, Nothing to
learn there, nothing to get.
It's awful.
But so now that we'vedeciphered that it sucks, what
do we do about it?
Tease.

So a lot of what's happening right now is a
byproduct of the convergence ofsynthetic environments that we
are made to lift in our entirelife, growing sicker and sicker
as we do so, less and lessconnected, more lonely and, in
essence, just machinations, or,if not, like human extensions of
the machine, as in to say,we're supposed to put our life

(35:59):
second and our purpose insociety first.
Pulling a quote out ofRockefeller Medicine Men they
defined health as the ability towork.
That's their definition ofhealth the ability to work.
We need to stop thinking ofthings like that.
First of all, we need to removeourselves from the immersion in
work that then puts who we areas a person second.

(36:21):
Immersion in work that thenputs who we are as a person
second.
And then, when you think, whoyou are as a person, it's not
just you, it's also who you'reconnected to, it's who your
friends and family are, it's thelongevity, well-being,
resilience of your community.
So if you're going to step backfrom work and prioritize you,
that means you're also going toneed to prioritize the people
who are important to you, andvery quickly, what comes into
view is that this isn't onething that any of us are charged

(36:43):
with doing or one thing thatany of us are charged with
understanding.
It is the consequence of thereality, of the very complicated
situations in society that weexist in.
It's a transition process,which means that there are going
to be more horror stories thatwe are faced with, that we are
encumbered by the emotionalweight of.
That's not going to go away.

(37:03):
If anything, that's going toget worse.
I'll tell you right now.
Looking at the economicsituation and the byproduct of
these systems, chances are thisis going to get harder before it
gets better, but in that wewill come together.
What that looks likespecifically is going to be
different for everybody.
Whatever your personal skillsets are is something that you
have to offer the world.
Some people are better at beingempathetic, better at being

(37:26):
there with someone when they'rein a vulnerable moment.
Offer that to the world andautomatically you've helped
change things for the better,the way that they're actually
supposed to be.
The more in which we rely onthe definition of health as work
, the more in which we sell ourlives to work in those systems,
the more in which those systemswill gradually break us down
until we're not even humanbeings.
We've just been replaced bymachines.
So it's one of those thingswhere it's a highly nuanced and

(37:52):
deeply personal answer to thatquestion.
It's something that you'll knowthe answer to when you're in
the situation and then build upto that.
Just try and remove yourself alittle bit more every day from
the machine, because it's notthere to help you and when you
need help most, it's going to bea person that you turn to right
, right, so.

So let's talk about the macro of it,
though.
So, you know, in terms of howdo we, how do you know there and
we're talking about this filmas a movement and not just a
movie, right?
So how, as a you know, do youthink that, you know, the
collective conscious can beshifted enough to become the
collateral, to become the notthe collateral, but to become

(38:29):
the currency of, of thismovement, in terms of can we,
you know, can the currency ofhumanity, of a public, of a
collective conscience, be strongenough to counter this
industrial complex that we're upagainst?

oh, that's such a great question.
So, like, um, the answer is yes, uh, the unfortunate side
effect, or the.
I'll put it this way you haveto be honest about the reality,
and this is something thatpeople do not want to do because
it's so bad and it's so painfuland it's so, uh, inconvenient,
and we just oh, I just want togo have fun, I just want to do
the, the live, the version of mylife that the advertisers told

(39:11):
me I was going to live, and it'slike you don't get it.
That is a delusion that wascreated to poison the reality.
So we're looking at kind of justthis stark moment in our
trajectory of history of do wehave the courage to look at
things the way that they are?
And that's one of those thingswhere, the more in which you do
that with yourself, with others,not in like a rude way or a

(39:31):
cruel way, but that's thedeterminant of whether or not we
then are successful in changingthings.
You have to be honest about theproblems if you're going to be
realistic about the solutions,and these films are built around
.
Where we're at right now ispeople still aren't up to the
point of being honest yet.
We got to get them there beforewe can go anywhere.

