Silver soars, Sexes aging, SHEEN calls in

On Tuesday, Rich reflects on his interview with actor Charlie Sheen. But first the price of silver is soaring, and China has placed export controls on it afetr the ICBC lease to JP Morgan Chase; will silver surpass $80 an ounce, $100? Then, who ages better, men or women? 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is America with Rich Valdez, powered by politicweek dot com.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
And Rich Valdees is with US.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Former Christian Administration official.

Speaker 4 (00:12):
You work for Chris Christie.

Speaker 5 (00:13):
You've been follo us each on a lot of public
service stuff.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Valdez calumnist now with the Washington Times.

Speaker 6 (00:18):
This is America, Richiev. You're on the air with a
nation Nation with America with your host, Rich Valdez.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
What's up America. I am Rich Valdes Valdez with ans
at Rich valdest on all of the social media. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome,
and we are seventeen blocks away from Madison Square Garden
in New York City. Our phone number if you want
to join our late night national town hall conversation it's
eight seven seven Valdes one, eight seven seven Valdez one.

(00:46):
And of course I am blessed to be here with
each and every one of you this Tuesday, the twenty
third of December, keeping your company this evening uh telling
you all about what's going on in America tonight. This
is America with me Rich Valdez. By the way, and
up first, we're tackling the hard hitting headlines that have
the swamp sweating and the patriots cheering men Lisio not

(01:08):
the A little blessings to everybody. And you know we're
days away one day right tomorrow as Nocha went out
for me, for you guys, two days away for many
of you from Christmas Day. And it's very, very exciting.
I love this time of year. But we're gonna break
it down with some truth, with some humor, with a
dash of so free throw, as I like to say,

(01:29):
and like they say online, right, it's a good quote
I've seen online. It says freedom isn't free, but it's
worth every penny, all right. Kicking it off, today's blockbuster
GDP report should have a strong sentiment in everybody's heart
this holiday season, and it sends a strong reminder that
this year's biggest present to the American people came back
in July when President Trump signed the Big beautiful, Big

(01:53):
beautiful Bill. They signed it on July fourth, Trump and
the Republicans in Congress passing the Big Beautiful Tax Bill.
Every single House and Senate Democrat voted repeatedly to let
all of the Trump tax cuts expire, which would have
raised taxes on the middle class by about fifteen hundred
dollars per household this coming year. Think about that for
a second. Yeah, they're going to take more of your

(02:13):
money out of your hardworking paycheck. And El Trumpito put
an end to that, So I'm happy. And then they
want to complain about the quote unquote affordability crisis. Well,
here are some of the tax hikes that would have
been arriving January one if the Democrats would have gotten
their way. Check this out. The standard deduction would have
been cut in half, raising taxes and forcing millions of

(02:35):
people to itemize. This would have screwed a lot of
people up. Tax rates would have spiked with every rate
that goes up, with the top rate jumping from thirty
seven to thirty nine point six. How about that unlimited
salt deductions, state and local tax that would have come back.
Then you've got the child tax credit that would have

(02:55):
been slashed from two thousand to only one thousand bucks,
cutting it in half. Small business taxes would have went
up from twenty nine point six percent to thirty nine
point six percent. How about that? How about breaking the
back of the small business owner in this country? The
backbone of the American economy, and the alternative minimum tax
and the death tax would have snapped back to pre
twenty seventeen exemption levels, which is when he put the

(03:18):
Trump tax cuts in place to begin with. And this
would have trapped a bunch of families right and messed
a lot of people up. So Ami goes, I'm very
happy that the GDP surge is proof Trump's policies are working.
They're turbocharging the economy. It's like a shot of espresso
in your cafacito, if you know what I mean. And
I like it because I think we're about five or
six months away from seeing things really make a big change.

(03:40):
That's just me. I'm not a fortune teller, but I
did polish my crystal ball, and I think we're headed
in the right direction. But I got some more stuff
for you. I got some more national political headlines. The
deep state full meltdown going on. Why as we're on
the eve of No chevuin President Trump's ordering a total
blockade of Venezuela and oil tankers taking a third one now, saying, oh,

(04:01):
you owe us that. And when they asked them, they said,
mister president, what are you planning on doing with all
of these ships you're seizing? Listen to what he said.

Speaker 7 (04:08):
United States sees one point nine million barrels of oil
on December tenth.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
We're gonna keep it. We're keeping Where's it?

Speaker 8 (04:16):
Are we gonna sell it?

Speaker 4 (04:16):
A fut on the strategic.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Maybe we'll sell it, maybe we'll keep it.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
Maybe we'll use it in the strategic reserves.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
We're keeping it. We're keeping the ships.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
Also, how about that, So we're keeping it, We're keeping it,
the ships, We're keeping those two. You gotta love it.
Trumpito right, not playing games. I love that. I think
this was a very very good thing. And why because
this is what you do. Right. First thing you do.
You designate the Madudo regime as a foreign terrorist organization. Boom.
I'd how you handle these thieves who stole the US

(04:46):
assets to begin with. Meanwhile, he's ending deportation protections for
Somalians in Minnesota, saying we're gonna send them back. We're
gonna send them back. Now he didn't say that. I'm
adding that for emphasis, accusing the state of laundering billions
of dollars, and looks like that that's the direction we're
headed in. Is more and more proof comes out and

(05:08):
borders are Tom Homan was in the White House recently
and he, you know, did a great job. He did
a great job explaining exactly what it is that they're
doing and why they're doing it. And oftentimes we get
this idea of immigration kind of twisted, I'm going to say,
and he brings it back to the basics. It's about
protecting children. In more cases than you'd think, listen to this.

Speaker 5 (05:31):
Jane has done more than President Trump. What he has
done has gave us the most secure border in the
history of this nation.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Heart stop.

Speaker 5 (05:42):
I went hundreds of miles of bordering didn't see one
illegal alien. Incredible considering a Biden administration, we had ten
twelve thousand a day, most released in the United States.
I'm probably be with these patriots behind me. I'm already
probably being the over loss of president, but being being
with these heroes. I met some of these soldiers down

(06:04):
on the border and actually a shout out to Fort Gum,
New York. We got some Tenth Mountain division in here,
so at least to find it, Claudia Attenant, we all
love Port Drumm and the Tenth Mountain. So look, this
is a game change. I want to make something perfectly clear.
Can we get attacked all the time? Being inhumane. The
Biden administration is much more humane. It just is a
bunch of crap, because there's been studies done that thirty

(06:25):
one percent of women and make that journey through the
cartels get sexy assaulted, they get raped and not just
the women, children too. I've done numerous investigations in that
sex trafficking was historic. Hies with that open border, Fatana historic,
heis killer quarterman Americans.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
No inspected terrorists that came across the border record historic.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
What happened under Biden administration was the most inhumane thing
I've seen in my lifetime.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Now that the border is ninety.

