0103 Sir Gene Speaks with Chick named Faran

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sir Gene (00:00):
Joining me today is fair and balance, although
that's not your real last name,right?

Faran Balanced (00:06):
No, it's, it's a Chicago Polish last name?

Sir Gene (00:09):
Ah-huh.
what?
Balance.

No, my real last name is Faren Franza.
That's my TV name.
Yes.

Sir Gene (00:15):
But you go by Fair and Balance and you've been doing
that for how long?

Fair and Balance Since last.
Okay.
So we're right now, as of thisbroadcast, February, 2023.
I've gone by it since like July,2022.

Sir Gene (00:29):
Oh, so it's fairly new.

I'm very

Sir Gene (00:31):
I thought you'd been using this for a long time, cuz
it seems like such an obvioussort of nickname to have.

I, okay, let me say this.
When I had my little, like,reporter segment where I would
call out both the left and theright media, I had like a
segment.
That's when my segment was borncalled Fair and Balanced, but I
never went by it.
But then that summer last summerwhen I started covering the
Johnny Depp trial and all thatstuff as like kind of a media
analyst cuz I used to covercourt cases that's when I used

(00:58):
Fair and Balanced because I waslike, Hey, why not?
You know, kind of don't need tohave my name out there on the
internet too much.
So, but yeah, no, last name isFranza Polish last name, no
relation to Paul Franza.
The baby that was, that waskidnapped from the hospital in
Chicago back in the sixties.
Although I get that, that's theone question that I get asked
all the time.

(01:19):
if I'm related to that personand I'm like, no, I think it's
like very, very, very distantcousins.

Sir Gene (01:25):
Hmm.
So I think when I first saw you,you were on RT America,

Yep.

Sir Gene (01:32):
so we'll get to that, but let's actually start a
little further back.
So you grew up in Chicago,right?

Chicago Born and raised, west side.
So I, this is one of the thingsthat's, that's funny about
Chicago people.
So if you have, when you're fromChicago, you and you meet
somebody else like in the worldand they ask you where you're
from, you say, I'm from Chicago.

(01:59):
If you're from Chicago, youimmediately go, what part?
Because we know that most peopledidn't grow up in the city.
Cuz I come from that era wheremy parents actually grew up in
the city, the boomers, and theymoved out to the suburbs.
So that's

Sir Gene (02:15):
you didn't grow up in Miracle Mile

and that's again, we never called it
miracle mile cause it wasn't amiracle but no, so I grew up on
the west side Chicago, Catholic.
Went to Catholic school all mylife until I went to Purdue
University.
You know, one of six kids youknow, your typical Polish,
Italian, Irish Russian, youknow, Chicago Mutt family.

Sir Gene (02:39):
Yeah.
And I remember on the west sidethere, there's some, well,
there, there was in the ninetieswhen I to go Chicago, there was
some really nice Polishrestaurants out there.

Oh yeah.
And that's, that's one of thegreat finds now that I have, you
know, when you're young withyour parent or like when you're
a kid with your parents, you'relike, what is it?
Like they're your parent.
But as you get older, they'relike your friend.
And one of the things that mydad and I love doing now is we
love going and searching forgreat, authentic polish

(03:09):
restaurants.
Like sca SKAs is a big one.
On like, kind of the, theSouthwest side.
I'm trying to remember what theother ones, I mean there was one
Warsaw Inn is a huge, that's mydad's favorite restaurant,
Warsaw Inn.
When they found out that theywere closed for Easter, my dad
almost like keeled over cuz it'sjust such great Polish food.

Sir Gene (03:28):
Yeah.
And it, I think a lot of peopledon't really know what Polish
food is or just how much varietythere is that you can get an
actual Polish restaurant beyondjust calabasa and sour count and
potatoes,

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene (03:41):
And pierogi.
But there is definitely adistinction between other
Islamic foods and Polish foodsand everyone's got their
particular little, you know,niche and uniqueness.
And Chicago, I think, is one ofthe American cities, if not the
American city, that had the mostauthentic Polish food that I

(04:04):
remember.

Oh, a hundred percent.
You know, and then a lot also areally great authentic Ukrainian
and Russian food as well.
I mean, there's a whole, youknow, neighborhood called
Ukrainian Village where, youknow, there's, they're all
Ukrainian there.
I have a two sorority sisters.
They were twins, born and raisedin Ukrainian Village.
Parents were Ukrainian fromUkraine.
They spoke Ukrainian.

(04:25):
You know, and then, then youhave the Russians too, like with
the Russian Tea room.
Which, you know, my, my

Sir Gene (04:29):
Way overpriced.
Way

right but, well, then there's another one too.
I think it's oh gosh, the nameis escaping me, but it's not
like the Russian tea room, likethe bougie one.
Like it's an actual, like,authentic Russian restaurant.
Cause my dad is one sideRussian, one side Polish, and my
mom was the Italian and Irishone.

Sir Gene (04:46):
Yeah.
Well, you're right about themonth.

Oh, yeah.
But like, I will say this, wewere more raised on Italian
food.
Like my dad, you know, my dadbeing super Eastern European
first time he had pizza was whenhe kind of like, really met my
mom.
Now there's, there's also the,the, the thought too that my dad
said was when he was 10 yearsold, he had pizza and then he
puked after he had it, becausehe thinks it, and he, he was

(05:09):
like, he thought he was allergicto pizza, so he never had it.
But yeah, it was,

Sir Gene (05:15):
Well, and yeah, the, the pizza in Chicago.
I'm a big fan of Deep Dish.
I know it's not very popular ingeneral around the world, but I,
I definitely always enjoyed thedeep dish experience.
In fact the last time I was inChicago was on a 15 hour layover
between planes, and the firstplace I went to is to get some

(05:38):
pizza.
Now, I can't remember the name,the place, but if you rattle off
something to Deep,

oh.
Say, well, first of all, whatairport were you at?
Midway or O'Hare?

Sir Gene (05:45):
I was at O'Hare.

Okay.
So you're probably, there'sGino's East, there's Pizzeria
Uno, there's Lu Maltis, which isthe best pizza.
There's only one pizza, and it'sLu Maltis Connie's Pizza.
Ganos.

Sir Gene (05:57):
S

Yeah, that's, that's the one that I hate.
It's cardboard cheese oncardboard Well, you know what it
is?
It's, it's just lu malati.
What they do is they use acornbread crust, and I never
knew that until like my cousinwho's really, really big into
fitness and, and she lives inCorpus Christi now.
She's like, I always ask if it'scornbread crust.
And I'm like, what do you meancornbread crust?

(06:18):
What, what are you talkingabout?
She's like, that's what LuMalati does.
It's a cornbread crust becauseshe's super, you know, like
health nut.
And she's like, yeah.
She's like, I don't need, youdon't need the carbs.
The cornbread crust is actuallybetter for you.
And I was like, huh.
That's why I love Lu Malati somuch.

Sir Gene (06:33):
Interesting.
I'll have to check that out nexttime I'm up

Oh, lube nineties.
It's, it's, it's so good.
So good.

Sir Gene (06:39):
But I, I, I got pizza and then I bought another one
Frozen to take with me on mytrip.
So that was very nice.

good.

Sir Gene (06:46):
But it's, it's hard to find good deep dish places.
When I lived in Dallas, therewas a place that was right near
in lit, literally a block away,a deep dish.
But you know, like how often canyou really have it?
Like, you know, once a month andthen it takes several days to
eat it.

Well, not even that.
I mean, you really have to, likeyou don't like those people that
do the hot dog eating contests.
Like, you really have to prepfor a deep dish pizza because
it's like a Thanksgiving dinner.
You know, like, like these, allthese New Yorkers, you know,
where they're like, Hey, no, wegot the best pizza.
And it's like, yeah.
You fold it and you're walkingdown the street as you're eating
it.

(07:24):
Chicago, it's an experience.
You sit down you have a, you eatit with a fork and a knife for
Pete's sake.
And it's, it's, it's,

Sir Gene (07:32):
Yeah.
Multi-layers of everything.

Yeah.
And then you have a major, majorfood coma nap afterwards, you
know?
So, but I do love New York pizzathough, too.

Sir Gene (07:44):
yeah.
Well, pizza in general I, it's,it's definitely a good tasty
thing that you can overdo veryeasily.

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene (07:52):
And stepping on the scale definitely demonstrates
that.
But it's good stuff.
All right.
Well enough about food.
So you, anyway, you grew up inChicago.
You went to school.
Did you go into journalism?
Where'd you go to school?
What was your major?

I went to Purdue and my major was journalism.

Sir Gene (08:04):
You did.
So what made you want to decideto go into journalism?

you know, it's so interesting as a kid I was
always a performer.
I mean, I was the kid where youknow, saying the ABCs, I
remember there was videos of meas a kid where, you know, my mom
had the ABCs, these littlestickers on the wall for me to
start learning them.

(08:29):
And if I this was funny cuz if Istarted and I messed up a little
bit, I was able to kind of justlike roll through it and go to
the next line.
Cuz I knew the tune and my momwould stop me and be like, no,
no, no, no.
This is the one.
And so there's one where sh I'mdoing A, B, C, D.
And she starts being like, no,no, no.

(08:50):
Like, you know, to remember it,I'm like A, B, C, D, B, be
quiet.
Let me do it.
And that's just one of thosevideos where my family's like,
that's Farin.
Like, she's just always kind ofbeen that performer.
So I always knew from a youngage, especially, you know, when
I was nine, I was on Broadwaywith Donny Osmond and Joseph
with the amazing technical orDreamcoat where I was with the

(09:12):
kids chorus.
And we were on stage.
I mean, I was leaving fourth andfifth grade.
every day at noon to go downtownand do a show.
So I learned firsthand kind of,you know, the whole performance
life and all that stuff.
And I really thought that Iwanted to do that.
But then there was a momentwhere I missed Thanksgiving and
Christmas.
And as a kid, you know, I haveso many cousins you know, again,

(09:36):
a big Catholic family and Imissed Christmas and I missed
Thanksgiving and I didn't see mycou.
And that's like the time whenyou see your cousins, because
then after that you really see'em the next time at Easter.
And I was like, man, like Ireally, you know, and that's
what my mom told me.
She was like, cuz my mom was aperformer, but she was also was
a nurse.
And she was like, that's one ofthe things you gotta look at,

(09:56):
Farren is you're gonna miss somestuff for this kind of thing.
So I was like, ah, well maybe,you know, I, I used to watch
Saturday Night Live with my dadevery weekend.
That was the big thing that himand I used to love watching.
But then I would, you know, onmy way to school where we were
sitting and eating breakfast,I'd be sitting there watching
the Today Show or Good MorningAmerica.
And my favorite journalist atthe time was Joan London.

(10:17):
I thought that

Sir Gene (10:18):
I remember her.

I thought she was like just so beautiful.
I loved her hair.
You know, cuz I had really longhair and I thought her short
hair was really cool.
I liked Katie Keurig too whenshe was young and like, kind of,
you know, vibrant.
But my, my all time favorite,and I know every girl says this,
I loved Diane Sawyer, but Ireally loved Barbara Walters.

Sir Gene (10:37):
Yes.

another one that I loved was Jane Pauly.
But either way I, yeah, I, Iloved, yeah, B Bob 2020 but I
also loved Jane Pauly too.
So I, but either way, Igravitated towards all the
females on tv and then

Sir Gene (10:49):
So journalism for you was always about tv, not, not
the written word.

the broadcasting.
Yes.
And so what really changed in,in looking at the news was when
I saw a weekend update and I waslike, oh, the news can be funny.

Sir Gene (11:05):
Mm-hmm.

So my initial,

Sir Gene (11:08):
doing it when you first saw it, or that you
recall?

very first one I remember seeing was Norm
McDonald,

Sir Gene (11:13):
Okay.
Well, he was, I think, prettymuch the best.

right?
Yeah.
Him I remember him, Colin Quinn.
I did love the Jimmy Fallon Nauh, Tina Faye era.
And then even the Tina Fay, AmyPolar era.

Sir Gene (11:24):
Mm-hmm.

But, but again, it was, it was a lot of the
women though that really stoodout to me.
But so long story short, Ithought I wanted to be the
weekend update anchor on snl.
And and I, and I saw that when Ifirst saw Tina Faye come on.
And and I'm trying to rememberthe lady who was in Coneheads
too, I can't remember her.

Sir Gene (11:43):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

one of them too, cuz I remember, I will never
forget seeing it.
They did an snl Best ofChristmas.
I was at my aunt's house, wewere all in the basement and we
were watching the best of, andmy dad and I were the only
people at the party sittingthere watching the best of, and
it was my favorite one.
One of my favorite, you know,they where they had their like
little correspondent where itwas John Belushi and he, he

(12:06):
talks about St.
Patrick's Day

Sir Gene (12:09):
Yeah.
Jane.
Cur.

Jean Cur.
Okay.
But yeah, she, she, she tossesover to him and he's like, yeah,
you know, St.
Patrick's Day and oh, they lovetheir mothers.
And he's like, you know,starting his whole bit.
And I just remember seeing herreact and I was like, oh my God,
that must have been so funsitting next to him.
You know?
So yeah, so that's what Ithought I wanted to do.
But then as I got more intowatching the news, I mean, I

(12:33):
just became obsessed with thenews.
I loved watching the news.
Graduated journalism schoolstarted doing, I was, I I was
dancing for the Chicago Bulls atthe time cuz I was a
professional dancer my entirelife.
And,

Sir Gene (12:45):
So when you say dancing, you mean you were like
a cheerleader.

I was a dancer.

Sir Gene (12:49):
So what, explain the difference to.

Well, if you've seen the movie, bring it on.
The guy says cheerleaders aredancers who have got retarded.

Sir Gene (12:59):
Oh,

you have to have.
major skill.
I remember I auditioned against5,000 girls

Sir Gene (13:07):
Wow.

and only 25 make the squad.
But by the end of the day,there's only about 300 girls
that make it onto the trainingcamp because those 40, what is
it, 40, 4700 other girls thatthought that they could make the

(13:31):
dance team realize that it'smore than just dancing at a
club.

Sir Gene (13:34):
Mm-hmm.

You know?
You gotta be able to do, youknow, advanced turns, leaps,
jumps you know, you gotta haveyour timing.
You gotta do this in heels, yougotta do it in gym shoes.
I mean, it's, it's intense andit's, it's for actual people
that have been dancingpractically all their lives.
So, but so I was doing that andthen I was taking classes at
Second City and I was, and I wasdoing improv there, and I

(13:59):
learned very quickly the life ofa comedian.
And I saw that, you know, you'rewaiting tables during the day.
You're going in trying to do asmany, you know, open night mic
nights as you can.
Met some great com comedicfriends and, and still to this
day, remain friends with them.
But I realized that the newspays steady and also I realized,

(14:26):
you can't have fun in the news,you know?
And, and it was my mother thatactually told me, she's like,
Faren, you remember watching allthe morning reports on the Today
Show where the puppies wouldcome on, or they'd go and they
would, you know, be with the,the Blue Angels or they'd go do
the fun stuff in the morning.
She's like, that's what youshould do.
So that's what I, how I started.
I got my first job in Rockford,Illinois 90 miles west of

(14:48):
Chicago.
And I found out after I movedthere, it was the ninth most
dangerous city in the country atthat time in 2011.
And I, I always say my mom hasevery single gray hair on her
head because of me during thattime, because I was going from
shooting to homicide, toburglary, to, you know, just,
you can't even imagine theamount that I was covering.