Right, right.
So let's you know, let's, let'sfor just for fun, for funsies,
right.
So let's you know, let's, let'sfor just for fun, for funsies.
Let's say, you know, peoplecome away from watching our
films and go, yeah, fuck, yeah,let's do this right, let's do
this.
I'm down with it.
I'm mad.
Let's do this.
We're going to go out and makesigns and we're going to tell
you know, governor Newsom, thathe's full of shit and he

(40:15):
shouldn't be.
You know, he's taking moneyfrom the most notorious people
and we're not, we're mad as helland we're not going to take it
anymore.
Do you think that that?
Do you think in this, in thisenvironment, that we can do that
like a Black Lives Matter, likea Me Too movement, like an
LGBTQ?
You're shaking.

No, no, no, no no, no, the reason is because, if
you look at the way in whichmajor protest movements are
largely once again astroturf,they're things that are put to
the forefront of the dialecticthat we all then entertain to
keep us at a point of stagnationso that we reinforce the
current monopoly that is held ineach of these separate regions.

(40:54):
To give you an example, 95% ofthe news media in the United
States is owned by the same sixcorporations.
So that gives you a sense ofsay that you're a legitimate
grassroots movement who wants togo out there and make headway
against a monopoly thatcurrently exists.
Chances are they have anamesake in the media
infrastructure so that yourmessage will never get heard and
your messengers will bedemonized or tarnished as a

(41:15):
result of trying to speak out onbehalf of the well-being of
other people.
So, in essence, what we'relooking at is a full spectrum
dominance kind of problem.
Full spectrum dominance isterminology that's used to
describe the weaponization ofour way of life.
Simply, by going out andconducting yourself the same way
that you previously have, youfit functionally as a cog within

(41:37):
the machine To be different inthe way in which you think, act,
and then go out and expectother people to engage changes
things.
So we need to change, we need toorient ourselves in that
direction.
But here's the catch Someoneisn't coming to save us, and in
all of the versions or storiesthat we've been told whether
it's a movement that's buildingfrom the ground up, or whether
it's some hero like in theSenate or something like that

(42:00):
there's the idea that there arethose people who are there to
save you.
Instead, it's more of trying toreach a point of health within
the community.
Now, that's really difficult todo when you're being targeted
by for-profit systems that arepainting a gaslit version of
reality to then inhibit yourefficacy in basically investing

(42:22):
in the community.
So it's one of those thingswhere we need to talk to each
other, not necessarily go outthere and create a movement that
is then amplified by theestablishment.
We need to come to a base levelof understanding between us and
only then do things change,because we refuse to listen to
the lies anymore, and that'sslow and painful and it's
different for all of us.

Oh my God, so depressing, no.

Don Priess (42:44):
But it comes from information too, meaning that if
people don't know, they can'ttalk among themselves.
They need to know.
So things like your movie, ourmovie, that's information,
Because Susie didn't know.
When she stepped into this pileof crap, she had no idea that
this even existed.
And so, even if it doesn'tcreate a movement, it can create

(43:07):
an awareness that somebody canthen say okay, I at least know
where I'm at and I can navigatethis at least better.
Maybe it won't be perfect, butbetter.

So Dawn or go ahead.
Susie no.

I'm just going to say that that doesn't
see.
That's not good enough for me,because what happens is like,
while we may know better and, bythe way, the first thing that
Rick Moncastle, our partner, whoyou know is a former US
attorney federal prosecutor was,is a former us attorney federal

(43:41):
prosecutor who took down purduepharma and abbott labs for off
marketing depakote to nursinghome, who went after federally,
went after um nursing homes forfraud but never saw any change,
like the first thing you know hesaid when I I had him on my
podcast I said what can we do?
And he said it has to come tothe community.
It has to.
That's what you're sayingexactly.
But here's the thing whenyou've got this, you know

(44:02):
industrial complex of of, youknow medical system that is just
rooted, deeply rooted, likeroots to china, like at some
point you have to lean on it andthat's and, and so my naivete
was like no, we have to shameour politicians and say we are
your constituents, we're notgoing to vote for you.

(44:23):
We know what you're up to.
You took a million dollars fromShlomo every month to keep his
so that he could have hisfranchise in California that
didn't even have a licensebecause he had so many wrongful
death suits against him and he'sflying around in his private
jet while you're taking, youknow, payoff money.
We need like the.