Speaker 5 (06:58):
Six percent decline, ninety six percent, less people are coming.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
How many women aren't being raped?

Speaker 5 (07:03):
How many children I'm dying making that journey, How many
women and children aren't being sex trafficking to this country
every day? How many normal suspected terrorists aren't just walking
across that border. President Trump, in this administration's saving thousands
of lives every month.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
Hard stop, that's just a stone cold.

Speaker 4 (07:20):
Fat Tom Holman is right, You've got to keep the
border safe for a myriad of reasons. Let alone, to me,
the most important one protecting women and children so kudos
to Edge Trumpito on the team. I think that's a
good thing, and we got to give them credit what
credit's due. And I think we don't hear too much

(07:40):
of that in the mainstream media. So leave it to
us to make sure that we handle that and tackle that.
But I want to continue because I want to talk
about this again, the GDPs thing, and we'll do that
a little bit more. But with those economic wins, I
think there's also crypto. Cryptocurrency is seeking popularity, it's seeking

(08:02):
to gain recognition in the United States, and it's working right.
You've got massive mergers and acquisitions that are going on,
looking at a record eight point six billion and twenty
twenty five thanks to President Trump's pro crypto policies. You've
got deals that are exploding. It's very good stuff. You've
got different packs that are getting funded now to advance
this politically. Today, the market is dipping a bit, I think,

(08:24):
but bitcoin is still at eighty eight K, so it's
fluctuating between eighty and one hundred. I think that that
is going to continue to grow. And again I'm no
crypto forecaster. I'm just I look at the things and
I say, I think this is what it's going to do,
and I think it's going to continue to do. But
the one that really I'm watching that I think is
really interesting here silver silver prices thriving right really seventy

(08:50):
two bucks an ounce. It was just sixty seven bucks
a few days ago. That's up one hundred and forty
nine percent year to date. The industrial demand excuse me,
for electric vehicles or solar panels, for health care, for
anything that has to do with kind of electric conduction
is huge. Now. This also brings in to question the
issue of silver surging because China produces I don't know,

(09:12):
fifteen percent ten to fifteen percent of the silver that
we get globally, and they've said we're not giving out
any more silver right at a moment where JP Morgan
Chase just leased a bunch of silver from them to
complete a deal. So is this going to crash the
silver market?

Speaker 9 (09:27):
Now?

Speaker 4 (09:27):
I think it's actually going to set it on fire. Personally,
I think it's going to take off like a rocket ship.
But I'll get into that a little bit because I
know not everybody cares about precious metals, but I like
to bring it in. You know, it's Tuesday, we should
talk a little bit about that before we get into Christmas.
And the reality is, right now, the growth on silver
is outpacing gold and it has a tighter supply than gold,
So there's a lot of fear out there that it's

(09:49):
kind of fueling this. Anyway, if you're stacking up silver
for your family, this is a good time buy more.
All right, let me see what else do I got here? Ah,
this is a good one. Listen to this. The multi
a millionaire adulting struggle Sammy Sheen. She's the twenty one
year old daughter of Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards. She
went viral today after candidly admitting that she's so bad

(10:10):
at being an adult that she finds it impossible to
pay her bills on time because the task simply isn't fun. Well,
I'm gonna say it's not about being bad at it,
Sammy Sheen. I'm also bad at this. I don't like
paying bills. I put that stuff off. As a matter
of fact. One of the reasons I got divorced was
because she wanted to sit down and do bills, and
I said, we don't need two of us to sit
down and do bills. You do the bills and I'll

(10:32):
work and go make Somebodey And that didn't go well
for my ex wife. That's true story, by the way,
and the truth be told, I probably should have. I
was just not mature enough at the time to realize
I needed to be there, you know, emotional support or whatever.
But bottom line is, Sammy Sheen, you're not alone, sister,
God bless you. I would love to say it gets better,

(10:52):
but I guess it does get a little better. But
it's a struggle for me too. I have a parking
ticket I got in New York City. I know I
have to pay it. I just look at it and
I look at it. Why I don't pay it. I
have no idea. I usually you know, I go, oh
my god, I gotta pay it now, say ADHD. It
gets you going once you get that letter it says
you got to pay an extra ten bucks or they're

(11:13):
about to put you in jail or whatever the story is.
So anyway, maybe we'll talk about the ADHD procrastination a
little bit later. But you're not the only one. And
that's again the daughter of Charlie Sheen, who we interviewed.
By the way, Charlie was on the show two months
ago October. Maybe in our year end recaps, I'll play
a couple of minutes from that interview because it was
really good. It was a good interview. I really enjoyed

(11:35):
talking to Charlie Sheen, very candid interview. I think he
was really himself in that conversation. And you may have
heard it, but you'll get to hear a little bit
of it again. And for those of you who are
just tuning in for the first time, then you'll get
to hear it a well. Maybe we'll do it tomorrow
for Christmas Eve or even on Christmas Day. We got
we have plenty to do. I'm kind of on vacation
right now, but I'm working all throughout, so I don't
know if that's considered a vacation. But bear with me, folks.

(11:58):
We've got more to come straight ahead, plenty more to discuss.
Don't go anywhere.

Speaker 6 (12:02):
I'm Rich aldess This is America, This is America. He's
got the best head of hair and podcasting. This is
America with rich valdeniz.

Speaker 4 (12:27):
Well.

Speaker 7 (12:27):
Silver is seeing an explosive move. It is now over
one hundred percent year to date, getting over sixty dollars
per ounce we've now overtaken the prior highs in silver
in twenty eleven and fifty around fifty dollars, and also
in nineteen eighty. Many of our guests have been discussing
the fundamental backdrop for silver, also talking about getting prepared

(12:48):
for a short covering rally. It appears that we may
be seeing this happen.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
That's from the Silver Report, and yes, silver is making
a round. This is a pretty big deal, I think,
because oftentimes we don't see silver go up this much. Right,
it's above sixty. I think it hit just sixty seven,
close to sixty eight. I predict it's going to go
up another ten or twelve bucks to eighty, maybe even higher.
I don't know if it stays above eighty, but I

(13:15):
think it's going to get there. And the reason being
JP Morgan, right. JP Morgan takes these short positions pretty
often historically right, kind of controlling the the I guess
the ceiling if you will, on silver, And they just
made a different move with this least that they took.