(15:09):
But the difference was is when Igraduated, they told me that I
was gonna have, you know, theysaid, you know, you're going
into TV and, you know, I hadinternships and all that other
stuff.
They're like, you're gonna havea camera guy and you're gonna
have a guy running the livetruck.
Like, it's gonna be fine.
And, you know, I get there andthey're like, okay, so here's
your camera and here's this andthis is how you're gonna operate
it.
And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

(15:30):
Hang on.
I, I don't get a camera guy.
And they're like, no, you'regonna shoot all this yourself.
And so I learned and I becamelike the guru of, cuz when you
were shooting by yourself, a lotof reporters at that time didn't
do what's called like a standupwhere you're in front of the
camera unless they had a camera.
well, I was able to rig it whereI figured out how to do a

(15:51):
standup where I would able to beflip the camera.
I was like, you know how you seethe beauty gurus where they,
they focus their, their makeupproduct and put their hand
behind it?
I was able to figure out how tofocus myself and started doing
live shots by myself and hereI'd be out at two in the morning
at this homicide and forbreaking news.
And my mother was like, nobody'swith you.

(16:12):
What's going on?
You know?
But yeah, and I, I learned tolike the excitement and the
adrenaline of it all.
And that's where I learned too.
I can, there's like kind of likeno really gray area for me.
I either love like the super,super fun stuff or the super,
super serious stuff, you know?
But, and then went onto a bunchof cities after that and I was
at South Bend, Indiana.
I was in El Paso, Texas, Austin,Texas, grand Rapids, Michigan,

(16:35):
and then Washington, And justevery place that I went, I
happened to kind of meetsomebody that was a young buck
at the time and then made itbig.
Like Pete Buttigieg in SouthBend, Indiana, and Beto O'Rourke
and El Paso, and then JustinAmash and Grand Rapids, and
then, you know, DC and then I'mlike home.
All my friends are following mehere, you know, or, and then,

(16:56):
and what the, what's the of theweirdest part is when your
friends start running forpresident.
That's the weirdest thing.

Sir Gene (17:00):
Mm-hmm.
So wait a minute.
Put, you're, you're saying PeteBudges, friend of yours?

Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
I used to cover'em all the timein South.

Sir Gene (17:08):
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.
I mean, and that's the thing islike when you're in these
smaller towns, you get to knowthese people for, you know who
they are and you're hanging outwith them, you know, especially
at Notre Dame games and stufflike that.
It's, yeah, you, you see thesepeople all the time.

Sir Gene (17:21):
Right.
So how qualified do you think hewas for his current post?

Zero.
Absolutely

Sir Gene (17:27):
we're on the same page there.

Yeah.
I mean, the one thing that'sinteresting is that, you know,
people to judge, and this is,this is proven so this isn't
like, you know, me speculatingat all.
Cuz there he did reports on it.
And you know, there, there weretimes, you know, he used to,
whenever we'd be out, you know,and he would see me and he'd be
like, Fairen, you're a damn goodanchor, but God damn, leave me

(17:49):
alone.
You know what?
I just used to be like, I usedto be like, Hey, we're not
talking about work here.
You know, but I mean, he, heunderstood, you know, he has got
a great heart, I will say that.
Really kind, sweet spirited guy.
But but no, I mean, he's actslike he turned South, bend
around and it's, you know, southBend is, you know, so wonderful.
And it was like, no, dude, likeyou sold and like, gentrified

(18:13):
the rough and tough areas ofNotre Dame or of of South Bend
and sold it to Notre Dame.
And now those are all, you know,Brand new high rises and new
like off-campus, you know,apartment housing.
Like you didn't help anybody youjust, you just sold more to
Notre Dame.
But South Bend, I will say thisis an amazing town.

(18:36):
I mean, if you could ask me thetwo towns that I loved living
in, it was South Bend, Indianaand El Paso, Texas loved it.
Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene (18:44):
were you in El Paso?

I was there for two years

Sir Gene (18:47):
Okay.
Yeah.
My only exposure to El Paso hasbeen while staying there on a
drive out west a few times.
So I really haven't, like, Idon't even know if, if I've seen
downtown El Paso for thatmatter,

you know, and it's so interesting because a
lot of people tell me, they'relike, there's only one reason
why you loved El Paso Faren.
And I was like, why?
And they're like, cuz you hadnever been to Phoenix yet.
they call it the poor man'sPhoenix.
But I, I had just loved and thatwas the one thing that I did
love about journalism too, isthat you, you can kind of go
anywhere.
Now granted, you know, hopefullythere's an opening, but a lot of

(19:21):
people don't understand howwe're kind of nomadic and we
gotta move around here and thereall the time.
You know, DC is the one job thatI've had where I've actually
been here the longest now out ofany job that I've had.
South Bend was the longestbefore that with four years.
DC I've been here since 2019, soalmost going on five.

(19:42):
But.

Sir Gene (19:43):
how do you like DC as, not in terms of reporting, but
as a place to live.

You know, it's interesting if short answer it
sucks you know, tldr it sucks.
But I will say this you do meetsome amazing people here.
You do see how the sausage ismade in ways that, you know, are
unfathomable in some cases.

(20:12):
And my parents even said, youknow, they were always like, you
were the kind of kid that alwayswanted to report what you heard
or what you saw.
Like you saw it first.
And that's like my dad alwayssays like, yeah, like, I knew
you were gonna be a, a newsreporter cuz you always had to
tell me first.
You know, he's like, he's like,you know, you'd run inside if
something happened with yourbrothers and sisters and you'd
have to come up and be the firstone to tell me.
So there is that knack where,you know, I love telling people

(20:33):
how DC operates.
Now granted, I haven't gone onthe outskirts to like the more
Virginia area like the, thenorthern area of Virginia where
people say it's much more calmand people are more real there.
But you know, one of the thingsthat's so interesting about this
place is that you know, whenthere's a recession everywhere
else in the country, you don'tsee it here cuz everybody works

(20:56):
in the government.
Everybody's still gonna get

Sir Gene (20:58):
Right?
Yeah.

You don't see

Sir Gene (21:00):
How about when the government shuts down?

and that's why they work really quick to make
sure that it doesn't

Sir Gene (21:06):
Yeah.

you know?
But, but even with thegovernment shuts down, it's not
like they're not gonna really begetting paid.
It's just they're not gonna goto work, you know?
But they're still gonna gettheir salary, you know, they're
paid through that year.
It's just, and that's anotherthing that you don't know
either, you know, like there'sjust it's just, it's just so
strange the way things operate.

(21:27):
You know, like another thingthat a lot of people don't know
is, you know, we're alwaysthinking, oh, the next four
years, the next four years herein DC they don't, they don't
care about the next four years.
They're looking at the nexteight to 12 because they're
slowly, I mean, they're alwayslooking for like, that next new
horse that they're gonna bet on.

(21:48):
You know, Roger Stone wasbetting on Trump in the
nineties,

Sir Gene (21:53):
Mm.

you know, like, and, and if that doesn't tell
you anything that, that's whenit started.
You know, and that was, youknow, over 20 years ago now well
over 20 years ago.
But you know, here you, you cansee where they're always
starting to groom people.
And that was one thing that Idid see that not a lot of people
did see with Beto O'Rourke andPete Buttigieg was Pete

(22:18):
Buttigieg when I saw him and methim for the first time.
And the way that he acted as a.
And then I went through and Ilooked at his resume and stuff.
That was one thing that anex-boyfriend told me that this,
and this is like some of thebest advice I've ever gotten,
was he was like, always look atwhat people's resume and like
where they went to school andall that stuff.
He's like, because you'll alwayseither be able to find a

(22:40):
connection or you're, or you'llstart to see a pattern.
And I remember thinking like,what?
You know, and he, he was a bigbusiness guy, you know, and I
look and I see, you know, hewent to Oxford, he's a Rhode
Scholar, he's in na, he's in theNavy, the Navy reserves.
And I'm sitting there and youknow, I've studied the
presidents cuz I'm a nerd.
And I'm like, this sounds like agay jfk.

(23:06):
And I call, I said to mynewsroom, I was like, you guys,
he's gonna run for president oneday.
Like Faron, he's a mayor.
He's not going to.
And I was like, no, you guys,this guy is, as they say, this
guy's fixing to run forpresident.
And then when I went to Beto,O'Rourke's resume with him and
you see who he's married to andI was father was a judge and all

(23:30):
this other stuff of how he wasable to get into Congress and
how he was the Democrat, but wasable to work across the aisle.
Like your Joe Biden style, youknow, came from humble
beginnings.
But then the father was a ju youknow, you're like, oh, this is
the new young, like j jfk, youknow, like father's a judge.

(23:52):
Father's very powerful.
Same kind of thing, but justdifferent, like the different
parts of the story, if thatmakes sense.
And you can, you can see thesepeople shaping as as they start.
And that was, that's been thefunnest thing to, for me to, to
watch is how these people slowlymorph into what Washington needs
and that's how Washingtonoperates.

(24:12):
They're looking at these peoplelike Tim Scott, I, I was looking
at him two years ago and alreadythey're now talking about PO
possible vp v to be on theticket for vp and it's Nikki
Haley that's looking at'em, youknow, like it's these people,
they, they groom them years andyears out.

Sir Gene (24:30):
Yeah.
Well, that makes sense.
I mean, you pretty much have to.

Right.
But I mean, it's also, you know,you also then see in the media
cycle too.
Like all of a sudden you're,you're here, Gavin Newsom over
and over and over again.
And then he's gonna kind of goaway, but then he might come
back.
It's just all these people,you're just like, it's, I
understand what people say.
Everything's fixed, you know, Ireally do get it.
But you, but again, you can alsosee how these people morph and

(24:57):
they turn into Washington andthen you're just like, not you
You know, I had hope, but notyou.
So

Sir Gene (25:06):
Yeah.
So is, is DC gonna be the, theplace you think you're gonna be?
A long time?

You know, right now for the way that it's going?
Yes.
It's, you know, even my dad.
Cause I was like, there was onetime I remember calling him and
I was like, dad, I can't standDC I hate this.
And he is like, God, damnitFaron.
He's like, you know, you lovedc.
He's like, you're just, justright now you just don't like it
because you know you're in alull or something.

(25:39):
And I remember, you know, then Imoved back home for like a quick
summer because, you know, it wasbe when RT America shut down.
And I was like, okay, I don'tknow where I wanna go next.
Cause I, I have always loved thesouth.
I did love living in Texas.
And then I got the job back inDC and I was driving in and I
listened to, I, I always do thiswhenever I drive into DC I

(26:00):
listen to the House of Cardstheme song.
And I just, and I, and I drovein at night just like, this is
of the first time when I drovein here and I moved here.
And when you see like the, themonument and the Lincoln
Memorial and the JeffersonMemorial and the Capitol, I
just, I just started cryingagain.
This the, this is the same, thesame way that I did the first

(26:22):
time when I drove in.
Cuz you're just like, God, thisis such a magical place.
Then this, then it sets in whereyou're like, I hate everybody.
But then, you know, you gottaget out a little bit and you
know, and then remember howmagical it is because it, it
truly is a magical.
and what happens here, but we'llsee.
We'll see.

Sir Gene (26:42):
Yeah.
I mean, I, I can kind of seethat, although I wouldn't call
it magical, but it is definitelyunique in the country.
It's, it's it's the only placein the country that has that
many bureaucrats all in oneplace.

Yeah, it really is.
And that's, that's one thingthat you've heard a lot of
Republicans talk about how theywould wanna be able to move
things around the country, and

Sir Gene (27:04):
Yeah.

I understand that idea, but that would've
been, that would be way toodifficult and we would be
wasting way too much tax money.

Sir Gene (27:14):
Oh, I think that's the least of my worries.

that's, that's, this is true.
Yes.

Sir Gene (27:19):
After.
Oh, I don't know, a hundredyears of this country.
That's, that's really not aconcern.

Oh, for sure.

Sir Gene (27:27):
the, yeah.
The, the interesting plan that Iheard, which I don't think ever
got very far, was in relocatingthe capitol to the center of the
country for multiple reasons,which would kind of place it in,
in St.
Louis.

Yeah.
I think, yeah.
They were talking like St.
Louis or Springfield or likesomewhere either way in
Missouri.

Sir Gene (27:47):
Yep.

Yeah.
I mean, it, it could work.
Again, it would, it would save,you know, flight times for a lot
of these folks.
But the other thing too is, isyou know, folks, a lot of these
people.
they move their entire familiesup here and

Sir Gene (28:03):
Yeah.

they're gone like when they win, they're
gone.
you know, you don't really see alot of the people that sit back
home, you know, like I do knowBeto O'Rourke, his, his wife and
kids, they stayed in El Paso andthey, they, cuz they wanted them
to go to the same school andstay there.
But most of that, which actuallywas surprising to me because

(28:24):
most of the time they move uphere and they send their kids to

Sir Gene (28:28):
yeah.
Private

you know, the, yeah.
The, you know, St.
Andrews here where Trump's sonwent.
Yeah, there's some of the, ifnot the best schools in the
country,

Sir Gene (28:36):
Yeah.

but

Sir Gene (28:37):
Yeah.
It, it's I think.
It's an interesting city cuzit's, it's also given how young
America is, it's one of thecities that has tried to emulate
sort of European architecture.

Oh

Sir Gene (28:50):
And, and that doesn't really happen in most cities.
You know, Boston's got a littlebit of that, but New York,
they've totally notPhiladelphia's got a little bit,
but in DC I think it was done bydesign because it, it really was
a city kinda like St.
Petersburg, Russia, which wasbuilt on a swamp.

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene (29:12):
And so, when you design a city from scratch, you
get to make a lot of choicesthat organically grown cities
don't.

oh.

Sir Gene (29:20):
which you also, I, I curse the name of the guy whose
name I forgot.
The guy, the guy who designedthe, the road systems in DC
every time I go there becausethey are just that I like grids,
I like easy to understand roadsystems.
And that road system is theopposite of that.

(29:41):
It was a French dude, I can'tremember his Know who I'm
talking about?

it was a surveyor named Andrew Ellicott.

Sir Gene (29:46):
Was it?
Okay.
Yeah,

Oh wait, hang on.
Oh, LA Lawn font.
Lawn font.