(44:44):
I just feel like they, peoplewith lofty goals, like our
governor Sorry, I need abodyguard at this point, but you
know, the thing is is that he,he needs to be outed.
He wants to be president and heneeds us.
He, he needs to be outed.

He wants to be president and he needs us.
So do you think I'm naive speak?
Oh yeah, no, the the reality.
This is about the thing that ittook me nine years to come to
realize.
So what we're actually in is ina slow motion war.
That's kind of what this lookslike, and it's the gradual um
diminishing of the uh, americanI'll call it that in essence,
speaking to what the foundingfathers were fighting on behalf

(45:22):
of the idea of life, liberty,freedom, all that kind of stuff,
that's something that has beensystematically and
multi-generationally targeted inorder to dissipate the
longevity and efficacy of thenation as a whole.
So we're in the middle of a war,and this is a war that has been
going on for a very, very longtime, and it's full spectrum
dominance.
Once again, that's a terminologythat is a war term.

(45:43):
It's when your very way ofliving is then weaponized, and
so that's an example of goingout there and simply
participating in the oligarchywith the expectation that the
superficial salesmen that weregiven politicians, literally
anyone that you believe in, beit Democrat, republican,
whatever they still exist withinthe same system.
And because they exist withinthe same system, it is that

(46:06):
system which is designed toinhibit them and then obfuscate
our ability to engage with them.
So as long as that exists in acontinuation, we're in a state
of perpetual war.
Only we won't think of it aswar because it's been branded
and painted as if there aresaviors.
It's so much worse than thanthinking that we can go to the
various different lobbyists orthe people who have been paid

(46:28):
off by those lobbyists,regardless of partisanship, and
think that it's going to changethe fact that it's an oligarchy.
The problem that we're facedwith here is that this is an
oligarchy pulling the stringsthrough propaganda of how
reality is painted, but realityis very different.

Got it.

So let's dumb it down and say do you not think
that we have any power at all topull the curtain back on Oz and
just say this is what's reallygoing on, folks to pull the
curtain back on Oz and just saythis is what's really going on,
folks, yes, you do have thepower to do that, but that's not
going to change that Oz isalways going to be Oz as long as
we remove ourselves fromfirsthand participation on a

(47:07):
community level.
If we step away fromparticipation and basically hand
the keys over to someone else,they're going to come up with
some excuse or story to createOz all over again.
So we do have the ability to goout there and create catalysts
for conversation that then bringabout awareness that then, in
time, changes the system thatexists around all of us.
That is a very real thing thatwe do all need to be doing

(47:31):
Insofar as expecting the systemas it is to change the situation
that we're in.
No, it was a system that wascreated to put us in this
situation.

Right.
So we, you know, and I'm sureyou know this we talk.
We, you know this comes out inour documentary we, there is a
very strong nursing home lobby.
They're not dissimilar to theNRA, to the pharmaceutical, and
they're extremely strong becausethey're under the radar.
People don't think that thereis a nursing home lobby, but
there is a nursing home lobbyand they're extremely strong
because they're under the radar.
People don't think that there isa nursing home lobby, but there
is a nursing home lobby andthey're not lobbying for the
nursing homes, they're lobbyingfor the industry and they've

(48:04):
embedded themselves in ourlegislation.
They have seats at the table,they are deferred to as experts.
They make decisions that arenot in our benefit.
They are for the industrybenefit, the benefit of the
industry.
So you know we have traditionaladvocacy.
You know you'll have policy.
You know I mean I just got offthe phone with a big, big

(48:27):
organization that's very, veryHollywood forward, and you know
they're like yeah, well, youneed a call to action and there
needs to be policy, and it'slike all that stuff, it's
nothing is performative, it'sall performative.

Yeah, you know it's like let's have a meeting
and talk about the meeting.
Yeah, oh, you're so.
You're so far ahead from mostpeople who have those
conversations, because mostpeople only know how to receive
the sales pitch that the moviethat they saw telling them about
the sales pitch told them itwas going to look like.
And if you're in thereliterally figuring things out
like, wait a minute, this isjust a meeting to talk about the

(49:01):
meeting.
There's nothing being done here.
This is just trying to panderto our feelings so we can feel
as if we've accomplishedsomething being here, correct?