(13:35):
I mentioned it before from the ICBC, And what's interesting
about this is by them making this move, it in
effect allows everybody to capitalize on silver Now, I'm no
expert in this stuff, right, I'm like the rest of you.
You know, I'm interested in hearing about it. When it's around.

(13:56):
I talk to people that know a little bit about it,
you know. I sell some gold, some silver.

Speaker 10 (14:01):
But the.

Speaker 4 (14:04):
Information is out there. And one of the reports I
check out is called crisis Economics. It's a pretty good one.
Here's a pretty good explanation on exactly what's going on
with the future of silver. Check this one out.

Speaker 8 (14:18):
It's a documented, mechanically verifiable suppression mechanism that operates through
futures market dominance. Here's how it works. Silver trades on
two planes. Physical silver, the actual metal, trades in a
market constrained by mining output, industrial demand, and investment flows.
But the price of silver is not set in the
physical market. It's set in the futures market, specifically on
the comics, where paper contracts representing future delivery of silver

(14:41):
trade at volumes that dwarf actual physical supply. On any
given month, the notional silver represented in comics futures can
be fifty times the amount of physical silver that actually
exists in deliverable form. Now here's the key. If you
are a large commercial bank with deep capital reserves and
access to cheap funding, you can show silver futures in
size without ever worrying about physical delivery. You simply roll

(15:04):
your contracts forward every month, maintain your short position, and
every time silver tries to rally, you dump more paper
contracts into the market to suppress the price.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
Now, that's in effect what JP Morgan does all the time. However,
here's where it's about to change.

Speaker 8 (15:19):
You're not selling physical silver, You're selling the promise of
future silver. And because futures prices lead physical prices, because
derivatives set the marginal price in financialized commodity markets, your
short position in paper silver directly suppresses the price of
the actual metal. This is the game JP Morgan has
been playing for over a decade, massive persistent short positions
in silver futures that act as a mechanical sealing on price.

(15:43):
And it worked because they had the capital to sustain
the position, the market making infrastructure to control order flow,
and the regulatory blessing to operate without meaningful position limits.
But here's what nobody told you. While JP Morgan was
shorting paper silver, they were simultaneously accumulating physical silver. Hundreds
of millions of ounces quietly steadily over years. They shorted

(16:04):
the futures to suppress the price, then use that suppressed
price to accumulate the physical metal at artificially low levels.
It's one of the most brilliant and ruthless trades in
modern financial history.

Speaker 4 (16:15):
How about that? I wish I would have known how
to do that, right. It's a little after the fact now,
but listen, I'm not, you know, a big bank with
the ability to buy hundreds of millions of ounces of silver,
but it does show you how big banks can control
certain commodities in the market. Terrific. So we're at sixty

(16:36):
seven dollars. Do we get to eighty something dollars? I
think so? Do we get to one hundred dollars? And
if so, do you remember that silver was literally at
fifty or fifty something dollars I don't know, a month
ago earlier this year? Hmmm? How's that for a way
to end the year with doubling the price of silver.

(16:58):
So again, I don't know what your position on silver is,
if you're into that or not into that, but very
very interesting stuff here, and I think it's it's worth
paying attention to, because why should we be left behind
in the UH. In the I was gonna say the
gold rush, in this case the silver rush. So anyway,
I'm not going to get too much into this because

(17:20):
this guy goes on and on and on, mister crisis economics.
It's about twelve minute audio clip. But I bring it
up to say that it should be a part of
everybody's portfolio, right, everybody should have some precious metals somewhere.
And this is not me doing an ad for any
silver company or any gold company, or even for my
own you know, find jewelry stuff that I sell, Not

(17:43):
at all. This is truly because I see the benefit
of it. And as far as I can remember, and
anything I've ever read, no matter how old it is,
they talk about silver and gold and copper everywhere in
every history document.

Speaker 9 (18:01):
Right.

Speaker 4 (18:01):
They might have shekels and rupees and rubles and denaris
and all these other types of currencies, but ultimately silver
and gold, right, they've been around forever. My gut tells
me they'll probably be around forever, and it's a good
thing to have, all right, I mean, he goes stick
with me. I want to talk about why men and

(18:23):
women age differently, and is it true that men age
better than women. I'm gonna say, I get more compliments
now that I'm in my mid to late forties than
I ever did when I was a really young man.
And I wonder is that because of the grays in
my beard that make me quote unquote more distinguished? Or
is it because I don't know, you kind of just

(18:46):
develop different features, you know as you age as a
man that as a woman it doesn't work as well?
And why doesn't it work as well?

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Or does it?

Speaker 4 (18:58):
Right? Do women in large part get more attractive as
time goes on? Uh, I'm asking asking for a friend.
This isn't an indictment on anybody. This is just some
interesting stuff that I've seen, because ultimately what ends up
happening is it doesn't matter how good you look. Men
we die sooner, right, women are outliving us.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
So what is it?

Speaker 4 (19:18):
You know? Nike OBALI right? What's it matter to us?
What's it worth to look better and die younger?

Speaker 3 (19:24):
More?

Speaker 4 (19:24):
To come? Straight ahead? Keep a lock right here. I'm
Rich Valdez.

Speaker 6 (19:27):
This is America.

Speaker 4 (19:34):
The forty fifth president. Donald Trump thinks it's an honor
to speak with Rich Valdez.

Speaker 10 (19:40):
Oh, very good.

Speaker 6 (19:44):
The honor is all yours.

Speaker 4 (19:48):
Conservative time with a dash of sofrito.

Speaker 6 (19:51):
Now here's Rich Valdez.

Speaker 4 (19:53):
All right, Bambia, welcome back, Rich Valdez. A day away
from Christmas Eve, not Chebuena. And I want to talk
about this men versus women aging, Right, the sexes are
aging and what that means, Why it matters, How it matters,
how it plays out. There's a lot of stuff here
that I want to break down because I find this

(20:14):
to be an interesting topic, right, interesting, very interesting in
my opinion.

Speaker 10 (20:19):
Oh my god, yeah, dude, we're gonna totally look up
to the guy that paints his nails.

Speaker 4 (20:23):
Oh my god. Yeah, to stop it.

Speaker 10 (20:26):
Oh my god, yeah.