Sir Gene (29:51):
That's right.
Lafa.
Yep.
That guy.

which there is a a, a metro stop lawn font plaza.
Now, now, I didn't even knowthat.
So I learned something

Sir Gene (29:59):
Yeah.
Yeah, it's this is not how Iwould've designed it, but, you
know, he got the job, not me.
Oh, well.

Well, and that was one of the things, I, I will
tell you this it Chicago, it'sChicago is also a grid system.
So I grew up knowing that and wealways remembered, you know,
state and state and Madisonwe're kind of like the, was
where everything was North,southeast, west.

Sir Gene (30:24):
Mm-hmm.

But here in DC they have like this number
system and letter system.
So it's, you know, first Street,second Street, third Street, and
then A, B, C, D, G.
So like, you know, my first jobwas, you know, on G Street,
Northwest.
but then you'll have G StreetSouthwest and it's like, there

(30:47):
is no north and south.
Like I just, you know, it waslike, you know, south, south
State Street or North StateStreet.
No, I gotta, I gotta learn fourquadrants now.
And mind you, the capital is thecenter of it.
So, and, and to me, I rememberit was, I was on a date with
this guy and I remember I waslike, okay, wait a minute.

(31:08):
So how do I get back?
Because I had like, kind of justmoved here and he is like, you
know, it's pretty easy to get,you know, you just go four up
that way and then another fourand then over two.
And I was like, no.
See actually it's not easy forme because I look at this city
and I'm like, why did you do itlike this?
You know?

Sir Gene (31:24):
Well, now you know who to blame.

south.
Yeah.
Now I know.
Now I know

Sir Gene (31:28):
Yeah.
It's, it's, it's retarded iswhat it's, and I've been in DC
I've never lived there, but I'vebeen there a lot over the years
for a variety of reasons.
And I think every, about halfthe time I've been there, that
seemed to be a snowstorm, a oncein a lifetime snowstorm hitting,

Oh

Sir Gene (31:44):
which always they're never prepared for.
But I don't know.
It's, it, like I love someaspects of dc but other things
are just completely an athe.

Oh yeah.
I mean, I will say the one firstthing that I had here, I had
never been through a hurricanebefore.

Sir Gene (32:03):
Hmm.

and I believe it was 2019 or 2020.
Yeah, some are 2020.
And my brother and sister werevisiting me and I just remember
it just raining and raining andraining and raining.
And I was like, hurricanes don'tseem that bad.
See, I'm from the Midwest, sowe're used to tornado warnings,
you know, like, I was like, ah,this hurricane's kind of nice.
Nobody goes anywhere.

(32:25):
Y'all kind of hunkered down.
This is like a Chicagosnowstorm, you know?
But yeah, I'd never been througha hurricane before.
And yeah, I apparently sometimesDC gets it.
But snowstorm, I have not beenthrough that here yet.

Sir Gene (32:37):
Really interesting.
Yeah.
It's think I've been throughthree of'em out there.

Wow.

Sir Gene (32:42):
Yeah, it, it, it, it seems I mean, definitely gets
colder there than a does inTexas here.
So when there's snow in Texas,people are, they're, they're
afraid to even look outside thehouse because God forbid they
might slip, fall and break theirneck by looking,

I know

Sir Gene (33:00):
growing up in a mid, you know, in Minnesota, that
obviously is not a big deal.
Like I, I learned how to driveon snow when I was five years
old, like everybody inMinnesota.
But it, it's a, in DC it's likein that in between region where
it's by the water.
So it always kinda stays warmerthan other cities that are at

(33:20):
the same latitude.
But occasionally it will getcold enough to get a snowstorm
going through there.
So

And you know, it's, it's always so funny to me
when I would, when I lived downin Texas when I was in Austin
there was an ice storm or like,they were, you know, saying like
an ice, which I had never heardof an ice storm before.
It was just, you know,snowstorm.
But they're like, it's an icestorm.
And I remember one of myfriends, I was like, what the
hell is that?
And mind you, my friend was fromMichigan, my best friend that

(33:49):
lives down there, and she'slike, oh yeah.
She goes, these folks in theirice storms.
And I was like, what did that,what does that even mean?
She goes, well, apparently thesnow doesn't stay since it's
warmer.
The snow doesn't, you know, staysnow and it turns to ice.
And she goes, but it actuallydoes get really slippery around
here.
And I saw, you know, where theydon't drive, they don't
literally Austin shut down,

Sir Gene (34:11):
Yep.

but there was a snowstorm though there too.
And the, the, the city stillshut down.
And I was like, with mygirlfriend, you know, again from
Michigan, I'm from Chicago,she's from like the Detroit
area.
and I was like, these, theselittle whipper snappers, like,
oh, it's an inch.
It's like, really?
Is it three feet?
You can still do it.
You know, like gimme a break.

(34:33):
You know, my grand, or my, myparents survived the, what was
it, snowstorm of 70, 79 orsomething like that.
I can't remember what it was.
My mom said that the snowliterally went up to their
garage door.

Sir Gene (34:45):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I remember a few of those.

mean the top of the garage door, meaning that
the top of the garage door.

Sir Gene (34:52):
Yeah.
We're the, all the basementwindows and all, and the garage
door were just snow overcompletely.
And it's, it's a combination of,you know, lots of snow, but also
wind.
Which in Chicago is there mostof the year.

Mm-hmm.
Yep.

Sir Gene (35:08):
sometimes that's not a bad thing.
In the middle of summer, havethat wind coming off the.

Oh, yeah.

Sir Gene (35:14):
other times not so much.
You know what I really lovedabout being in Chicago, just
jump back for a second, is atnight, probably around like,
about the time you're comingback from the bars and where I
stayed and it was you know, liketwo blocks from the House of
Blues off Wacker Drive.
There was this great smell ofchocolate

Oh yeah.

Sir Gene (35:36):
yeah.
And no other city has that,like, that to me will always be
a Chicago memory.

I actually used to live I lived on Lake and
Canal, and it's literally acrossthe, almost like directly across
the like, area of where thatchocolate factory is.
And I used, you talk aboutsmelling that, try smelling it
every single day around likethree 30, 4:00 PM in your
apartment where you're justlike, oh my God, that smells

(36:04):
amazing.
And that, that's one of thethings though, I will say that I
do love about Chicago in thesense that you know, moving here
to DC DC's like child's play youwant, when it comes to
corruption.
Like, I, I felt like I came hereand I'm like, this is your
corruption, but it's just kindof on a larger scale.
Chicago, one of the, if not themost corrupt city in the

(36:27):
country.
And I, you know, people, and Ithink that's one of the things
that a lot of people are like,Fairen, you're able to see all
these different politicians andyou're able to call this stuff
out, like how they do on Houseof Cards.
And I'm like, I'm from Chicago.
Like I've seen this since I wasa kid.
You know, because a lot of itreally does this, it's like the
stories are the same, butthey're different characters,

(36:49):
you know?
But a lot of the characters kindof run the same type of way as
you know, many of the ones dohere, as they do here in.

Sir Gene (36:57):
mm-hmm.

But yeah, Chicago definitely groomed me.
And, and I, and I'm very luckyand grateful for that.
But yeah, Chicago was it was fungrowing up watching it with all
the alderman and then thedailies and watching all of that
stuff happen and all thecorruption, you know, my
parents, they have a condodowntown and there was a whole
airstrip where, you know, youcould, and I remember the
airstrip singing as a kid, causewe used to watch the planes go

(37:19):
in and fly on this airstripright off of like, you know,
Lakeshore Drive.
And all of a sudden they dailiesgot mad and overnight crews are
in there pu digging up the wholeairstrip, you know, totally
messing everything up.
You know, the whole thing thathappened with Navy Pier at the,
at, at the end and how there wasall this corruption going on
with who was gonna get thecontracts.
And you're just like,

Sir Gene (37:39):
Oh, yeah.
It's the same stuff that was inSopranos.

yeah, exactly.
And you're just like, oh, thisis so, so this is how it works.
You know?
That's how the world works, youknow, but

Sir Gene (37:50):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I, I remember driving to Chicagoin a a black Cadillac in the mid
nineties.
And I mean, it was definitely avery Moby city even then.
And it was there's a lot of,there's a lot of interesting
characters that always seem toemerge when places have
corruption.
And Chicago was very much a acharacter city

Oh, you wanna, you wanna hear a great story?
So the, the suburb that I grewup in, west of Chicago, it's
about 20 minutes outside of thecity with no traffic.
It's where all of the sportsplayers lived because it's a
little town called Oakbrook,Illinois, and it's actually
where the first worldheadquarters for McDonald's were

(38:34):
hamburger University.
And all my friends' parentsgrowing up, like they all were,
you know, heads of something atsea at McDonald's.
Like my friend's dad was the guywho headed the photo shoots for
the food.
And that's where I first learnedabout how, you know, in the
commercials the cheese isactually, you know, rubber and,

(38:56):
you know, yeah.
And how all of that stuff works.
You know, it's, it's, it's, youknow, the, the friends, my
friends and their parents, it,it was inter, it's an
interesting area, but eitherway, the, the sports guys moved
there because we have the famousOakbrook Mall there.
And they.
get kind of a people atOakbrook, I guess like their,
their property taxes.

(39:17):
It's something to do with themall helps cover it, or it's
something to do with propertytaxes or low either way.
So you had like guys like FrankThomas, Chris Cellos, Stan
Makita who just passed away, r ip or Big Black Hawks guy you
know, Dennis Sard.
These are all I'm playing namingall Black Hawk hockey players
and White Sox players.
These people are probably like,I don't know.
But, and then you had the mob.

(39:38):
So a lot of my friends inschool, their, their parents or
their, mainly their fathers wereinvolved in the mob in some way.
It's a very, very Italian Irishneighborhood.
And there was a guy OakbrookOakbrook is different.
They don't have like a littledowntown area.
It's like a bunch of differentsubdivisions.
Cuz there, it used to be a bigPolo area too.
Prince Charles actually used togo there and, and play polo at,

(40:01):
at the Oakbrook.
At the Oakbrook polo grounds.
Yeah.
And so, you also have ButlerNational Golf course where the
Western Open used to be.
But then when Michael Jordan gotin it they had to move it
because Butler National doesn'tallow black people or women,
which I don't know if they dotoday.
I haven't been home in a while.
But yeah, that was the one thingwhere every, it was a big, you

(40:21):
know, a lot happened withOakbrook.
But, so it was one of thesubdivisions and it was a big
mob.
and it was late at night and hewas, it was a gated community,
or no, I'm sorry.
It was, it was a littlesubdivision.
He's driving in at night and hehad like a long driveway and he
had his mailbox at the end andhe goes to grab his mail, you
know, it's night dark out andsome guy went behind his mail,

(40:46):
came from out behind hismailbox.
It was like a big brick mailbox,you know, where he could hide
and shot him in the face and ranoff.
And this was like in like theseventies, eighties, and at
Oakbrook, Illinois of allplaces.
And guy drives to the hospitalstill alive, ends up living all
of a sudden, pays a bunch ofmoney to the association, gets

(41:10):
the community gated and has, andyou could still see him, like
we, we as kids used to gothrough and see like, if we
could see the, the cameras.
He had a camera in his mailboxand then lights going all the
way down his driveway withcameras and each fricking lamp
post.
Oh yeah.
I mean, and you're just like,holy cow.
You know, like as a kid yeah,it's a big, big mob area, but

(41:33):
the Chicago mob is kind of diedout a little bit cuz I think the
the kids don't have enough timenow.
you know, between all their gigworking and whatever.
you know, I think, I think, Ithink, I think the big thing
that they're all in now is likelogistics or so.
you know, or like how logisticsis like a big thing that you're
seeing with a lot of mobstersnow, but I don't know, I haven't

(41:55):
been home in a while.
But, but yeah, grew up with alot of mobster kids.
It was fun.
I learned loyalty, you know, Ilearned loyalty very well,
That's why I have such a problemwhen people aren't loyal.

Sir Gene (42:07):
Yeah.
Well, and I, I think the Italianmobs, the, the Jewish mob, they
tended to be more more intoproviding illicit services and
controlling gambling and not somuch into drugs and sort of the
hardcore stuff.
And that's where the I think theMexican cartels really kind of

(42:30):
picked up a lot of the,

Oh

Sir Gene (42:32):
growth that they've experienced is because they were
from day one, willing to do allthose things.

well, not to mention too, I mean, you really
saw kind of your rise of the mobin the beginning with the Irish
and the Italians.
If you've ever watched likeBoardwalk Empire, you see this
where it was all during thebootlegging area, bootlegging
era.
In fact, that was one of thecoolest things that I loved
about working in South Bend.
A lot of people didn't knowthat.
You know, you have like your NewYork mob gangs and your New York

(42:59):
cronies and, or like, not thecronies like the, the, you know,
like the big mobster names likeyour to me.
I know.
Yeah, exactly.
Chicago, everybody knows AlCapone.
But there's the biggest, thebiggest one that that created,
basically the f b I was JohnDillinger.

Sir Gene (43:14):
Mm-hmm.

And the last I did a really cool it was for a
sweeps piece.
The last bank that JohnDillinger ever robbed was in
South Bend, Indiana, where heactually shot and killed two
officers, but he spent time atthe Michigan City Prison, which
is just outside of Chicago.
If you've seen public enemieswith Johnny Depp in the very

(43:38):
beginning scene, he's walkingout of the actual Michigan City
prison.
And I actually have a standupthere in everything.
I mean, it was such a cool storyto, to learn about him and his
life.
But all I, I then in South Benddid a ghost hunt.
I used to love doing that kindof weird crap.
And it was a ghost huntinginvestigation.
And it was at this giant, itlooked like a giant, you know,

(44:01):
barn, but it was at actual likekind of a home, but it was an
antique store and the basementwas haunted and it was an actual
underground railroad stop forthe bootleggers.
Not, like, not what with theslaves.
It was, it was for the, the, thewhiskey or like the, the
moonshine

Sir Gene (44:21):
Yeah.
Yeah.