Done that.
Wrote a letter.
Wrote a letter.

That level of skepticism.
You got to get to that pointbefore you can look at the
reality of skepticism.
You gotta get to that pointbefore you can look at the
reality.
And the scary thing is whenyou're in most of the room
talking to most of theselobbyists.
They don't know anything, theyjust care about their paycheck,
they care about their bonus,their bottom line, and then
everything is just whatevercomes out of their mouth in
order to insulate that.
And they try and make it cushyenough to placate the morons who

(49:33):
just get what they wanted andthen they run out of the room.
But but they don't changeanything.
If we're talking about realchange, it's real pain, and real
pain is looking at thesituation we're in.
This is war.
It's a slow motion war againstthe entire technically world,
but it's using the bureaucraticmachinations as the pretense by

(49:54):
which you silence people in aperiod of time where they're
most vulnerable.

Yeah, yeah, what he said, what he said
brutal it's brutal.

It's so painful.

I understand people I, people
don't want, and I understand ittoo.
Listen, I, I, I am, I am ahundred.
You know this is, I'm a walkingempathy, like I am a nerve of
empathy.
That's me.
I feel people's pain, I feel it, I know it, I know I understand
the not wanting to deal with itand not wanting to look at it.

(50:31):
And it is so overwhelming andso complicated, like you've been
looking at this for years.
I've only been looking at thisfor years.

I've only been looking at this for two years
and I am okay, right and I amgutted I am gutted by it I'll
give you a bit of advice comingfrom a war correspondent,
because a big part of what I doin the, the shows that I host
and the interviews that I do, uh, cross aboard people who are,
in essence, dealing with theupper echelon most trauma that
you could possibly engage to apoint where they disassociate,

(50:59):
they can't handle it.
And so this is advice comingfrom a war correspondent who was
previously stationed inpalestine years prior, and what
she was going through justtrying to get someone into an
ambulance.
And it was one of those thingswhere they were just shooting at
the people who were doing theirfarming just for fun, because
it's a way of terrorizing them.
No one of them got hit and theyget loaded into an ambulance

(51:19):
and Ava Bartlett is the woman'sname and she was crying in the
ambulance and the person who wasin there with her kind of
looked at her, not in a mean way, but it's like Ava, if you're
going to do this for a living,you can't cry about it.
It's kind of just like you reachthat point of you're going to
be in a war zone.
You need to be honest about thefact that you're in a war zone.
That's why, susie, where you'recoming from from that

(51:41):
interpersonal side, you didn'tknow you were going to a literal
war, a literal war that relieson your empathy, as if it's some
sort of shortcoming or somesort of failing that makes it so
that you won't click into thereality.
What the reality is is thatit's going to be a threshold of
horror the likes of which youcould never possibly articulate,

(52:04):
until you come to understandthat this is a slow motion war
that has been levied against theentire population, and it's not
going to go away, it's going toget worse.
So that's one of those thingswhere, once you understand that
you're a war correspondent,maybe that verbiage can.

It's an interesting way to frame that.
Yeah, thank you.
Yeah, no, you're so right.
And I, you know, my whole lifeas a filmmaker, starting as an
actress, and you know, andwriting and producing and
directing is to protect my heart, because that is my superpower.
You know that is my superpower.
You know that is my superpower,that's what I, you know, and I

(52:41):
feel like you know, if you don'ttell stories with heart, then
they're just news reports, youknow.
And so I protect it and I don'twant to lose it.
I don't want to get hard, Idon't want to be nihilistic and
just say that's the way it isand let's just throw all caution

(53:04):
to the wind, because life sucksand the world is shit.
I don't want to believe that.
I just don't want to believe.
I just feel like we've beenthrough a lot of wars but we can
come out the other side and sothat, yeah, or go ahead, finish
your point there no, I'm oh.