Speaker 4 (20:27):
Stop it. The deep state is interfering, mister sir, can
you stop that? Thank you very much. All right, now,
I didn't even call for the cut yet, and you
play in the cut now. I do want to get
to one of these cuts because there was a something
in the New York Post that I thought was pretty
interesting about this men versus women versus women versus men,

(20:52):
and I found it to be interesting. All right, let's
now go ahead, uh and play the clip.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
After watching Top Gun with Cruise last night, I started thinking,
I mean, Tom Cruise looks pretty much the same as
he did thirty years ago, and I didn't see any
signs of like surgery or botox or anything like that.
He does have wrinkles, but he looks great. So why
is it that men often age much better than women?
It's not fair, I know. But first of all, women's

(21:20):
hormones drop very quickly and very suddenly, especially after menopause
when we start losing estrogen, and that causes loss of
elastin and collagen in our skin, so the aging process
is much more rapid. Men also have declining hormones, but
it's a gradual process, so it doesn't happen so quickly. Also,
we say that men with wrinkles and gray hair look

(21:41):
more distinguished. And the third thing is that, you know,
we women, we put so much crap on our faces,
our body, our hair in an attempt to look younger,
and these things are often full of toxins and will
actually age you more quickly.

Speaker 4 (21:56):
Hm, So is that what's really causing the problem here. Well,
we've got a plastic surgeon from Beverly Hills winging in
on this as well. Listen to what he has to say.

Speaker 10 (22:09):
Fine lines and wrinkles earlier. We still lose one percent
per year of collagen at the same rate, but if
you start off with a thicker area of skin, you
have more time before you actually see it.

Speaker 4 (22:21):
So is it collagen production? Is it hormonal? Is it
the difference in how men and women produce collagen? What's
the purpose of this? And that doesn't say anything to
the fact of men being more quote unquote distinguished, right,
or staying more attractive or in fact, some studies show that,

(22:43):
or at least surveys show that women consider men to
be more attractive as they get older. So what's the story. Well,
Psychology Today has a piece that they put out saying
that men's attractiveness is relatively stable until age fifty, and
I think there's other studies out there that would say

(23:04):
they the exact opposite of this, right, that it's after
fifty that men become more distinguished and attractive, right the
Sean Connery look. So what does the science have to
say about it? While scientists have discovered some genetic keys
as to why women's brains actually age better than men's,
now this has nothing to do with collagen production, but

(23:27):
it has everything to do with women being smarter, right,
or at least their brains aging better, which is likely
why they live longer, or at least a part of
why they live longer. So I want to get into
this because I think this is pretty interesting. And while
men may have beauty, if you will, that age is slowly,
women have brains that age slowly, and I think perhaps

(23:52):
they might They might win in every category, right, because
men have the X and the Y chromosome, while women
have two chromosomes, right, two X chromosomes. Scientists have been
dismissing one of the female X chromosomes is largely inactive,
saying it doesn't really do much of anything, but a
new study shows that this dormant chromosome actually awakens later

(24:16):
in life and it turns on the genes that help
keep your brain healthy, which maybe why women tend to
retain their cognitive ability longer than men, that's for sure.
I just for Thanksgiving saw my mom's first cousin, who
is eighty seven years old, and she is sharp as attack.

(24:39):
It's almost like she gets sharper as she gets older.
And that's I mean, it's not even the case for me.
I listened to some of my early shows from just
four or five six seven years ago, and I sounded sharper, faster,
more youthful in those audio clips than I do now.
And that's just a few years ago, so I can
only imagine what I'm gonna sound like if years from

(25:00):
now even though. But the researchers are from the University
of San Francisco, and they discovered that when females genetically
modify mice, right or when the scientists you know, genetically
modify female mice, they reach the equivalent of about sixty

(25:21):
five human years, and that their silent X chromosome begins
expressing genes that boost brain connections and increase cognition. How
about that I need some increased cognition for sure. I
need a little bit more mental bandwidth. Anyway, I'm just
putting that out there. If anybody has any any for me,
I'll take it. Doctor Dina Dubal, She says, in typical aging,

(25:46):
women have a brain that looks younger, with fewer connective issues,
fewer cognitive deficits when you compare it to the male brain.
And again she is a uc S professor of neurology.
She goes on to say that these results show that
the silent X chromosome and females actually reawakens in late life,

(26:10):
probably helping to slow down cognitive decline. How about that
is That's why I love doing these scientific things, because
I find this to be fascinating. Right, there's an actual reason.

Speaker 5 (26:23):
Now.

Speaker 4 (26:23):
Another reason that people are saying that men tend to
age better, at least apparently right in appearance, they seem
to age better despite women living longer and being sharper
than men in the later years, is the fact that
men have higher levels of testosterone, and that testosterone gives

(26:46):
you thicker skin, and in having thicker skin, it's less
susceptible to wrinkling. Now. I don't know if that's true
or not, but it sounded interesting.

Speaker 3 (26:57):
Now.

Speaker 4 (26:58):
There's also some thought around the idea that higher levels
of testosterone produce higher levels of collagen, and it's the
collagen that exists right within our dermis, within our skin
that actually causes us men to have less wrinkles. I
don't know how true that is, but I find it

(27:20):
fascinating all this stuff because there is not really a
huge industry for men trying to not have wrinkles. I'm
sure there is an industry, but it's nothing like women. Right,
I've met women in their thirties that don't even have wrinkles,
that will make certain faces and scrunch their nose just
to have wrinkles, to show you the ones they think

(27:41):
they're going to have ten years from now or five
years from now. You know, they'll squint their eyes real
tight and go, look, look, I'm getting crows feet. And
I'm like, but you don't really have them, right, You're
forcing yourself to pretend to have them. Anyway. It's a
fascinating thing, right, Vanity is it's a thing. It's a
thing for some people. I'm not brothers, and I'm not.

(28:02):
I'm not gonna say I'm not vain, and I don't care.
I'm pretty into my appearance. I try to do my beard,
and you know I try to. I try, right. I
was a barber, so I try to make sure my
grooming is on point. I try to stay sharp. But
I don't. I don't compare it anywhere close to what
women do, the links that they go through. And I'm

(28:24):
not This is not a criticism, right, I For one,
I've met many men that say, oh, you know, I
don't like a woman that's all made up. I love it.
I love it. A woman who's made up head to toe,
who's got well manicured nails and a fresh petticure to
go with it, and just came from the spa super
soft skin, no callouses anywhere, took care of everything. Who

(28:45):
doesn't love that, right, go for it. I'm all for it.
If women want to pamper themselves, I'm not going to
get in the way. I don't have an issue lots
of makeup. I'm not really a fan of lots of makeup.
But if you want to use some makeup, you want
to get your hair done, you want to do whatever,
go ahead. You know you only live once, and if
glam is your thing, glam is your thing. I was

(29:07):
a barber for many years, and I've seen many men
who are into their appearance, and I think it's a
good thing to stay on top of your grooming, to
stay on top of your beard, your mustache, if you're
clean cut, whatever, just stay on top of it. And
that's why wear a beard, because I hate shaving. So
I can get by many days without ever shaving, and
it doesn't look horrible because I'm already scruffy because I'm

(29:30):
using a beard and that's kind of my excuse, especially
in radio, right in the radio land where nobody gets
to see me. Whoo, I love it. Now, What am
I gonna do when next month when we launch our
video stream and sign some new strategic partnerships and syndication
deals and all that stuff, and for video, exclusively for video.