And didn't find anything with that.
You know, it was kind of like,okay, what.
but when I was in Grand Rapids,Michigan, I did another ghost
hunt and it was the tavern whereAl Capone used to hang out, and
that's where I actually did feellike I, I, I went in as a
skeptic and I'm not a believerbut it was, it was another spot,

(44:44):
another bootlegging spot whereAl Capone and them would hang
out and it was, you just seelike all along that Chicago,
Indiana, Michigan area, that'swhere all these guys would go
back and forth, and they wereable to cut corners and cross
state lines super quickly, whichis why then they ended up having
to create the FBI so they could,you know, not have to rely on
state to state, they couldactually, you know, make it

(45:06):
federal

Sir Gene (45:08):
yeah.
There, there's a St.
Paul was also a big destinationcity for them because St.
Paul had a I don't wanna call itan amnesty necessarily, but they
were during the prohibition,they were not prosecuting a lot
of the mobsters, so a lot ofthem ended up going out there.
Yeah.
There was a, a nightclub in the1930s during the prohibition

(45:31):
that was in a literalunderground nightclub.
It was in the caves on the sideof the Mississippi River that
were dug out.
And those caves it's a fairlylarge man-made cave that I think
originally started as, you know,native American caves, but then
got expanded during the late 18hundreds, early 19 hundreds to

(45:58):
be a used as ammunition storagefacilities.
They were used as cheese storageThey were used for a number of
reasons, a number of differentthings.
But during the prohibition age,the, the cave was owned by, I
can't remember which of thegangsters, I think it was the
bar, the Barker gang in West St.
Paul.

(46:18):
And they were set up as aspeakeasy, kind of nightclub.
And I used to hang out at thecaves all the time back in the
nineties because the currentowners recreated the original
speakeasy nightclub that thecaves had back there.
And so there was a bar, therewas a stage, there was a big

(46:39):
dance floor.
And you're literally inside of acave, like eight stories
underground, but you've got thiswhole facility there.
So there there's a lot ofinteresting sort of mob ties in
the Midwest that a lot of peopledon't realize existed.
People have heard of New York, alot of people have heard of
Chicago, but but also St.
Paul, Kansas City had veryactive mob scenes and a lot of

(47:03):
these guys were frenemies, youknow, so they, they, they
competed with each other asdifferent factions of mob
usually do.
but they were also friendly witheach other because they're in
the same business, they have thesame goals, and they're working
against really, you know, thethe law.

Right?
And, and the other one too.
I remember hearing about wasWisconsin, cuz I think that's
where like Babyface Nelson Ithink was shot.
But the part that you, you learnin Boardwalk Empire, and like I
said, you know, boardwalkloosely based, but you do see
that part.
And I think it's like seasonthree or four where, you know,

(47:44):
you know, Steve Buscemi the mainguy out of Atlantic City, you
know, where they're getting allof this stuff.
You know, the guy who plays AlCapone, he is like, yeah, he is
like, we don't, we don't needyou anymore.
We're we're gonna get it in fromCanada now.
And you see where he just getspissed because, you know, he was
kind of the line guy where itwould go from him to New York,
Chicago, everywhere.
And you learn that.

(48:04):
Yeah, like once Canada startedcoming into play that, that's
when the New York and theChicago mobs completely kinda
like split.

Sir Gene (48:10):
Yep.

But I love, I love that stuff.
And then, then there was like a,there's a whole southern mob
that I was learning about withthis.
I love Discovery Plus I justlove, I'm a huge documentary
nerd.
I will literally, you tell me adocumentary, I will watch it
like in the next hour that, youknow, you're like, oh, watch
this one.
And I'm like, all right, I'm onthe list.
But it's called Rebel Gold,

Sir Gene (48:33):
I've not seen that.

Oh, it's so interesting.
So allegedly journalist's,favorite word allegedly.
When oh God, what's his name?
The, he was the president of theConfederacy.
God, what was his name?
His name's escaping me.

Sir Gene (48:48):
yeah.
I'm gonna get a lot of hate andmail for not remembering
instantly off the top of myhead.

Oh, no.
Well, I'm, I'm a Yankee

Sir Gene (48:55):
Ah-huh.

I, I will, I will never forget hearing in the
first time when I moved downsouth, somebody was like, well,
yeah, you're a Yankee.
And I was like,

Sir Gene (49:04):
Jefferson Davis.

Yes.
But they go, you're, you're aYankee.
And I'm

Sir Gene (49:08):
Mm-hmm.

no, I'm a White Sox fan.
And they're like, no, you're aYankee.
Like beating, you're aNortherner.
And I was like, oh, okay.
Whatever that means.
But

Sir Gene (49:19):
That means he ain't one of us, is what it

ex Exactly.
That's, I learned that realquick.
Just, it's just, it's so funny,like even like when I moved here
to DC I went down toFredericksburg, Virginia, which
is literally 45 minutes outsideof DC and you leave DC you start
driving, you hit south, andthere's just this giant

(49:42):
confederate flag waving on thisgiant flagpole.
And you're like, oh, okay.
But it's like a, as a personthat grew up, you know, the
North, you're just like, oh,these peop those people are
real.
Okay.
You know, like, it's just, youdon't see it, you know?
Cuz especially like in Austin,like, I didn't see it El Paso, I
didn't see it.
Grand Rapids, I definitelydidn't see it, you know, like

(50:04):
just all these other places.
Surprisingly I didn't see it inSouth Bend, which is not far
from the original birthplace ofthe K kk.
But wait, no.
So back to my point with RebelGold.
So

Sir Gene (50:14):
Well, and, and what you're referring to is the
Confederate flag is actually theVirginia Confederate Navy flag.

Really?

Sir Gene (50:22):
So it's, it is a Virginia National flag

Okay.
Well, well then I went andcovered a protest in Richmond,
Virginia where it was all overtwo A and it was going against
Governor Ralph Northam.
And the people that I had nevermet in my life that, you know,
some of them believe the Southwill rise again.
I was like,

Sir Gene (50:43):
Hell yeah.

you're just like, oh wow, okay.
They, they are real.
You know, and then I, I've metsome people from Tennessee.
One of my old co-hosts orco-anchors was from Tennessee,
and, you know, her son wastalking about all the different
things that happened during theConfederate war.
And he's like, yeah, he's like,you know, the War of Northern
Aggression.
And I was

Sir Gene (51:02):
exactly what it was.

I was like, excuse me, I even had a friend,
a friend from Miami who was ademocrat.
She's like, yeah, the War ofNorthern Aggression.
And I'm like, wait, when wasthat?
She's like, in the 18 hundreds.
I'm like, wait, was there a warthat I didn't?
No, but I'm, I'm like the 18hundreds.
I'm like, is there a war that Ididn't know about?
Did I miss this in school?
And she's like, yeah, like,we're the North fought the

(51:25):
South.
And I'm like, oh, you mean thisCivil War You're just like, oh,
the War of Northern Aggression.
Okay,

Sir Gene (51:34):
Yeah.
Well, this is a good time toplug my other podcast just to
good old boys, where people likeFarn can learn all about the
South Rising again and the Warof Northern Aggression.

That's actually, well, so you'll love this rebel
gold then.
So, cuz I, I love history.
I love a and i I love a goodhistory story, you know, so I
guess it's this group of guysthat basically are like treasure
hunters.
And apparently, or allegedly,when Jefferson Davis fled I

(52:07):
Richmond, which was the capitolof the Confederacy at the time
they went down this one railroadtrack and then they stopped at
certain parts in like SouthCarolina and Georgia to, to get
him over to Texas.
But as he stopped, he learnedthat there was Union armies,
union Army I guess troops afterhim, cuz they had the south had

(52:30):
just surrendered.
and they knew that he was on atrain with like a bunch of like
gold bars and like all this, allthese gold coins and everything.
And along the way he stopped andhe hid like a lot of the money
and stuff.
And so there is like a wholething in Southern Virginia and

(52:51):
North Carolina, South Carolina,that whole train route where
people legit are looking forwhere he might have s you know,
allegedly stopped and, anddiscarded some of the, the goal
that they had.
And that's where I learned theywent to this one plantation
where they had an, I don't knowif it's like an ice house or

(53:12):
what, but it's a placeunderground where they would
build it, you know, and theywould put a bunch of ice in
there with all of like theirmeats and stuff.
And it was to, they would takelike the, the snow basically
from the winter and try to keepit as cold as they could for.
So then during the summer itwould keep stuff preserved.
I mean, it was just learning allof this stuff.
You're just like, oh, peopledidn't do that in Chicago.

(53:34):
Cause it was like cold a lot ofthe time, you know, But they,
they do find like coins andstuff like that.
And you realize like all thesestories from the southern era,
the southern side of, of the warare just super, super
interesting.
Because again, being fromChicago, you know, all we.

(53:54):
was about the UndergroundRailroad, Harriet Tubman, all of
that, because even in Oakbrook,Illinois, it's called GRA Mill,
it was a spot on the stop on theUnderground Railroad.

Sir Gene (54:02):
Mm-hmm.

And so that's, those are the stories that we
heard, not the, how JeffersonDavis like hit his treasure
along a railroad in the south,you know,

Sir Gene (54:14):
Yeah.

So it's, but it's, it's, it's an interesting
series and you learn a lot aboutthe war and what happened and
where he was taken in and by theunion soldiers and whatnot.
So it's, it's, I I love learningthat stuff.

Sir Gene (54:27):
Well, and I, I would totally agree with you.
I think growing up in Minnesota,Dan, I had, I'm sure a very
similar history presented to meat school that, that you did
about the civil war.
But moving to the south andspending more time here and
really like becoming friendswith people whose relatives have

(54:48):
been here for many generations.
And they have tons of stories,family stories about the war in
northern aggression and sort ofthe the carpet baggers coming
down after the war, and reallyhow the south was fucked.
Big time as a result of that.
And.
Is a very different perspectivethan what is sort of standard

(55:11):
accepted school history, whichat this point, I, I have to
imagine given everything elsegoing on in, in the way that
schools are teaching historyit's probably not even anywhere
near what we were taught inschool at this point.
It's probably a lot more fictionthan the actual history that
describes you know, a bunch ofTrump lookalikes deciding to go

(55:36):
and kill all black people.
And then Abraham Lincoln saying,no, you're not gonna kill these
people.
And then he goes and defendseverybody personally.
I mean, that's what I envisionhistory looks like in today's
generations

Well, I have, I even remember thinking about it
when I first learned of like,you know, and everybody loves a
good conspiracy, but one of thethings that I, I really love
studying are basically the bestway to call it a coordinated
United States.

Sir Gene (56:09):
Mm-hmm.

Since the 1960s, the United States has been
involved in over 62 differentcos around the world to either
take over a country, overthrow acountry, and put in a dictator
that we like, or a leader thatwe like.
And a lot of Americans don'tknow that.
When I first got to RT America,and, and mind you, I love my

(56:30):
country.
I have grandfathers that foughtfor this country distant
relatives that fought and diedfor this country.
My, my father's uncle was one ofthe first guys killed at Omaha
Beach.
You know, I love everythingabout this country.
I love the freedoms we used tohave.
You know, everything, everything

Sir Gene (56:49):
That's a good way of putting it.
That's a very good way ofputting it.

I, I, I have to give it homage to him.

Sir Gene (56:54):
Yeah.

Jimmy Dora, his, he's the one that he says that,
he's like, I love this country.
I love the

Sir Gene (56:59):
Jimmy Do is

to have.
Oh,

Sir Gene (57:01):
He is really a funny

that's one of my favorite lines that he says.

Sir Gene (57:04):
yeah.

But when I found out about Gulf of Tonkin for the
first time and hearing, and, andI remember, I, I was home one
weekend and I went and, and you.
as a kid, you know, my mom, likeyou would, there's this, we have
a little third floor area andit's, it was like our study area

(57:26):
and we still have like thebookshelf with all of our books,
our history books and stuff,because, you know, a lot of them
were hand-me-downs, from, youknow, being all at the same
school.
And I remember looking and I waslike, I'm just gonna go into my
history book and see if there'sanything about this.
Not anything about it was fake.

(57:47):
The United States lied about it.
Nothing still there.
A history book from 2001 allabout how the, the, the damn
Viet con, you know?
And that was when I realized, Iwas like, wow.
And then, so again, b b back tomy point, I get to RT America
and I start learning all of thisstuff.

(58:08):
And mind you, I, I had also, Ialso heard about Gulf of Tonkin,
to be fair, from Joe Rogan whenhe talked to, I forget what Ci I
think it was the guy who wroteoh God, what is it called?
Shit, the name is escaping me.
He wrote a book about how tooverthrow ec confessions of an
economic

Sir Gene (58:25):
Oh, yeah.

Yeah.
He had that guy on.
And that's where I first heardof, you know, Gulf of Tonkin and
how the United States, you know,c especially the c I a, was able
to figure out how to, you know,drain countries of medical
supplies or, you know, draintheir economy and all that
other.
so,

Sir Gene (58:41):
Yeah.
It's subversion tactics.
It's basically a way to achieveyour goals through
non-traditional military means.

right.
Yeah.
Basically to bring a country toits sneeze.
And you know, when I first readthe book, because after I saw
that episode, I went and readthe book and I was like, you
know, it makes sense.
Like if these dictators are soevil and you know, this is so
bad, you know, blah, blah, blah,blah.
I was like, you know, that makessense.
You want these people, you know,to be okay.

(59:10):
But then as I get to RT Americaand I start learning about
what's really happening, like inColumbia and Chile and Ukraine
and you know, Russia and allthese, these other countries,
and you're kind of like,especially Iraq, you're like,
you're like, these people didn'tneed any help.
We went in and screwed shit up

Sir Gene (59:27):
absolutely.

you know?
And that's where you startlearning and you're like, and
that was a big place where Ilearned, you know, I, I actually
worked with more people thatwere from south America than
they were actually from Russia,believe it or not.
But you learn very quickly and,and, and people around the
world, they don't hold itagainst Americans of today,
meaning like the younger kids,but people around the world do

(59:54):
not like the United Statesmainly during like the Bush
years the Obama years especiallybecause of all the drone
strikes, I mean, There's a lotof things and a lot of chaos
that we've caused around theworld.
So when they hear an Americansay, we're the greatest country
in the world, they're like,well, yeah, cuz you screwed it
up for everybody else.

(01:00:14):
You know?
And that was, that was a reallytough cold rag in the face.
And that's when I even learned,wow, I really haven't been doing
journalism.
Like, I really haven't beenlooking into this stuff because
I've only been seen one side toall of this.
And it really taught me how tolook at a lot of other

(01:00:37):
publications.
You know, don't just read TheNew York Times and the Wall
Street Journal.
No, no, no, no.
You gotta read The Intercept.
You gotta read the Gray Zone.
You gotta read RT America, yougotta read France 24.
You gotta read dw, you gotta, Imean, basically a lot of those
are international sources,right.

Sir Gene (01:00:53):
Al Jazeera.

Faran Balanced (01:00:54):
Al Jazeera is another big one too.
And you, you realize too, likeafter nine 11, Al Jazeera was
deemed like a terrorist network.
A, terrorist tv.
They used to call it.

Sir Gene (01:01:05):
Oh, just like rt.

Exactly.
You know, over 20 years later.
And you know, that's the onething that a lot of people don't
know.
Who was the first person to callGeorge W.
Bush after nine 11?

Sir Gene (01:01:15):
who

Putin, Putin was the first

Sir Gene (01:01:19):
immediately after it happened.

ame.
After, after it was all over.
He was the first person to callGeorge W.
Bush and say, whatever you needwill come and help.