I didn't mean to cut you off well, no, it's just
because I very much agree withthe point that you're making,
which is that ultimately so, ifyou get into the verbiage that
conspiracy theorists use andthere's kind of like
connotations to each of thesethings in each respective realm
from which people will use them,but I'll just use it in the
general sense.
The idea of red pill being thematrix notion of you wake up to
a much darker reality than youthought you were in, as opposed

(53:48):
to the blue pill, which ischoosing to just stay passive
and unaware and not actuallyrealize that things are that bad
.
Then there's the idea of blackpill, which is that you take a
pill that's so black that you'renever coming back.
Everything is doom and gloomand it's just a nightmare.
Oh my God, what do we do withthat?
A lot of people, and this is asequence of pills.
You're supposed to take the redpill to realize that
something's not right.

(54:08):
You're supposed to take theblack pill to realize how bad
things actually are, but youdon't stop there.
Next, you take the gold pill,and the gold pill is that, even
though things are that bad,screw that, I'm going to fight
back, I'm going to do the rightthing, I'm going to stand up and
I'm going to be the hero whofinds the light in the middle of
darkness, because that inspiresthe courage that everybody
needs.
So that's an important part ofthe progression.

(54:32):
This isn't a situation thatwe're just going to bounce out
of.

It's something that we're going to
fight for our entire lives sothe latter that you just said is
that is is that not just aanother way of of?
Just you know what am I tryingto say?
Like, like you know, medicatingourselves, for lack of better
word, you know, just because weknow how bad it is?

(54:56):
So it's just another, it's justanother way.
You can either go oh, it'scomplete, I'm completely
nihilistic, screw life and it'sawful.
Or I'm going to be the hero,which is sort of you know, I,
that's my, that's what I'm doing.
I'm put on my cape and I'm, youknow, I'm standing, I'm putting
on my cape, I'm still going toput on my cape and I'm going to,
and I'm going to go out thereand I'm going to say I'm going

(55:18):
to be the megaphone and I'mgoing to amplify this message
and I'm going to do whatever Ican.
But am I doing that?
Is it selfish?
Am I just doing it because Ican't deal with the fact that it
is so awful and that, you know,and am I giving people false
hope?
Maybe that's what I'm trying tosay?

So if you do it for the right reasons in the
wrong way, you're giving peoplefalse hope.
If you do it for the rightreasons in the right way, you're
not.
So really, this is aboutunderstanding the reality of the
situation and then theentrepreneurial creative vestige
by which you go about working.
Because I like to say, you know, we all know that the term
persistence is key.
I like to think persistence iskey, but tenacity is a lockpick.

(55:55):
To think persistence is key buttenacity is a lockpick.
So understand morality, adhereto morality.
Do not sell out and become oneof the people you hate in trying
to address the very brokensystem.
That's important, but it is a.
This is the thing like peopledon't get when you really enter
into real politics.
You're not talking aboutpoliticians.
You're talking about how do we,as communities, escape these

(56:17):
broken systems that are sobroken that they're going to
kill us and torture our lovedones, and that's one of those
things where it's a lifelongjourney.
This is painful and excruciatingfor all of us to realize that
it can take years, if notdecades, to change any of these
things, and a lot of times thatchange only comes when things
get so bad that the people whodidn't want anything to do with
it, find themselves in aposition where they have to

(56:39):
confront it.
And that's the thing that I'mmost just torn up about all the
time is that if you go out thereand you tell someone about this
, they don't care, and if you goout there and you show it to
them, they don't care.
And if you go out there and youshow it how it affects their
friends and family, they'll comeup with an excuse.
It's not until it actuallyapplies to them in their last
moment, where they genuinelyneed anything else, that they
care, and that's the thing thatkills me.

Yeah, no, it's so true and it's, you know,
there's so much justificationand we've just really, you know,
we've, we've, we've just pound,we've been pounded by ageism
and ableism and and made tothink that that it is okay.
It's okay to say, well, theywere 89.
They were 89.
Come on, oh, so they should betortured because they're 89?