(29:56):
What happens then when there's a camera in my face
like l rush Bo's dittocam. Oh my goodness, I may
in fact have to shave daily. I doubt I'll do it.
I'm probably gonna do every other day. That's my thinking
right now, every other day. And thank god for studio lights.
Right the lights in the studio, they're very bright. They

(30:16):
kind of block out a lot of that five o'clock shadow.
So we'll see, we'll see you guys. Comment If I
look too scruffy, you let me know. Hey, bro, time
to take that razor to the face and get rid
of some of those whiskers. But anyway, back to this
Psychology Today thing, just to put a finer point on this, women,
according to this piece in Psychology Today, experience a significant

(30:38):
decline in attractiveness per decade, at a higher rate than
men do per decade. That's, you know, shocking to me.
Findings from the new study may help guide the timing
of interventions for men and women. Now, I would love
to get into this with somebody who two people, honestly,
One would like a doctor, maybe like an endocrinologist or

(31:01):
somebody who deals with aging specifically and hormones, but that
would probably be an endocrinologist. And then somebody who deals
with beauty, you know, somebody who does some spa treatments
and stuff like that, because I find you might say,
some might argue that a woman is at her the
height of her beauty when she is I don't know,

(31:24):
twenty something, right, early twenties, and I would argue that
I think women hit the height of their beauty typically
after they've given birth. Right at least I've seen that
with many women in my own personal life, that after
they give birth, my ex wife and others, that they
just they look different and very beautiful. And it's a

(31:48):
I'm going to call it a God thing, right, It's
just something that God does. And their hair is more
luxurious and shiny and thick and healthy, and their figure
is it's fuller, and it looks more mature. Right, it's
more I want to say womanly, right, you don't look
as adolescent. And these things only happen typically as women age,

(32:12):
not as they're younger. Now, maybe I'm alone in that opinion.
I don't know, but I find it interesting that they're
saying that women experience these declines and attractiveness per decade,
so every ten years, as they get older, they are
less attractive than men are every ten years. And again

(32:34):
I don't know. I guess it all depends on what
man or woman you're thinking of. If you're talking about
a woman who likes to run a five k or
a guy who likes to run a five k, people
that are active hikers, people that like to go to
the gym, or even if they don't like me, don't
like going to the gym, but go anyway and try
to watch what they eat. They'll, obviously, I think, be

(32:55):
more attractive as they age if they're doing better with
their diet and exercise and all that. But if you're
a woman or a man and you're like, ah, what's
an extra fifteen pounds, Yeah, you know, I'm gonna have
that extra slice of bread, I'm gonna have the extra carbs,
I'm gonna i don't like diet. Oh, diet is terrible.
Let me go with the full sugar version, and every

(33:16):
drink you have is the full sugar version. You never
substitute for you know, if you make if you're one
of those people that make that argument all that stuff,
the fake sugar is even worse for you than the
real sugar. It's actually not worse for you. It might
be just as bad in certain ways. Like I interviewed
a doctor once who said that your body might get
kind of accustomed to the fake sugar, and it may

(33:37):
not reduce insulin resistance. However, it does lower your A
one C. Right, you will be less diabetic if you
don't consume as much sugar. So yeah, a packet of
Splendor or Stevia or Sweet and Low or equal or
any of those sucro sacralose, sacharin whatever, any of those

(34:00):
will be better for you in the glucose department than
actual raw sugar, cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and
any of the other sweeteners that are out there. I'll
make that argument till I'm blue in the face. Why
I'm living proof. I've been doing it for years. I
haven't had any adverse reactions to the little yellow packets,

(34:21):
but I had lots of adverse reactions to consuming high
amounts of sugar eighty pounds lighter. Now, So you tell me,
was it worth a little yellow packet? Heck? Yeah, So
I always challenge people on that stuff. Yeah, diet soda
all day, every day. I don't necessarily like it, right,
I'd much rather have the full sugar version. But the
difference is they're stark, and the benefits outweigh the slight

(34:44):
difference in taste. So anyway, I say that to say,
there's a lot of things that we can do. But
if you're taking care of yourself and you're starting to
watch your figure and you want to be in better
health and your diet and etc. Then I would suppose
that you're not going to have that extra ten or
fifteen pounds between your hips and your belly button, right,
and you're not going to have that extra tire. That's
a good thing. It all depends on how you're approaching life.

(35:07):
And if you know that your body slows down and
hormones change and it's harder to burn fat and easier
to store fat, then maybe you start to consume less
food because you need less food for energy purposes. I
don't know, just a thought, right, That's just part of
what I was thinking. Anyway, I'd love your thoughts on
this stuff. We'll hit the phones shortly. If there's anybody

(35:31):
any takers there, we'll go ahead and go to that.
You know, the phone number, eight seven seven Valdes one,
eight seven seven Valdes one. Keep it locked right here.
I am Rich Valdes. Let me know your thoughts on
this stuff. Plus get me at Rich Valdes with an
s on all of the social media with respect to
this aging stuff. I'm probably gonna do this again. I'm

(35:52):
scheduled to be on the radio in my old stomping grounds, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
WPHD twelve ten, the Big Talker UH scheduled to be
with them on January second, hanging out from my man
Rich Zioli, And I'm gonna probably hit this topic there
again to get Philly's take on it as well. But

(36:13):
I'd love to hear from you as well right now,
so let me know your thoughts on that. Plus we're
going to get into a little bit on Oh there's
a few more things I got up my sleeve. I
can't I can't let them all out of the bag yet.
Don't go anywhere.

Speaker 6 (36:25):
I'm rich valdesk this is America, this is America.

Speaker 7 (36:45):
Or primo nods Bara Richveld is e s nous America Awara.