Sir Gene (01:01:28):
Yeah.
Well, I, I,

at that time, he had just asked Bill Clinton
maybe a year before that if hecould be part of nato.

Sir Gene (01:01:36):
right?

A lot of people don't know that

Sir Gene (01:01:40):
Well, more are finding out thankfully as a result of
what's been going on in Ukraine,because more questions are being
raised.
US is still extremely isolatedwhen it comes to news.
It's,

Yes.

Sir Gene (01:01:52):
really is the propaganda capital of the world
where the people only see whatis being fed to them by the
government.
But, and it's not to say thatgovernment runs these news
media, it's just that it's avery well controlled you know,
messaging that is going out.
And everybody knows that humansare lazy by nature.

(01:02:15):
And so these days, and this ishorrible to me, and I think
people, you know, around my ageis seeing that the majority,
over half the stories in mediastart off with a tweet.
It's like, this is your sourceof information.
Now this is where you're gettingthese stories from, is you,
you're, you saw a tweet.
Nobody's doing actualinvestigative journalists except

(01:02:38):
for very small groups likeProject Veritas used to be.
Whatever their new name's gonnabe I'm sure they'll continue
doing it, but it's, it'scertainly not the free media
that people think it is.

No, it's not.
And that's one of the thingsthat, you know, again, learning
about a lot of this, one of thethings that Americans don't do
that we're not taught, and I saythis as I'm like, you know,
blabbing, on and on and on, butI mean, it is about me, right?
but people don't listen to each.
people talk through each otherand think that they're gonna

(01:03:15):
change your mind, or people justkind of look through you and
just think like, okay, I'm justhaving this conversation, but
I'm not really absorbing whatthe other person's saying
because Americans are now taughtto just be go, go, go, go, go.
You know, I gotta go.
I gotta get to this, I gotta getto that.
You know, even though there arepeople that you know that don't,

(01:03:35):
might not live in New York, wehave that New York mentality of,
I gotta get to this thing.
I gotta go do this for myself.
I gotta go do that.
We are very isolated and we'revery narcissistic, and I hate
when a lot of people throw thatword around, but we truly are.
I talk to my friends who havegrown up in Germany, Italy,

(01:03:56):
Russia what was Yugoslavia?
Venezuela, Columbia, and everyone of them pretty much says the
same thing about their news.
You know, you wanna look at anUnited States newscast, okay?
Has a, as somebody that used tocreate them and anchor them.

(01:04:17):
You start out with your biggeststory of the day.
You go into your other bignational stories or your local
stories, you know, if it leads,it leads.
Then you have your weatherbreak.
Then you have your D Blockstories, which would be like
you.
oh, the cat fashion show andthis, this, this, and then you

(01:04:38):
go to sports and then you endwith, and here's, you know, a
squirrel, water skiing.
Have a great night.
Where in that at all in localnews, do you hear anything about
international stuff?
Unless it's like the war inUkraine, on inter in
international local news, theystart with their national news,

(01:05:03):
then they have entire blocks ofstraight international policy
news and what's going on, andthen they end with the
hyper-local news and then they,you know, end the show and, and

Sir Gene (01:05:18):
this is what built cnn, and again, I'm old enough
to remember when Ted Turnerfirst got CNN to get on the
cable.
And it was, you know, it was apowerhouse because the concept
of a 24 hour news network seemedinsane because, well, there
isn't 24 hours worth the news totalk about because everybody's
just used to watching theirlocal news, which you just very,

(01:05:41):
very correctly.
Was using a formula that hadbeen around for a long time and
it's still being utilized, andnow they're gonna have a network
that is 24.
Well, they're gonna have to justrepeat things on and on.
But what they did very early onwas they started including more
coverage of international news.
And I think that was the firsttime a lot of people, a lot of

(01:06:04):
Americans were exposed.
You know, over half Americansdon't have a passport.

Oh

Sir Gene (01:06:09):
They've never left the country,

Oh yeah.
I believe it.
And see a lot of peopleoverseas, the reason why they
study international, they have awhole block of international
news and policy is because youcan literally drive from Italy
to Germany and then over tolike, maybe like if, if you kind
of cut corners to Poland in oneday, you know, or, or you can

(01:06:33):
fly around, you know, you, youcould, you could visit multiple
countries in Europe in a day andguess what?
It's like you all have to getalong because you're all pretty
much on top of each other over

Sir Gene (01:06:41):
And you've all fought each other for a thousand years.

Which is why Americans don't understand when
I say we're narcissistic,

Sir Gene (01:06:48):
yeah.

when you look at the war in Ukraine.
Okay?
And I used to get a lot of crapfor this when it first happened.
I was like, you know, peoplewere like, yeah, we gotta send
bombs, we gotta send this, wegotta send that.
I was like, you people don'tunderstand that Ukraine has been
under like 17 different rulersfrom the time of its inception,

(01:07:09):
from the time of this earth thathumans were around.
You know, a lot of people don'teven know the history of.

Sir Gene (01:07:15):
Yeah.

I, I did a major deep dive and actually Roger
Stone, or not Roger Stone OliverStone has an amazing documentary
with Igor Lap Lapont, who I'veinterviewed who's amazing,
amazing mind, brilliant mind,Ukrainian himself goes over the
entire history of Ukraine andhow there has been all these
different rulers and how peopledon't understand that there are

(01:07:36):
ethnic Russians in Ukraine, andthen there's Ukrainians, but
most people all speak Ukrainianand Russian, and then all of a
sudden they stopped.
They had it where you couldn'tspeak Russian anymore.
But

Sir Gene (01:07:47):
Well, and then there's no such thing as a Ukrainian
there genetically.
There are no Ukrainians.
It's just Russians.
It's, it's different people withidentical dna.
There's DNA differences betweenpeople in Serbia and Poland.
Right?
They're subtle, but there aregenetic differences.
There are no genetic differenceswhatsoever between Russians and

(01:08:12):
Ukrainians.
And that's because the historyof Russia is intimately tied to
that region which is calledUkraine for a reason, which is
borderlands.

yep.

Sir Gene (01:08:25):
it's, it's a region of Russia that happened to have
been occupied by a lot ofdifferent countries over the.
From Mongos to the Tars to youknow, I, like, I remember as a
kid going to Crimea

Oh wow.

Sir Gene (01:08:41):
see my my family's house down there.
And you know, the history inCrimea was still recent enough,
a reminder of the, the invasionof the Turks.
Like there was, there were a lotof elements of the occupation of
that region by multipledifferent ethnic groups, really,

(01:09:05):
you know, you can call'emcountries, but they're really
different ethnic groups over theyears.
Because it's, it's a greatlocation, and everybody wants to
have good locations be part oftheir empire.
But people that think somehowthat Ukraine is no different
than Poland, meaning it was acountry that got taken over by

(01:09:26):
the Soviet Union, they're, theyhave no concept of this history.
That that part of Russia, and itis a part of Russia has been a
part of Russia other than duringthe occupation for about 700
years.
So the, the history of Ukraineis the history of Russia.

A hundred, a hundred

Sir Gene (01:09:48):
separate'em.

You can't, and, and that's why, you know, when
they go back to, you know, the,the breakup of the Soviet Union.
I mean, you guys, I always saymy friends, Ukraine has been a
country since 1991.
Before that they were Russians,you know, and that's where you

(01:10:10):
just get a lot of Americans thatjust don't know the history of
it.
And I don't blame them because,you know, you think, you think
some high school kid who canbarely pass a, you know, English
class, you know, in some poorneighborhood, is gonna wanna sit
and learn about the history ofthe Ukraine too.
You know, like, I don't, Iwouldn't blame them.
But the point being though is,is yes, you're absolutely right.

(01:10:33):
And there's been a lot ofinfighting, a lot of people
don't know that, you know, theysay, oh, Ukraine, the Ukraine's,
the Ukrainians sided with theNazis during World War ii.
Well, some of the, yeah, butthey were considered Russians.
Then there were some Russiandefectors that went with the
Nazis, you know, and then that'swhere I will

Sir Gene (01:10:52):
Bun Bandera was the, the big

Stefan Bond.

Sir Gene (01:10:55):
unifying force that was pro-Nazi.
He was a Ukrainian regionalnationalist, and he, he very
much advocated utilizing theGerman invasion to.
The Russians and the Poles outof that area.
Because he was, you know, he, hewas, I guess the best way to put

(01:11:19):
it is if you think of likeFlorida having a certain
personality or Georgia, or pickwhatever state you want.
Could be Maine.

Think of Florida having a personality.
Okay.

Sir Gene (01:11:29):
Hardy.
Hard.
But my my point being is like,there, there are states within
the United States in thisanalogy that have certain
attributes, certaincharacteristics, and let's pick
Texas, cuz I live here, right?
So people can say Texas, ifTexas has certain percentage of
people that want Texasindependence back, and I, I

(01:11:50):
think that'd be super cool.
I don't think it's gonna happen,but I'm not opposed to it.
But there are people that arereally gung-ho for the
independence of Texas and ifthey manage to pull it off
because the United Statesdefaults on its debts and China
effectively owns large chunks ofthe United States.
They can't hold the governmenttogether.
I'm writing fiction now, right?

(01:12:12):
I'm not predicting the future.
I'm just like free, free formingideas of a fiction novel.
You could see different regionsbreak off the United States and
say, well screw you.
We're gonna do our own thing cuzwe actually know how to, you
know, run a state.
And now we're just gonna becomeour own little country.
Well if that happens, You gottaimagine that not everybody on

(01:12:34):
the first day in Texas is goingto agree with that decision for
independence.
Not everybody in Texas is fromTexas and has families that have
lived there for, you know,dozens of generations.
So there's, there has to be alot of people that become
separated from their familiesand, and their histories if they

(01:12:58):
happen to find themselves in anarea that is now no longer part
of the United States.
So, kind of take that analogywith what happened with the fall
of the Soviet Union, where theytook what were effectively
Russian states.
They were regions within Russia,the Empire, the Russian Empire.
They were regions within theRussian Empire.

(01:13:19):
When the communists took over,they kept those regions.
And in a, in a move of franklybrilliance Lennon wanted to
ensure that these differentregions didn't turn into into
regional nationalisticuprisings.
So the idea of communism was,let's convert the whole country

(01:13:41):
to communism instead of breakingthe country up and having each
little area kind of become theirown little communist country.
Cuz the communists didn't wantto lose.
And so they created their, therepresentative system that
became the Duma in Russia, whichwhich has representation and

(01:14:04):
somewhat local control in eachof these regions, and thereby
keeping the, the whole countryof what was the Russian Empire
as the Soviet Union.
But, but those moves werepolitically motivated.
And so when the breakup happenedfinally in 91, the, there was a,

(01:14:25):
a move for giving fullautonomous control and
effectively areas that had beenregions for hundreds of years,
all of a sudden becameindependent nations.
And that was very welcomed bysome people, but also it gave
rise to a lot of nationalism andthe growth of nationalism in

(01:14:46):
Ukraine with the Banderamovement.
The what do they call the rightpatrol?
Wright Guard?
I can't right guard.
Yeah, that'd be a great name fora group.
Wright

Yeah, exactly.
You'll never smell when you

Sir Gene (01:14:57):
yeah, yeah.
But essentially Banderainfluenced strong, nationalistic
friendly towards Nazi GermanyWorld War II types that started
really growing substantially in.
A lot more so than they did inother regions that were also
previously part of the SovietUnion.

Mm-hmm.
And it's just, that issomething, that is another
example that is not taught inour history books here.
You know, like we're taught thatGerman's bad.
Russians, Russians bad uk, KFrance, weak you know, Germany

(01:15:39):
evil, Japan evil US ultimate

Sir Gene (01:15:43):
Evil.
I mean, everybody's basicallybad.
It's

But.

Sir Gene (01:15:46):
US is

Yeah.
Us

Sir Gene (01:15:48):
English speaking countries are okay.

Yeah, us ultimate hero, you know?
Whereas you find out that theUnited States kind of came in at
the last minute and they alsowouldn't have been able to win
had it not been for theRussians,

Sir Gene (01:16:04):
Oh, absolutely.
And, and I think there's anargument be made that the
Russians would've won withoutthe United States.
Now, I don't think it would'vebeen nearly as quick for sure.
But ultimately Germany just didnot have the manpower in the
end.
And the Russia was able tocreate supply lines and
manufacturing to the point wherethey were making, you know, a

(01:16:26):
tank every few hours coming offthe assembly lines in Siberia
with the German tanks were muchbetter.
No doubt.
But they took much longer tomake because those BMW and
Mercedes factories just couldnot crank'em out as fast.

Yeah.
And you never hear about likehow IBM helped, you know, make
the list for those going intothe gas

Sir Gene (01:16:48):
Oh, you hear that on my podcast, but yes,

you know, but like, yeah, it's, it's like,
that's why I say I love like theuntold history of things, of how

Sir Gene (01:16:58):
Well, between Walt Disney and Ford and, you know, a
lot of the big, and let's justuse the modern terminology, big
oligarchs in the United Stateswere very much pro Germany and
pro Hitler.
And it was I, I don't, this iswhy I, I love the man in the oh
shit.
I'm, now I'm blanking, man.

(01:17:19):
The high tower.

Oh yeah, the, the show where it's if the Nazis
won.

Sir Gene (01:17:22):
yeah, yeah.
So it's, it's, it's a it was abook and then they made the show
about it.
But it's a, an alternate sort ofvery slightly sci-fi ish history
of the world.
The went in a differentdirection to where it was.
In fact, the Germans thatcreated the first atomic bomb,

(01:17:42):
and that ended World War II withthe surrender of United States.
And so the, the Eastern UnitedStates, Became a German
controlled territory.
And then west of the Rockies wasa Japanese controlled territory.

Oh.

Sir Gene (01:18:00):
So the, the access powers effectively one World War
II took over all of the regionsin Asia and Europe and then in
the United States was carved outin, in the, it wasn't even half,
it was like two thirds, onethird, but basically in half.
And the, the movie I really, orthe TV series, I thought was
very good up until the lastseason where it kind of deviated

(01:18:20):
from the book quite a bit.

Mm-hmm.
Always when it goes bad.

Sir Gene (01:18:23):
I know it's like they just, they cannot stand not
doing one more season.
That's the trouble with allthese just completely skipping
topics here.
But that's the biggest problem Ithink with most TV shows.
When they do good, when theycreate a very good TV show,
their drive for more profit willnot let them stop it.

(01:18:44):
At a good point.
They have to make that lastseason, which always is the
weakest.

Mm-hmm.
and just ruins it.
And it's like you couldn't, youcouldn't just make merch or
something.

Sir Gene (01:18:53):
it's un it's unfortunate, but, you know, this
is this has been par for thecourse on everything and I think
the biggest example of recentlythat we've had of this is Game
of Thrones, which was heraldedas one of the best TV shows ever
made up until the last twoseasons where it completely blew

Mm-hmm.
Yeah.