(57:23):
You know, who cares if theywere 89?
Maybe they liked their life,maybe they wanted to live to 99.
Who are you to tell them whatto do?
Who are we to say when someoneneeds to die, they're loving
their life and and that, andthat is your god-given right,

(57:44):
and I'm not religious, butthat's your god-given right,
your human given right tonavigate your life.
You have one life right and so,um, but, but ageism has given
everybody the excuse to look theother way, to say you know,
they're old, they're you know.
It's like there was the moviecalled Worth I don't, it was

(58:06):
with Michael Keaton as well,which he was also in a dope sick
, but it was about the 9-11tragedy and the insurance
companies trying to figure outwho got what from the insurance
company and what the worth ofeach person was, which, at the
end of the day, was like how,what is going on?
Like the people you know, thefamily members.

(58:27):
Like what are you talking about?
So, wait, that person's worthmore than my husband.
Like, wait, how is?
How are you evaluating it?
And that's what we're doing.
At the end of the day, is we'reevaluating people by their
worth to society, their age,their we lost him.
So we just lost connection withTease, which sucks because it

(58:51):
was such a great conversation.
He tried to come back on.
We saw him and heard him, buthe couldn't see us so he was
typing away.
So he did leave a verybeautiful sign off.

Thank you for having me on.
It's great chatting with you.
It's a tragically broken systemand the film that I've made to
help encourage a deeperconversation about that is Hold
Me, and it's available for freefor every one of on
holdmethemoviecom.
If you want to support it, youcan buy a ticket and just throw
a few dollars my way.

(59:25):
That would be greatlyappreciated, but if not, that's
okay.
The most important thing is toshare it and to use it to help
expand the conversation thatwe're unfortunately all in and
are going to be staying in.
So thank you all very much, somuch for listening, for being a
part of such an importantconversation.

Anyway, we really enjoyed that conversation
.
It was really inspiring andvery thought-provoking,
thought-provoking, that's it.
Yeah, it was I mean.

Don Priess (59:55):
I don't want our listeners.
I was going to ask him if hecould give us anything, so our
listeners didn't hire someone tohold them, as they put a pillow
over their heads afterlistening to this.

Susie Singer Carter (01:00:05):
No no, no.
I think that he was being veryhonest and I think that it's
something that we need tounderstand.
What we're up against andthere's no way to sugarcoat it
and that doesn't mean that wecan't do anything.
That's what I was getting towith him is that we do have
currency in the community as acommunity.

(01:00:25):
So I do believe that and I getthat he believes that too, and I
think that he has been in thisarena and just immersed in it
for far longer than you and I,and so he has a great his

(01:00:46):
vernacular and his perception ofit is solid, it's rock solid.
But I don't think he's off.
I think he's right.
I think there was a lot to besaid about what he was saying
and I and I I I thoroughlyenjoyed it.
I'd like to have a part twowith him and get to and get to
the you know, the calls toaction.
I think that he has a lot uphis sleeve and we didn't get to

(01:01:07):
do it, so ha no that's.
that's going to pull you back toour uh take two anyway.
But at the end of the day, weare not nihilists.
We do believe in the world andpeople and love, and that's why
we do this podcast, right, don?

Don Priess (01:01:27):
Yeah, and that's because love is powerful, love
is contagious and love conquersall.
We thank everybody for watchingand listening today.
If you like what you see, likeit, share, subscribe, do all
those fun things.

Yes.

Remember, we are still yeah, still trying to
raise finishing funds for ourdocumentary no country for old
people, and anything that anyonecan do or pass that word along
would be very, very helpful.
Appreciate it, yeah.

You can go to no country for old peoplecom
and there's links there you canwatch.
You know there's like trailersand sizzles and all kinds of
things and in the show notes youwill have information to T
Snyder's movies and his writingand his contact, his podcast.
Everything will be there and wehope to have him back again and

(01:02:16):
continue the conversation.
Everything will be there and wehope to have him back again and
continue the conversation.

Until then, go visit people at nursing homes and
assisted living.
You'll love it.

Okay, bye everybody, you'll feel great.
Take care, bye-bye, bye.

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TEACE SNYDER: Filmmaker/Artist - Exploring Human Connection and Voluntary Euthanasia

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}TEACE SNYDER: Filmmaker/Artist - Exploring Human Connection and Voluntary Euthanasia