Speaker 4 (36:54):
All right, I mean goes. Welcome back, Rich Valdez, keeping
your company tonight Christmas Eve tomorrow nor cheva as we
call it. And I want to get into a little
bit of a flashback here. I mentioned earlier in my
interview with Charlie Sheen. I'm going to be off for
Christmas Eve. I'm going to be off for a few days,
and I'll be back Monday with you with some updates

(37:14):
and then again taking off for New Year's Day and whatnot.
But I want to get into this flashback right because
I mentioned the Charlie Sheen interview and again it was
a really fun interview for me to do because I'd
never spoken with Charlie Sheen and he's not typically the
guest that we typically procure. In fact, there's most of

(37:35):
the guests we don't typically procure. A lot of them.
Oftentimes their pr people will reach us and say, hey,
you know so and so would like to be on
the show because they know, the show has a large
reach and a big audience, and I love that, you know,
why not. And of course there are some people, you know,
like President Trump. Trying to get President Trump on the
show that took a long time. I was, you know,
constantly emailing people and having our team email people to

(37:56):
make sure they stay on top of the emails. And
he was gracious enough to join us when he did.
Not an easy guest to get. Those that get him
often kudos to them, but not the easiest guy in
the world to nail down. You would imagine he's very busy.
But ed trumpeto aside, Charlie Sheen was somebody that a
couple of guys that are PR guys that I met

(38:17):
at the Talkers conference a couple of years ago, reached
out and they were terrific. They said, hey, we're working
with Charlie Sheen's PR team and they're interested in the
show and they wanted to get him on, and I said, hey,
let's do it. So shout out to McCormick and team.
But I want to do a flashback to that because
I started that conversation with Charlie Sheen talking about a

(38:39):
crazy story that I heard when I was a kid
when I was about eleven or twelve, maybe thirteen. My
neighbor across the street, Kevin Rivera, had two uncles and
one of them and I might mention this in the
in the clip I'm Gonna play, but they'd grown up
in Brooklyn and Heroin was at the height of its
you know, it's heyday, and the mom, his mom, who's
the sister of these two others that were involved with

(39:02):
that early on, was telling us that when they would
do too much Heroin, that everybody knew on the street
to throw ice down their pants and this would prevent
a overdose or wake them up or something like that.
And I thought, that's crazy. How does that like medically work?
Right today, we used Narcanda squirt in your nose and boom,
we brought them back. Back then it was ice down

(39:22):
the pants, and you know, I just always found it
odd and something. In the Charlie Sheen documentary he mentions
how he used an ice cube somewhat strategically in a
similar manner, and I thought to myself, this is going
to be where we start the interview and the craziest
of all things. So I have a clip of me
starting that interview with Charlie Sheen and just a short clip,

(39:43):
but listen to this. I want to give you a
little insight into the person we're about to talk to
right now. Of course you know him. I think everybody
knows Charlie Sheen, right, but he was in Platoon, Wall Street,
Major League, and so many other television shows, Two and
a half Men, killing the game and continues to kill
the game right right now. He's got probably one of

(40:06):
the top documentaries on Netflix. He's also got a book
that came out recently called The Book of Sheen. It's
a memoir about his life. It's a tell all and
I gotta tell you, I just watched the documentary. So
many things I didn't know, and I thought, I know
it a lot. Have you seen all those movies and
having been a fan all these years? But I want
to get right into it with our guest, Charlie Sheen.

Speaker 9 (40:26):
Welcome, sir, Hey, thank you, rich, honored to be here.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
Likewise, it's an honor to speak with you, and you know,
thank you. So so many things right that you talk
about in the documentary that I was just like, wow,
that's interesting. And I guess we'll break the ice with
this one. There's a part where you talk about using
an ice cube in a very interesting way. And it's
funny because it brought me to my childhood. I grew

(40:51):
up with a kid whose mom had brothers that had
dealt with issues of addiction in Brooklyn with heroin, and
that's what she would do. She said, you would have
to throw ice down their pants and this would help
them to prevent an OD And I thought that was
wild when I heard it when I was like twelve
years old, But then hearing it again, it kind of
brought me back to my childhood, and I thought, how

(41:12):
did you come up with that idea? Is this like
a known secret that the rest of us don't know about?

Speaker 9 (41:17):
You know, it's interesting. I had never I mean, that.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
Was just an in the moment, Hail Mary, as it were.
And I had heard about ice being used in you know,
certain sexual fetishes or you know, something maybe I might
have read in the Kamasutra or well whatever, in all
my travels.

Speaker 9 (41:41):
And I just thought, Okay, I.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Think it's about the only shot I have at staying
awake for I don't know, the next twelve or fifteen minutes,
you know. And because I use ice on my eyes
just in the morning, right, just to kind of take
the sting out. And that's you know, did it hammered

(42:04):
and still do it sober. And so when I requested
a cup of ice and a napkin, everybody assume I
just wanted to give my eyes a little de stinging, right,
And then I was like, I'll be right back and
went to the bathroom in that cafe and just said
all right, here's you know, here we go. Yeah, and

(42:29):
and and it worked. So in some way, I think
taking that maiden piece, uh were, for lack of a
better description, h I think it serves as a public
service message in a way to somebody that uh, you know,
I'm not saying you fall it there it is there

(42:49):
it is, And it could be you're on a road
trip and you have to deliver your your you know
whatever is you know they're they're they're waiting for and
I don't know, it's just it's out there now as
a as a possible go to, right.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
No, it's just a fascinating to me. It was an
interesting throwback for me. Now there's there's a common theme
in the documentary, and I would say, with your life,
your career in general, which is remarkable by the way,
you know you dealt with addiction. This is you know,
widely known and you've been now cleaning sover eight years. Congratulations,
God blessed.

Speaker 9 (43:24):
That's thank you, thank you. I appreciate it and thank you.

Speaker 4 (43:27):
And something Sean Penn said in the documentaries it alludes
to you being kind of superhuman, saying that you know,
you should have been dead. Nobody else can handle this.
And and I guess the direction I want to go
with that statement is what is it that that drives you?
Is it God? Is it pure luck? Is it you know,

(43:47):
your own personal drive or a combination of those things
that gets you to the next big success after whatever
setback you've had in the life of Charlie Sheen.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
Gosh, it's uh, I don't you know, I don't I mean,
I I appreciate those words from Sean about being superhuman,
but I think that that's that that that could be
kind of a slippery place to to. You know, you
can't you can't really fully buy into that, you can't

(44:20):
rely on something like that. But yeah, it was just
I don't know, it was I think we do talk
about in the dock that even though though there were consequences,
they were always sort of negotiable, you know, and there
was usually an an off ramp, you know, there was

(44:41):
usually a job waiting.