Sir Gene (01:19:14):
but Yeah.
So anyway, you getting back to,I, and I've kind of talked more
than I try to on these

No, no, no.
Cuz it's, I I, I love that WorldWar II stuff, because I'll even
tell you another cruel storythat I

Sir Gene (01:19:24):
mm-hmm.

out was my great-grandfather was in what
would be considered the RussianSecret Service for Zara Nicholas
and Zara Nicholas.
My, my grandfather was born inSt.
Petersburg.
And then I had another,

Sir Gene (01:19:39):
that's where I'm from.

another great-grandfather who was born
in Munich.
So I'm like kind of Belarusiantoo, but again, it's all the
same.
And he was one of hisNicholas's, you know, top body
guards used to chop wood withhim all the time.
And then there was the wholespiel where they were getting
ready for him to escape.

(01:20:01):
My great-grandfather was sittingthere waiting for him in St.
Petersburg to arrive, never didgot word, and immediately fled
for the United States.
And that's kind of how theRussian side of my family was,
you know, started.
Yeah.
And

Sir Gene (01:20:16):
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.

but you know, it's, it's those stories that
you hear about where here, youknow, as a kid, like you always
heard Anastasia, cuz they didthe little, you know, the, the
Dreamworks production, you know,of Anastasia.
But you don't, you find outthough, especially like with the
Crown, And maybe they don't tellus as kids because they don't
think that we'll understand it.
And also, I don't think they'regonna tell a bunch of kids now,

(01:20:40):
you know, kids, his cousin, kingGeorge could have saved him, but
then just let him to anexecution.
And that's where we get thewonderful cartoon of Anastasia.
Like, they're not gonna saythat.
But again, just all thesestories in time, you're just
like, what?
And then this was my father'sgrandfather, the one that was in
the Secret Service

Sir Gene (01:21:01):
Mm-hmm.

My father was about three years old and he
said three or four, I think hesaid.
And he was in a little red riderwagon.
His grandfather was pulling himand he tripped on the sidewalk.
This is now in Chicago, trippedon the sidewalk and hit his
head.
And my father, who is grew up tobe a neurosurgeon now knows it

(01:21:23):
was a, basically a subduralhematoma.

Sir Gene (01:21:26):
Mm.

my great-grandfather started
losing, you know, startedbecoming paralyzed and losing
feelings in certain places.
And my grand, my dad said, youknow, that you know, cause I
think my dad might have beenlike maybe six or seven, maybe,
cuz he's like, I remembercertain things, you know, as far
as the story and I'll, you'llunderstand why.
And he said that his grandmotherstarted, you know, having to
take care of him more.

(01:21:48):
And he started losing more andmore feeling and becoming
slowly.
and he said he rememberedleaving.
Cuz in Chicago, you know, theimmigrant families, you'd have
like, his, his parents lived onthe, the main floor.
The grandparents lived abovehim, and then his aunt and uncle
lived below him.

(01:22:08):
You know, that's how theimmigrants did it.
You know, like these three storyhouses like these rowhouses kind
of a thing.
And he's like, I remember goingout the back and going up the
stairs to go see grandpa, and itwas my Uncle Ed.
And he said, you can't goupstairs right now.
And he's like, oh, but I wannasee grandpa.
And he's like, you can't seegrandpa right now.
You gotta go back downstairs.

(01:22:30):
And it's like that Russianmentality that if they feel like
they're a burden, they offthemselves.

Sir Gene (01:22:38):
Mm-hmm.

And my grandpa, my great-grandfather committed
suicide,

Sir Gene (01:22:42):
Wow.

and I believe he hung himself.
And that's one of those storieswhere you, you hear about those
generations, you know, andyou're just like, wow.
You know, like these peoplethat, it's like, you, you see
China and how they all celebratetheir birthday on the same day,
you know?
Or like how everything is forthe greater good.
Like, that's how Americans andeven immigrants used to be.

(01:23:07):
Now it's like, well if it ain'tgood for me, I ain't doing it.
You know, like, there's, therewas this sense of, you know, the
family I'm not gonna, you know,do that to all these people.
You know, like it was this, thisselfless.
you're not saying that yougotta, if you're a burden, you
gotta go off yourself.
But what I'm saying is, is youknow, you and, and plus he was

(01:23:27):
also very old, but you just seethere was that sense of
selflessness that we used tohave.
And it always reminds me of theoh God, what's the guy's name in
the second guy in Dumb andDumber Jeff Daniels, when he is
in the, the beginning, everybodyalways talks about, you know,
the beginning scene in newsroom.
Have you seen that show

Sir Gene (01:23:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.

where he, he's at the college and they're like,
why is America the greatestcountry in the world?
And they keep pressing him andhe is like, all right, fine.
America's not the greatestcountry in the world or like
last in education.
We're last in healthcare, we'relast in this, we're last in
that.
And he is like, but we used tobe, you know, funny story, true
story.
When I was at RT America mymentor Rick Sanchez, who used to

(01:24:09):
be on cnn when newsroom was justcoming out I believe is Taylor
Sorkin is No, oh, Aaron Sorkinis with the creator.
Yes.
He followed, he the least, thisis from Rick.
He told me that he followed himaround for a week and loved Rick
so much that he kind of basedthe Jeff Daniels character off

(01:24:29):
of Rick Sanchez at c n n when hewas there after watching the
newsroom again.
I totally see it.
I'm like, he totally.

Sir Gene (01:24:37):
Mm-hmm.

because Rick was that kind of news anchor at RT
America that now I knew he's aCuban immigrant.
That was the type that would saylike, no, we're not the best.
Like, look at this country.
Look at that country.
Look at how, look at how somesocialist countries have much
better healthcare thancapitalized healthcare here.
Like, look at some of thesecountries.
Look at some of that, thosecountries.

(01:24:58):
And just by saying that, I getpeople, oh, so you're a
socialist.
It's like, no, but why does ourhealthcare system suck?
Like, why aren't we fixing that?

Sir Gene (01:25:08):
Yeah.

You know?

Sir Gene (01:25:09):
And I, I think, I think that it's literally
impossible to make thisstatement the greatest about any
country or even any person.
I think there are aspects toevery country that are better
than others, aspects that areworse than others.
I think the US is absolutely hadup until now anyway, had the

(01:25:30):
best secret service in theworld.
We've been managed to, like youmentioned, to instigate you
know, revolutions if you want tobe nice about it or overthrows
in 68 different countries.
We've done a great job ofensuring that the that all these
countries are in line with theinterest of the United States,

(01:25:52):
which leads to the prosperity ofthe United States.
The United States absolutelyfigured out how to cash in on
World War II with a long-termbenefit and not just a
short-term one.
And I think in a lot of ways,the sort of what people are
referred to as the deep state inthe United States, and you don't
have to like the deep state toagree and acknowledge that no

(01:26:16):
other empire has managed to pullthis off in a way that the
United States has.
The, the British Empire was agood one, but their method of
operation was very different.
It was effectively, we leave youguys alone and we just give you
taxes to pay.
But for the most part you know,you, you now have the protection

(01:26:37):
of the British Empire.
You know, it was not a acomplete optimization of the
other country for the solebenefit of England.
There were aspects of that, butthat they were a lot more
interested in territory andaccess to more natural resources

(01:26:59):
than they were in actualdeliberate control of the
population.
And I think the United Stateskind of took that model and
expanded it to say, well, we cando both.
We can get the raw materials,but if we can also control that
population to not resist whatthey clearly see as their, their

(01:27:20):
resources being stolen fromthat.
So the United States has beenvery effective in that.
You can say that's not a goodthing.
I don't, I wouldn't necessarilysay that it is a good thing, but
it is effective.

Yeah, absolutely.
And you see that in, they'realso very effective at telling
the people in their own countrythat it, it, it's gonna be
effective for that country too.
You know, like, for example,like, you know, oh yeah, we're
gonna, you know what, there'sthis thing called NAFTA

Sir Gene (01:27:50):
Mm-hmm.

and it's the North Atlantic Free trade.

Sir Gene (01:27:54):
Yep.

you know, this is gonna be great because we're
gonna be helping out people inMexico and Canada, and it's
gonna be great.
Your businesses are gonna boomand yada, yada yada.
Your, your towns are gonna getbigger.
There's gonna be so many jobs,and you're able gonna, you're
gonna be able to tradeeverything over the border of
Canada and Mexico.
It's gonna be great.

(01:28:15):
And then it's like two weekslater, four GM Chrysler.
See you later going to Mexico.
And you're like, wait a minute.
Hang on a second.
You know?
And th this country is so goodat, at telling, you know, it's
people and, and they, we justblindly believe.
But I, that's where I thinkwe're at a, at a, at a turning
point in this country, is thatwith the internet, with, with

(01:28:39):
more and more call them citizenjournalists, independent
journalists, whatever you wannacall them out there that are,
that are growing in numberspeople don't take you for your
word anymore.
And, and politicians have tolearn how to be a little bit
more skillful in what they tellyou.
And people have learned how toask tougher questions and demand

(01:29:05):
the answers.
You know, like the one thingthat I always talk about with my
audience is what irks me to thebone is the amount that these
folks and Congress and, and the.
how much they make and how oftenthey have time off.
Okay?
I did a whole fair and balancedreport on this when I was at RT

(01:29:26):
America where these folks get170 to$175,000 a year.
Speaker of the house gets$225,000 a year.
And that's just your base, okay?
That's like in, in sales.
That's your base.
We're not talking about yourlobbying money or all your donor

(01:29:48):
money and all that other stuff.
That's, that's a wholedifferent, you know, file
folder.
But these folks get every singlefederal holiday off, which they
don't just get the federalholiday off.
They get the week of thatfederal holiday off.
They get a spring break.
They get the entire month ofAugust off and they get the
entire month of the Democraticand the national I'm sorry, the

(01:30:11):
Democratic and the RepublicanNational Conventions off, which
is why you always see them intwo different months before the
election.
Notice one is like at the end ofSeptember and the other one's
early October.
Like it's so they all can get amonth off cuz both sides get a
month off.

Sir Gene (01:30:28):
Yep.

They basically work, the house works 135 days a
year.
The Senate works 165 days ayear, roughly est on average.
And what irks.
is the amount that they do notwork and the amount that they
get if I am on Capitol Hill.

(01:30:50):
And you know, you always see it,these reporters where they'll
be, they, they see them walkinginto the house or the Senate and
they're like, Hey, you know, canyou answer this, this, this, you
know, like, you know, like a A OC or a bunch of them and they
just keep walking, don't evenstop to answer.
And I look at that and I'm like,you know, you really have to
give it to them.

(01:31:11):
They think they don't have tostop and answer a question.
And that's where, you know, Ilove guys like Alex Stein, and
this is why, like, I, I first,when I first saw him come on the
radar from Tucker Carlson and Isaw him where he was talking
about, you know, do it for theUkraine, put a bullet in Putin's

(01:31:32):
brain, you know, like where hewas doing that.
And then when I saw him goingmore and more to city councils,
there's one where he goes to, Ibelieve it's McKinney, Texas.

Sir Gene (01:31:44):
Yep.

And he's like, yeah, I just wanted to know Mr.
Why is it that you won't answerany of the questions about, you
know, the finances?
Because I have a thing herewhere you were a Dallas City
Council member and you wereembezzling money and they just,
they try to shut him up.
And he goes, no, no, no, no, no.
And he goes, you know, see, youwork for me bucko.
He's like, I'm gonna go afterall of you.

(01:32:05):
He goes, Karen, you don't knowwhat the hell you're doing,
Brian, with your, with yourweirdo tie.
And he just goes after all ofthem.
And I, I've talked to him about

Sir Gene (01:32:15):
Mm-hmm.

I'm like, the reason that I would show your
videos in my newscasts when Iwas at RT America was because I
wanted people to see, look, youcan go up to your city council
members, get in their face andsay, you work for me.
What are you doing?
There came this.
And, and I don't think it'sthat, that it's, it's a passive
thing where people don't want tohold these people accountable.

(01:32:40):
It's just people don't havetime.
People are working more hoursfor less money.
People by the time, you know,both parents.
Now, if you want your kids to goto good schools, both parents
are gonna have to work.
Do you wanna have a nice house?
Yeah.
You, you know, it's, it's, it'sbasically, you know, designed so
that, you know, like when peoplesay, oh, they're, they're, you

(01:33:02):
know, like, you know, I will sayMarjorie Taylor Greene does
answer questions, but when I seeher being like America, who
here, they, they are bringingsocialism in this country.
And I'm like, bitch, it'salready.
it's already here.
Again, both parents working.
You know, you wanna see, youwanna know why kids, like you
see all these videos of thesekids where they're acting out in

(01:33:22):
school.
Like, I saw this video yesterdayof this kid yelling at his
Chinese teacher being like, oh,Mr.
Chung, Mr.
Chung.
And he's like, yeah, get out ofmy fucking face.
And he's yelling this in histeacher's face.
You wanna know why these kidsare like this cuz there's no
parent at home.
They're working, you know, and,and they're working.
So this little asshole can go toa good school.

(01:33:45):
Mind you, there's no disciplinehappening because.

Sir Gene (01:33:47):
yeah.
It's not just that they'reworking and it's also parents
suck right now.
They, they don't like, we're ata point where now the people
that are parents were not taughtby their parents how to actually
raise children, because that wasa whole generation of Dr.
Spock Never touch a kid.
You can't spank'em, you can'tmake'em feel bad.

(01:34:10):
You gotta understand whatthey're trying to say and all
this bullshit that is justcreated within the last 50
years.
And we're now in a secondgeneration of kids going through
it.
So it's, it's absolutely nosurprise whatsoever to me.
And this is why we have thingslike the I'm sure you saw the,
the commercial comparisonbetween the commercial for the

(01:34:33):
US military that starts off witha woman talking about her two
moms and how she learned theimportance of protesting.
And now she's going into themilitary you know, with that
kind of upbringing in mind.
And then compared to the Russianad, which is do you, you know,

(01:34:54):
do you, do you like to kick assand kill wolf with your bare
hands and then eat it raw?
Well, maybe you should come andjoin the military.
It's like

and, and, and you know, that's the one thing
that when a Russian has a gun toyour head, they're gonna ask
you, how many times did youprotest last year?
Like, what, you know, like,gimme a break.

Sir Gene (01:35:16):
It, it is it really is a decline of America and there
are, there's a few of us thatare seeing it and recognizing it
for what it is, the fall of theAmerican Empire.
And there's a very much, amajority of people that are
just, maybe they dislike some ofthe things that are happening.
They dislike some of the the,the balkanization that's

(01:35:38):
happening.
But for the most part, theydon't really see this as a major
shift.
It's just like, oh, it'll getback to normal.
I, I don't think it will becauseI, I've studied enough American
history as well as histories ofother countries to see where we
are today in America and wherewe are is heading in a

(01:36:00):
direction.
Where the glory Days of Americaare behind us and what we have
to look forward to isunpredictable at best, and
dystopian at worst.