Speaker 9 (44:42):
There was usually.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
Something that that sent the message of Okay, yeah, you
screwed up, but it really wasn't that bad. You know,
the only person you hurt was yourself. So here, let's
let's let's see let's let's you know, dust off and
and and and get back, you know, get back to work.
But what what what drives me or drove me? I

(45:05):
think just comes down to passion, you know. I think
it just comes down to you know, passion, and and
also necessity.

Speaker 9 (45:15):
You know that that I.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
Don't have really, uh, you know, any other skills that
I can make a living from, right, and so that
I had to get back to the place where I
could still you know, take care of all my children
or you know whatever that that part of my life
looked like at the time.

Speaker 9 (45:38):
But it was also just a way to.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
Just to feel better about myself.

Speaker 9 (45:44):
And and and know that I that I that I.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Wasn't the things I was, you know, the labels I
was being described as or or the the.

Speaker 9 (45:55):
You know I I wouldn't I don't know.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
I just I wouldn't succumb to the judgment or or
or or people's.

Speaker 9 (46:04):
Uh you know, like people were.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
People were done for you exactly, and people were like
done with me over and over and over. And I
guess there was some part of me that was, you know,
like and and I'll show them, you know, and that's
not always the.

Speaker 9 (46:21):
Best thing to you know, use as a.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
As a motivational platform.

Speaker 9 (46:27):
But but you know, in and.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
Around a lot of that craziness, it's kind of like
whatever got me to the next moment and away from.

Speaker 4 (46:37):
A lot to be said about betting on yourself?

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Now, I think so, I think so, yeah. But then
it's it's interesting, you know, having perspective and and and
you know really kind of having time during these past
eight years to just look back on all that and
then document it, like like I was able to with
with the doc and the book. And it's just the

(47:02):
thing that's interesting for me is, you know, telling these
stories or writing these stories was I I you know,
I wanted to take the reader. I wanted to take
the audience on the journey, you know, put them in
the passenger seat, as it were. But there was that
there was kind of this this this nagging thought or

(47:24):
feeling of when I was remembering all this stuff and
putting it on the page, like like, dude, what the
hell man, how did it? Why did it have to
go here? How did it go Why did it have
to go that far? What were you trying to prove?
What were you trying to prove?

Speaker 9 (47:42):
You know?

Speaker 2 (47:42):
And it was just and I don't, I don't. I
still don't have an answer for that.

Speaker 4 (47:48):
You know.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
I think I think a lot of it was performance driven,
you know.

Speaker 9 (47:52):
I mean obviously there was you.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Know, drugs and booze, and there's that whole, that whole element.

Speaker 9 (47:58):
But but some.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
Of it, well literally like Okay, they've decided I'm this guy,
and if that's the role they're insisting that I continue
to play, then here we go.

Speaker 4 (48:11):
Right, you just get in where you fit in. Well,
you've been blackballed by the cartels, the Mexican cartels, they
cut you off and a little bit in Hollywood. But
it seems like you're making a comeback. This is a
great documentary. You got what's next? What can we expect
next from Charlie Sheen?

Speaker 2 (48:27):
Well, I don't have anything specifically lined up or scheduled.
I know what I want to do.

Speaker 4 (48:37):
That.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
You know, the material that I've been that has been submitted,
that I've been reading is the best stuff I've seen
in twenty years. So it's just I can feel the
worm is turning on that front. That because I think
what the documentary did a great job of was the
like a whole retrospective, you know, archival filmography that that

(49:04):
I think kind of reminded people that, Okay, he's not
just the guy in the bowling shirt.

Speaker 9 (49:09):
He's you know, fake playing a piano.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
He's he's not just the guy you know, screaming winning
in seven grad rocks. He's not just Oh, there was
a whole thing. There was a whole career, a whole
series of cool stuff that that that you know, that
had to have happened for anyone to care about the
nutty stuff, you know. And then I was talking to

(49:33):
a friend yesterday and and you know, he asked me
something I'm paraphrasing, like, you know, what's like is if
you had to pick something that's like the most satisfying
out of this reset, out of this return, you know,
this this coming back into the fold, what would you
know what what would you, you know, cite and I
I thought about it. I said, you know, it's it's

(49:55):
it feels.

Speaker 9 (49:56):
Really good to be.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
To be back in a way and front and center
and and people not thinking that I'm that I actually
went crazy and stayed crazy, you know, because just you know,
I've always said, hey, it was like three months, man,
it was three months. You know, I went, yeah, I
went through crazy.

Speaker 9 (50:21):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
That is a that is a perfect way to frame it. Yeah,
So that's that's that's cool, and I think that's something
that people are responding to.

Speaker 9 (50:32):
You know, Okay, it's he's.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
Still He's still the guy that that that that we
that we grew up with and that we you know,
grew fond of or supported or embraced or any of
the above.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
You know. You know, Charlie Sheen, something I've learned in
this business that whether people like you, don't like you,
criticize your support you, the talent typically speaks for itself
and everything else is professionalism and showing up for the job. Right.
So I think as long as you're doing that, you're
going to do just fine.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
Thank you, thank you. No, I'm excited to just give
somebody my word, and you know, again and and honor
it like I used to. Like I used to, it
was always, you know, the mission always took priority. And
then you know, the mission became you know the open
booze and you know like that, and that's just uh

(51:22):
but that's a that's a young person's game, you know
all that stuff. I turned sixty a few weeks ago,
and hey, thank you. And you know, I think if
you if you thumb your nose at the universe one
too many times, that's when that that that that piano

(51:45):
from the sky has your name on it.

Speaker 4 (51:48):
Yeah, it sounds like like a like a cartoon from
the eighties. Charlie Sheen. The book is a excuse me.
The book is the Book of Sheen, a memoir. The
documentary is a k a. Charlie Sheen. Charlie Sheen. If
people want to keep up the speed with you, where
do they follow you? Instagram, social media website? Where do
they go?

Speaker 2 (52:08):
I'm on Instagram, I'm on X and I guess I'm
supposed to say formally known as Twitter.

Speaker 9 (52:17):
Why does everybody have to write that every single time?

Speaker 3 (52:20):
I still.

Speaker 9 (52:22):
Okay, okay, cool, all right, I'm on I'm yeah.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
There you go, there you go. Us US Mavericks. Yeah,
and then the website will probably get wrong. I don't
have my finger on the pulse of all of this stuff,
but I'm sure there's a Oh, I'm sure there's like
a Book ofchine dot com. I'm sure there's a Charlie
Sheen Tour dot com. Because I'm gonna be out promoting

(52:48):
the book in a multi city tour, which is pretty cool,
you know, but gosh, I should have had today.