You know, I, I my God, God bless his soul.
My little old Irish grandpa,grandpa Tom, you know, he was
this, this guy Irish.
said the rosary every day.
Went to church every Sunday.
You know, was a virgin when hegot married.
And I think he was 21 when hegot married.

(01:36:35):
Worked at the docks at Proctorand Gamble his entire life.
Had four kids, my mom being oneof them, you know, had a car,
had a great house.
My grandma Joan, who was thisfiery cracker, an Italian woman,
if you ever wanna know where Iget it, it started with her then
my mother than me.
But, you know, here, I, I alwaysused to kind of, I, I sometimes

(01:36:57):
like look at what America is nowand I think, what would Grandpa
Tom say, because he died in 2016right after Trump won.
And he was, he was all forTrump.
He was a, he was a Reagandemocrat.
And that's where like whenever Italk to Roger Stone, I'm always

(01:37:17):
like, it was your thinking cuzhe, Roger Stone identified the
Reagan Democrat.
If you've ever watched get meRoger Stone.
It's amazing.
But I always say you're the onethat turned my family
Republican.
I tend to lie all over the boardbecause I, I don't no party is
for me.
But

Sir Gene (01:37:35):
Yeah, they all want to kick you out.

exactly.
But like I was even thinking theother day, it's so funny you say
that the, you know, the wholethis great American country and
I was watching this thing aboutthis teacher being like, you
know, I let my kids pick theirgender and, you know, that
those, these, you know, libs ofTikTok where they show those and
I was like, I wonder whatGrandpa Tom would say with all
of this.
And he was a very funny guy.

(01:37:57):
You know, that old Irish humorand you know, from the greatest
generation and I even remember,you know, and then this guy,
like never swore, never drank,you know, literally just pure

Sir Gene (01:38:09):
Hold on, hold on.
Now I know you're lying.
In the Irishman who never drank.

You know what's funny is his father actually, so
the Irish, when they make theirconfirmation, they have to make
a vow and his father's vow wasto never have a drink.
And he never did.
My grandpa's, I don't know whathis was, I think that kind of
ended Ron when he was a kid, buthe didn't drink a lot.
He'd have like a beer or two,but he wasn't a big drinker.
Cuz you know why he saw a lot ofthe Irish drink a lot.

(01:38:33):
He just wasn't like that.
Plus he was always working, youknow?
But yeah, like I, I was like, ohmy God, what would I, well, what
would grandpa say if, you know,I came home and I told him that
I feel like I'm in the body of aman, you know?
Or like if my brother told him,Hey grandpa, I think I'm gonna
be a girl now, you know, and,and he would make the funniest

(01:38:54):
faces and I'd just, he'd belike, what?
you know what, what do you mean?
You know, like just this, thisidea and how, you know, and, and
I see I don't have kids rightnow, but you know, I was just
talking to my girlfriend theother night about this cuz she's
got three kids in high schoolout in New York and she's like,

(01:39:14):
Faren, she's like, our, ourwe're done.
She's like, this country's done.
Cuz her and I talk about thedemise of, of America too.
And she's like, and she's like,and one way they're doing it is
through porn.
And I'm like, you're gonna haveto explain this.
And she's like, Faron, do youknow the average age that a kid
sees porn for the first time nowis, and I was like, no.

(01:39:35):
And she's like nine years old

Sir Gene (01:39:37):
Wow.

and there's a great doc.
Here's another documentary.
Cuz she was like, you gottawatch this documentary
immediately did.
It's called Generation Porn, Ibelieve it's on H B O and
Twitter is like the number oneplace for porn.
Twitter has zero checks when itsays, are you 18 and older when
you sign up for an account?
You know, so they show where a13 year old boy can sign up and

(01:40:02):
he can immediately go to likePornHub on Twitter or any, any
one of those kind of pornwebsites and just start
watching.
And she's like, Farin.
She goes, they're our girls nowthat you know, and I don't know
how graphic or real you wannaget.
She's like, but she's likeferret.
When you learned about.
you know, she's like, what didyou learn about it first?
And I was like eighth grade.

(01:40:23):
It was always the big talk.
She goes, yeah, these kidsalready know about it.
Well before they get there, shegoes, and by high school they're
talking about how they wanna doanal.
And I'm just like, and she'slike, my kids told me, told me
what a t m is and, and how, ohmom, that's not the money shot.
And I'm just like, oh my God.

(01:40:44):
And that is one of the thingsthat you do see, like where the
fall of empires where like thesocial standards and stuff like
that start getting thrown outthe window.
This whole gender talk and, youknow, every, it's been going
around on the internet, youknow, cuz you know, Putin is so
bad.
Yet this latest speech he did,he's like, look at what they're

(01:41:05):
doing over in the West.
Boys are girls, girls are boys,you know, no family values.
No, no.
You know, I, I don't think hesaid Christian, but I think he
said no religion, you know, andit's, it's, it's so true.
So true.

Sir Gene (01:41:22):
Yeah.
No, there, there's a lot of Ithink assumptions being made by
Americans about why people thatare, are referred to as being
bad or evil in America are thatway.
Like a lot of people talk about,you know, how bad China is and
all these bad things in China.
And there again and I've hadthis conversation with a number

(01:41:44):
of, of people on, on my podcastand others, is that I, I
challenge anybody that has anegative view of China to prove
to me that they actually knowanything about Chinese history
because they don't.
No American has bothered takingthe time to research the 8,000
years of history in China thatallows you to understand the

(01:42:09):
character of China, which allowsyou to understand how China got
to be where they are right now.
People's take on China is basedon a five minutes of news over
the years.
That's all it is, because peopledon't care.
They're like, oh yeah, Chinesefood, you know, what we call
Chinese food in America isactually American food cooked in
by Chinese people originally,but created for an American

(01:42:32):
audience.
We don't have real Chinese foodhere.
And I know maybe I'm nitpickingon one certain aspect of it, but
I'm just using it to illustratepoint, which is that the
American perspective isextremely.
Internal.
It is based around Americanideas and about other things

(01:42:52):
outside of America without anyactual study or research of the
things that are outside ofAmerica.
And I, I think that's very sad.
Like I was, I've neverunderstood why more people don't
want to be multilingual in thiscountry.
Why so many people just thinkit's fine just speaking English
and nothing else,

Yeah.
And I, I love the people, likewhen you go overseas, where
they, they think like they,they, they will start speaking
English at somebody and they'lllook at them like, probably
like, I don't speak English.
And then they, like, they'rejust, they say it louder and
slower.
Like, like, you know, do youunderstand?
And you're like, yeah, honey,they, they don't speak English.

(01:43:33):
Like just, just going as slowerand louder makes them feel like
you're an idiot or actuallymakes them think you're an
idiot.

Sir Gene (01:43:39):
reality is most people in the rest of the world do
speak English, even in

multiple

Sir Gene (01:43:45):
Right.
Multiple.
Exactly.
Exactly.
But even in African countriesand stuff where you, you would
not expect it as much, the oddsof finding out somebody who
speaks English are, are much,much higher because you know,
most countries education systemsknow that if you wanna live in a
global world, you're gonna haveto interface with people in a

(01:44:08):
common language.
For better or worse, UnitedStates has been the dominant
country of the world for thelast 40, 50 years.
And they speak English and theydon't speak anything else.
And therefore, if you're gonnapick another language anywhere
else in the world to learnEnglish makes the most
reasonable sense to learn first,and then you learn the other

(01:44:31):
languages.

Yeah.
It used to be Spanish.
I started when I was inkindergarten

Sir Gene (01:44:34):
yep.

and was fluent by the time I was in eighth
grade.
Now, like growing up, like my,my then it, like my brother's
five years younger than me, heminored in Mandarin.

Sir Gene (01:44:45):
Yeah.
And I think that's great.
And I, this is one thing I'vealways thought was very smart of
Ivanka is to teach or not, well,she's not the one teaching'em,
but to ensure that their kidslearn Chinese from the get go,

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene (01:45:00):
That it's a, that's gonna be an important language
to be fluent in for a lot ofreasons.
And she was getting a lot ofshit for that from people.
I was like, why the hell she amin their kids learning?
You know, that communist Chineselanguage.

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene (01:45:13):
It's just, it's, it's seems so crazy because even if
you look at China as an enemy,and there are plenty of reasons
to do that, don't get me wrong.
But even if you do that, is itnot better to understand your.

That is a point that I have tried to make to
people so many times in, in thesense of where I say like, do
you understand like the Russianmentality?
Do you understand how they feelpressured because NATO keeps
growing.
Do you understand how, you knowother countries like China
feels?

(01:45:50):
Do you understand why India nowis starting to side with Russia
and China?
Do you understand why SaudiArabia, Arabia really doesn't
care about us not having oilanymore?
Because they're looking at Chinabeing like, goldmine.
Like,

Sir Gene (01:46:04):
Yep.

do, do you guys not understand that?
And they're like, no, they'rejust all bad.
If they're, if they're not withus, they're against us.
And it's like, and don't youwanna know why?
Like, but.
It's cuz I think it's justpeople don't have time or it's
too much or they just don'twanna hear the other side.
I think that's, like I said,like it's, it's a combo of a
lot.

(01:46:25):
But I think a lot of it thoughtoo is that people don't wanna
hear that they're not liked,we're not liked around the world
by a lot of people, you know,

Sir Gene (01:46:35):
And their response is usually, well, they're just
jealous.

Right.
Okay.
That's like, that's like, that'slike, I'm not a bitch.
Everybody's just jealous of me.
Okay.
Everybody.
Everybody just hates me cuz I'mso pretty.
Okay.

Sir Gene (01:46:49):
Exactly.
And much like the using yournatural gifts, That were given
to you by genetics and notanything that you actually
accomplished.
This is the problem with relyingtoo much on beauty, which is
America's been relying too much,I think, on having a really been

(01:47:09):
the only major economy undamagedin the World War ii.
And that provided a, a hugeboost forward for America.
And now, if we get into a littlemore of a conspiratorial
thought, some people would saymaybe I, I'm not necessarily one
of these people, but some peoplewould say that the destruction

(01:47:33):
of Nord Stream and really thepush for Europe getting on board
with all the sanctions thatultimately do more harm to
Europe than they do to Russia,is actually a strategically
calculated move by the UnitedStates to prevent the growth of
Germany and to some extent theeu, but mostly Germany by

(01:47:58):
crippling it with this wholeUkraine narrative, because
Germany was getting too big forits britches.
What, what do you think aboutthat?

I mean, I think that anytime the United States
sees a country starting to dowell, it's a problem.
You know, like for example, youlook at Africa, right?
You had Mo Omar gfi.
How was it that he came in likea freaking baller, gangster,

Sir Gene (01:48:27):
Mm-hmm.

started getting everything back in, in shape.
All of a sudden other countries,Egypt, everybody else, they're
all doing really, really well.
And then all of a sudden he'slike, you know, why don't we all
get together and create one formof currency for Africa called
the Golden?

Sir Gene (01:48:47):
Mm-hmm.

and everyone's like, great idea, great idea.
We can, we can compete with thedollar and we can compete with
yon and all this.
All of a sudden, dudes draggedthrough the streets, sodomized
with the sword.
See you later.
No good.
No goldar anymore.
What was, what was it thatHillary Clinton said?
We

Sir Gene (01:49:07):
came,

we saw he died.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
it's

Sir Gene (01:49:13):
And then she cackled.

Yeah.
I say, ha ha ha.
Which is so Satanic heard herlaugh, man.
But you know, I just, I look atit and it's just like, you know,
I, I understand, I understandkeeping other countries, or let
me, let me backtrack.
I understand the entire piecethrough strength mentality that,

(01:49:37):
you know, Reagan, you know,boldly coined.
However, you know, I was, I was,I I was immediately thinking
when you said, you know, wehaven't had, you know, a total
economic collapse since 1942.
Right.
If you said that to any otherAmerican, you know, cuz I, I

(01:49:59):
know that that's not true,right?
I, I know my history, not all ofit, but I know a good amount of
it.
if you said that to anyAmerican, they'd say, oh yeah,
we have, we had a recessionunder Clinton.
We had a recession under Obama.
We had a recession here.
And it's like, yeah, but didyour country's economic funds
completely collapse?

(01:50:20):
Like, Columbia or Nigeria or, orlike, did you, like, did we lose
our banks?
Did we just all of a sudden have$0?
Like no, we didn't have acollapse and, and our

Sir Gene (01:50:35):
Chile or Nicaragua

Yeah.
Like,

Sir Gene (01:50:38):
any, any number of Latin American countries where
the United States had alteredthe government for the better.
The United States.

right.
And it's like you, you woke upwith money in your bank account
still, and just things were moreexpensive.
That's not an economic collapse,you know, and that's, again,
another ignorant American thingwe do.
It's our, our worst days wethink are, are like we, we don't
understand that those areactually days that countries
would like kill for, you know,eggs are$6.

(01:51:09):
Tell that to you know, Zimbabweor you know, Bambi or something.
Like tell that to a countryright now, you know, Ethiopia
right now who's literallyundergoing a civil war and we
are helping fund the rebels,

Sir Gene (01:51:23):
Yeah.
Or Sudan.

right?
And the people don't hear abouthow we're sending troops to
Africa.
and people are like, yeah, youknow, my, my one friend.
She's like, yeah, my son's,he's, they're going to Africa.
And I'm like, where in Africa?
She's like, Ethiopia.
And I'm like, oh, okay, here wego.
You know, people don't hearabout that because it doesn't,

(01:51:46):
it doesn't register because youknow, you have to talk to
people, you know?
It truly is that idea of ifyou're, if you're the smartest
person in the room, you're inthe wrong room,

Sir Gene (01:51:56):
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
I've, I've always thought that.

And, and you, I, I really have always tried to
live by that.
I mean, if I, I, I love knowingeverything or trying to know
everything, but I don't wanna bethe one in the room that, that,
that knows it all.
You know?
And trust me, I remember my, mysiblings growing up a yet Oh,
Farn.
And know it all farn and know itall.
And I'm like, no, I just, I tryto learn as much as I can

(01:52:20):
because the more you know, themore you're able to see shit.
And that's how it's gone throughwith journalism, you know, is
the more that I have done deepdives, watch documentaries.
And mind you, people will say,oh, well, if you'd watch a
documentary that's only oneside, of course, which is why,
then I go to find and researchto see what the other side is.

Sir Gene (01:52:39):
Yeah.

You know, everybody

Sir Gene (01:52:42):
The, the solution to avoiding one side isn't to watch
nothing or read nothing.
That's not the solution.