Speaker 4 (52:58):
In the next segment, we'll plug it for you and
when you get in New York doing the book tour,
you could stop by the studio. We could get in
depth in the book. I'm happy to help you promote
it and continue and something that would be great about
keeping your word. I want to let everybody know Charlie
Sheen was on time for the interview, and it was
our team that had a delay. So if we're cutting

(53:18):
it short, it's my fault and not is Charlie Sheen.
You're a gentleman, a scholar and a heck of an actor,
and I appreciate your time.

Speaker 9 (53:26):
No thank you.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
As I said, it's an honor to finally chat with you.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
Thank you. Likewise, we'll do it again.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
Sue.

Speaker 4 (53:33):
I promise God.

Speaker 9 (53:34):
Bless him, all right, Yeah, and let's do it in studio.

Speaker 4 (53:37):
Yeah, definitely in New York City. I'm right by World Trade.
I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Likewise, thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (53:44):
You bet all right. I'm back with you. And that
was a really fun conversation. Again, that's part of the conversation.
Can hear the whole thing when I originally did it
back in October. But the point of this was to
give you a little bit of a flashback now we're
in the holidays and still give you a new show,
right without giving you totally best of show, which we'll

(54:06):
probably do in the future, but I wanted to give
you a little bit of a mixture of those things.
But very interesting, right, What an interesting guy. How you
could take somebody with so much talent and go in
so many different directions and at the end of the day,
he's just a pretty humble guy that's trying to do
the right thing. So kudos to Charlie Sheen and thanks
for tuning in for that. I'm gonna go ahead and

(54:27):
wrap us up in the next segment. Keep it locked
right here. I'm Rich Valdez, This.

Speaker 6 (54:32):
Is America, This is America. He's making podcasting great again.
This is America with.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
Rich Valdez, all right, and he goes, welcome back, Fat
Least Navidad, Happy Christmas Eve, tomorrow, Christmas Eve. And of
course we're going to be talking about everything on our

(55:04):
next episode, but I wanted to wish you and your
families just an amazing, an amazing Christmas holiday, and for
those of you that are wrapping up Hanukkah, blessings to
you of course as well. And I tried to always
remember Jesus as the reason for the season. Right, it's
Happy Birthday, Jesus. When my kids were a little bit

(55:26):
used to saying Jesus, Happy Birthday. And of course I
know there's people out there that say, we don't really
know that Christ was born in December, and we don't
know this and we don't gotcha. But we do know
Christ was born. We do know he was born in
a major to the Virgin Mother. And in looking at that,
we had to pick a date. So whether it was
a pagan holiday that we took over, the Catholic Church

(55:46):
took over, whomever took over, so be it all right.
The point is that is the date that's been chosen
to acknowledge this, and I think that it's important that
we acknowledge it without losing sight of the importance of
it because of the concer huomerism, which I'm a big
fan of. Right, I'm a big fan of jewelry. I'm
a big fan of things, nice cars, nice homes, you

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name it. I'm into that stuff. I'm not that guy
that says, oh, why would you spend all that money
on that thing when you could get this thing. No,
I'm not that practical. I'm not that frugal either, go
for it. You only live once. You never know. My
mom died the night of her sixty second birthday. She
got to be I mean presuming, yeah, right, she died
on February eighteenth, or birthday February seventeenth. Listen, it's going

(56:31):
to be a tough sell on me to tell me
to not live life because we are here for a
good time, not necessarily a long time. That doesn't mean
to be reckless, that doesn't mean to not plan for
the future, but it does mean carpet dim right, seize
the day, live in the moment, treat your friends and
your family and strangers and enemies and anybody else treat

(56:52):
them like you're never going to see them again, right,
like today's their last day on this planet. That's something
that I try to do and I fail at miserably,
but it's something I tried to do because sometimes we
get caught up and being who we are. We get
caught up and being short tempered, We get caught up
and being short sighted on certain things. We get caught
up and just being ourselves, you know, giving into the

(57:12):
proclivities of our personality, which aren't always great. Right. Sometimes
we're funny, happy, go lucky life of the party, and
that's sometimes we're the biggest jerk behind the wheel when
we're stuck in traffic. That's me. But whatever your situation is,
my advice to you, excuse me, is to try and
be aware of those things. Then try and be a

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better person, and try to be a blessing to someone else,
and really go out of your way to be intentional
to be the best human being that you can be.
For me, the standard is to try and be christ
Like in everything. Of course, it's a losing battle, right,
I'm not God, but I realize that if I keep
the focus there, I get to keep looking in the

(57:54):
mirror kept saying, Ah, I screwed up again. I need
to fix this. Screwed up again. Let me work on this,
asking for direction through prayer. So anyway, I bring all
that up, not to get spiritual and not to get preachy,
but really to just wish you the absolute best holiday season. Right.
It's sometimes difficult for those of us that have lost
our parents, but there's the rest of our loved ones.

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I'll be celebrating with my kids on Christmas Day. I'm
going to the Broadway show Wicked, and I'm looking forward
to that. Of course, I'm looking forward to having some
roasted pork shoulder, which we call bed neil, some call
it lecho asalo. And I'm gonna have some benil with
some aroscongandulas, which is rice with chickpeas mixed together, not

(58:37):
on the side, not separate, but it's it's made together rocandulas.
And we're gonna have pastells, which are those ground banana
leaf tamalies that are called pastellis in Puerto Rico, filled
with diced up pork. You can also get them made
of yuca, which is cassava in English. And these are

(58:59):
some of the things that we have on Nochewuena, which
is Christmas where we do midnight Mass, and of course
then we celebrate in the tradition in Puerto Rico is
to go door to door with your neighbors and create
a caravan of cars or people and get your instruments.
The wheedle, which is a gourd that's been hollowed out

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and you play it with something that kind of looks
like a fork. It's like a whisk and it makes
some noise and like really cool. And of course moroccas.
You can use moroccas, and you can use you know,
some sort of drums. Some use the pandera, which is
a handheld drum. Some use bongos, which are you know,

(59:40):
small like congas. Anyway, I digress. My point here is
if you have instrument and you're making you know se, Yeah,
if you're going on a paranda for Christmas, great and
if you're not, that's great too. Whatever your traditions are,
God speed to you in those traditions, as lapproxima, take care,
good night, and God bless you America, and make sure

(01:00:00):
you stand for something, because if you stand for nothing,
you'll fall for anything. And the only thing necessary for
evil to triumph is for good people like you to
sit there and do nothing. So do something. I'm rich
Valdez and this is America. Merry Christmas, this is America.