Exactly.
Exactly.
And you know, my, my secondfavorite band of all time,
number one is Queen.
The Beatles actually are, arenumber three.
But my second favorite band isExtreme.
Very underrated band.
I'm a big music person.
I play

Sir Gene (01:53:05):
what do they do?
I can't even think of whatthey've done.

More Than Words,

Sir Gene (01:53:09):
Hmm.

than words.
You know, that song Say I LoveYou more

Sir Gene (01:53:18):
I probably heard it.
I just can't picture them.

They're a very, very underrated band.
Actually.
I would probably say they're mythird favorite.
Beatles are probably up therecause I know more Beatles songs
than I do Extreme, but I know alot of extreme songs.
But either way they have analbum that's actually could be
like, put into like a, it, it'slike from start to the album
goes from start to finish whereit could be like a rock opera.
And it's all about, you know,government.

(01:53:44):
It's about, there's a songcalled Peacemaker Die, where it
has parts of MLK's.
I have a dream speech in there.
Warheads.
It's, it's all about kind oflike the military industrial
complex.
You know, the race riots youknow, like, again, the
peacemakers always are the onesthat killed, as Carlin said, you
know, why is it that they'realways the one that gets killed?
John Lennon and Martin LutherKing Gandhi.

(01:54:06):
And it's, it's such, it's likethe perfect title to an album.
It's.
Three sides to every story.
And the album is broken up intothree parts and it's called Your
Side.
And that you have this song likeactually I can look up the
discography, but the, I know onthe, your side it's warheads

(01:54:26):
where it starts.
The whole thing starts with, youknow, recruit.
When I give you the word andthen you hear a little kid like,
yes, daddy, yes daddy, yesdaddy.
And then it goes into the, itstarts the whole rock, you know,
the really good rock group.
Then it's my side, which is youknow, where it's I forget what
it's called.
I think there's one that'sTragic comic.
There's a bunch of songs whereit's, you know, about an enemy.

(01:54:47):
And then the third part is thetruth, and that's where you have
the song Peacemaker die and allthat other stuff.
And so it's, there's three sidesto every story.
Your side, my side and thetruth.
And that's what I tell people.
You know, cause people are like,well, where else should I look
at?
Or What else should I, should Ilisten to or talk or, you know,
investigate?
And I'm like, just look at theother side.

(01:55:08):
You know?
Look at your side, look at theother side.
And the truth is somewhere inthe middle

Sir Gene (01:55:13):
Yeah.

you'll figure it out.
You know, cuz everybody's truthis a little bit different, but
you'll figure it out, you know?

Sir Gene (01:55:21):
Well, and it's a, it's a group, but you, most people
including news have a financialincentive.
And so getting your objectivesto line up with your financial
objective sometimes is not aneasy thing to do.

(01:55:42):
And I think this is where we seesome, what appeared to be
disconnect between people'sactions and words.
But if you start looking atwhere the, it's the old saying,
right, follow the money, becausethat's where you see that it's
not really a disconnect.
There's an alignment betweentheir financial interest.
and what they're doing, even ifthat, that isn't agree with what

(01:56:07):
they're saying.

Mm-hmm.
And, you know, that's, that'sthe other thing about it is
where, when you talk aboutfinancial incentive, I like to
think that I am one of the lastclasses in journalism that
really went by the WalterCronkite method of, of really

(01:56:29):
being fair.
You know, a lot of people don'tknow this.
Walter Cronkite was a closetsocialist, which is why he hated
Democrats and Republicans.
He voted for the Socialist partypretty much every election.
And Walter Cronkite said before.
right before, you know, TVstarted to change and this is

(01:56:49):
what did change it.
And he warned us about it.
He said, the minute that youstart having ads come into the
news, you've lost the news,you've lost the truth.
And it's the, it is the truth.
You know, the minute that adscame in, everything changed.
Everything.
I, I remember I was

Sir Gene (01:57:08):
You have segments brought to you by Pfizer.

yeah, exactly.
Well, I remember I was a morningnews anchor in Grand Rapids,
Michigan, and there was a GMrecall where it was something
with the pedals where it waslike the one pedal, it's, it's
stuck to the floor.
And they had to recall cuz itwas a, you know, basically the

(01:57:32):
accelerator, it would stick.

Sir Gene (01:57:34):
Yeah, that's not good.

No especially for this one victim that I
talked to who ended up having toslam herself into a tree and she
lost her leg.

Sir Gene (01:57:45):
Wow.

And for those that you know, are not an
amputee like myself I learnedthat, you know, you don't just
like strap on a fake leg andjust start walking.
You actually have to learn,relearn how to walk.
And so, I, I go through herstory.
I, I go, you know, I learneverything and I go to my news
director and I'm like, I have,you know, and I, I say this, you

(01:58:09):
know, I'm a little jaded fromthe news, but I say this, you
know, with all respect, youknow, I'm like, I have the best
story for this recall.
I'm like, she's a victim.
You know, she had, you know,gone through this traumatic
experience, having to relive herlife, learning how to relive it,
and all this other stuff.
And or learning how to live anew life.
I'm sorry.
And my news director's like, Ilove it, but it's never gonna

(01:58:34):
get past sales.

Sir Gene (01:58:35):
Mm-hmm.

And I was like, what do you mean?
And she was like, Faron, we livein Michigan.
She was like, our biggest donoris gm.
And I was like, wow.
And that's when I realized thatthe news really has changed.
Now, granted, I will say this,there is still such a need for

(01:58:58):
local news because, and it's,and it's weird to say that after
saying that, but that's, that'swhere, you know, local news is
in between a rock and a hardplace, because the only funding
they're getting is fromcorporations.

Sir Gene (01:59:15):
Mm.

But it's still such a necessity to keep your
city managers in check, to keepyour county officials, to keep,
you know, police and, and.
anybody that's working in publicservice, they're needed to keep
these people in check.
You know, we have lost so manylocal newspapers in the past 10

(01:59:42):
years alone to where people haveno one to keep checks and
balances on their local leaders.
You know, I, I was, for example,I was home with my mom over, I
think last Christmas, and theywere talking about, you know,
something about

Sir Gene (02:00:01):
And then your parents are still in Chicago?

Yep, mm-hmm.
they were talking aboutsomething with the new budget
and people weren't happy aboutit and all this other stuff.
And I was like, well, let me,let me just take a look at the
budget.
You know, like, let me just seewhat it says.
And my mom's like, I don't knowwhere it's at.
You know, you could probablyfind it online.
So I'm like, all right.
So I'm looking, I'm looking, I'mlooking, and then here I'm
looking.
I find it.

Sir Gene (02:00:22):
Your, your mom sounds like March Simpson.

Yeah, exactly.
And so I, I finally find it andI look and I'm like, Hey ma.
I'm like, how much do you thinkthe chief of police makes here?
She's like, I don't know, likeone 50.
I'm like, try 3 94.

Sir Gene (02:00:41):
Okay.
That's.

And she's like, what?
And I'm like, it's right here.
She's like, let me see that.
And then you can actually clickcuz.
And folks, this is all publicrecord.
Mind you.

Sir Gene (02:00:52):
Yeah.

and I'm like, let's look at his breakdown.
You see, he gets money for hiscar, gets money for his three
different cell phones, getsmoney to go to the shooting
range.
I mean, this guy,

Sir Gene (02:01:09):
I'm all in favor of

that's fine, but I mean, I guess, you know, in
little Oakbrook, Illinois, Imean, they did have a shooting
at the mall, but I mean, do youneed to go like, you know, every
day?
I don't think so.
Either way, this looks like hewas, this was looked like it was
a budget to go every day.
I'll just say that.
You know, what was the otherthing?
It was to install something forhis house.

(02:01:31):
I mean, to the stuff that thisguy was getting,

Sir Gene (02:01:34):
yeah.

I was like, mom, you need to go into the next
city council meeting and say,why is this your salary when?
And I was like, let me look at,I was like, let's look at the
chief of police salary in thenext town over.
And I look it up and it's like 178

Sir Gene (02:01:53):
Mm-hmm.

chief of police.
And I'm like, mom, you need to,and she's like, oh, stop.
I don't wanna get involved inthis shit.
You know, because there's thisfear that if I go and I start
causing problems, then shit'sgonna happen to me.
Right.
And

Sir Gene (02:02:08):
Every city needs an Alex Stein.

and that's when I started watching Alex Stein.

Sir Gene (02:02:13):
Mm-hmm.

and I was like, see mom look.
And, and it was literally thatweek that I was there that I saw
him on Tucker.
I was like, see mom, this is whyyou need to go look what he's
doing.
And she's like, I don't havetime for that shit, you know?
But I think it's a lot of peopletoo are just scared.
They're scared for blowback,

Sir Gene (02:02:29):
Oh, sure.
And that blowback does happen.
We've seen plenty of that, likein California with uh, the city
council meetings doc, the schoolboard meetings where the cops
are called in to clear them outbecause the, the board doesn't
like hearing what the citizenshave to say.
And it, it is crazy.
And then as far as salaries, Iremember a few years back when

(02:02:50):
the, the whole defund the policething was going stronger.
During Covid.
I remember looking at the policesalaries in a number of
different locations, includingorange County, where like the
average beat cop was getting180,000 a year.

Wow.

Sir Gene (02:03:05):
I mean, there's a certain point where the salary
of the, the enforcement forcecan't be more than three times
higher than the average salaryof the people that they're quote
unquote protecting.
Because as those salaries keepgoing up, the types of people

(02:03:26):
you're gonna.
Are gonna see a distinction beeven more so.
I mean, cops are a ac us andthem, if it's not blue, then
fuck you.
That's, that's a very common copattitude.
But beyond that, when you've gotcops that basically are buying
brand new Teslas and you know, ahundred thousand dollars F one
50 s that are supposed to bepatrolling neighborhoods where

(02:03:50):
the, the average population ismaking 60,000 a year at most,
they're not gonna get outtatheir cars.
They're not gonna help anybody.
They're not gonna do jack shitother than collect money for the
department by writing tickets.

Yeah,

Sir Gene (02:04:05):
That's not a, that's not a police force.
That's a an arm of the therevenue service at that point.

Exactly, exactly.
And that's where, you know,while, while I get, you know,
people should be able to havegood salaries and whatnot many
of these salaries are very, veryinflated.
Very inflated.
And and yeah.
But, but that is one thing thatI, I do tell people that, you
know, if you want to see adifference in your community

(02:04:33):
immediately, or I'm sorry, if,if you wanna see where your vote
matters the most immediately itis with local government,
because I even said those arethe people that are gonna decide
masks or no masks.
Six feet rule, or no six feetrule.
Lock down or no lock.
And I, and I say this because wesaw this during the pandemic.

(02:04:56):
I mean we saw it happenimmediately.
You know, jab or no jab the,these were the people that
decided it for you locally.
You know, the governments couldhave said, you know, oh, there's
the mask mandates.
But what they were saying was,is states, we want you to do the
mask mandate.
And then it came down to thestates cuz when Texas was like,
nah, we're done.
Or I'm sorry.

(02:05:16):
When Florida was like, now we'redone.
The government didn't come inand stop him.
So that just goes to tell you,that was just a suggestion.
They didn't say a mask mandate,

Sir Gene (02:05:25):
absolutely.

they have to use that word so that people think a
see, I have to

Sir Gene (02:05:31):
But this is where the press also is absolutely a tool
of the government because I lovethose compilations that people
make and like, no, no.
Agenda podcast plays all timewhere somebody will take.
A dozen or 50 different newschannels, local news, and then
make a compilation of themsaying the exact same sentence,

(02:05:53):
exactly the same way.
And it, and then it becomesobvious that this is not a
coincidence.
Th this is targeted messagingthat is being put out there and
delivered on a local level, butoriginating from a national
level.

Well now I will say this cuz I know firsthand
cuz I was there when SinclairBroadcasting did that whole
thing about.
we all fake news and da da da.
And they all had to read thatstatement that was handed down
by the c e o,

Sir Gene (02:06:23):
Mm-hmm.

Who is a Trump supporter at the time, who made
them all read that.
My friends, my friends, myfriends that are news anchors
had to say that,

Sir Gene (02:06:32):
Mm-hmm.

which I was so grateful at that time I was in
El Paso, that I did not work fora Sinclair station.
However, I will say there aretimes yes, where you'll see the
news anchors read the exact samestory.
And I'll tell you why.
A lazy journalism and b, eitherlazy or very young producers

(02:07:00):
there is a problem in the newstoday where, you know, it's why
people don't stay in the news.
The pay is absolute crap.
Even for anchors now, it's noteven worth it, you know, working
holidays, nights, weekends,around the clock getting, you
know,$65,000 a year, and theydon't pay for hair and makeup
anymore.
They don't help pay for yourwardrobe, but yet you gotta come

(02:07:22):
in looking like, you know, youjust walked off like the LA
strip.
You know, like it's one of thesethings like or the Hollywood
Strip or whatever the hell it iscalled.
I can't remember.
But like you, you just, you'relike, why am I doing.

Sir Gene (02:07:35):
yeah.

like this is more stressful to me.
What's even worse is you haveproducers that they hire.
The producers Pay was the firstones, and they're the ones that
sit, they help write thenewscast.

Sir Gene (02:07:47):
Mm-hmm.

They got their pay down so low that now they
basically just hire college kitsor they hired just outta college

Sir Gene (02:07:57):
Well, they're not gonna need that.
They're gonna have the AI doingit all.

Well, eventually, however, there,
well, I mean, you still need aperson though to, to put it all
in there and do the timing andeverything.
However, cuz there mightremember local news is different
in each, you know, each market.
So you're gonna have to havesomebody there at least covering
like the local part of it.
But, you know, like Rick's thelast time I talked to Rick
Sanchez not too long ago, he waslike, yeah, he is like, I was

(02:08:21):
with an old producer buddy ofmine in Miami, that's where he
is at.
And he is like, and we're atlunch.
And he's like, and he asked thewaitress, Hey, do you, because
she was talking about the newsand he is like, Hey, do you ever
wanna work in news?
And she's like, well, it's what?
And he is like, I could make youa producer.
And he is like, are you kiddingme?
Like you know, like they're outgetting waitresses at this point

(02:08:42):
if they wanna be a producer, youknow?
And I went to school for this

Sir Gene (02:08:46):
It's, it's the same thing as banks where your Lowies
employee has the title Vicepresident.

Yeah, I guess so.
I never worked at a bank, so I

Sir Gene (02:08:57):
Yeah.
No, it, it's like if you everhear somebody that was a VP at a
bank, keep in mind that that'snot a VP at a normal company,
because at the bank, literallyeverybody that is just one level
above a cashier is a vp.

did not know that.

Sir Gene (02:09:11):
historically the way it's it's always been set up.
And I, I think there was somelegal r rationale behind it at
some point.
I don't know if it's evennecessarily a thing, but Yeah,
literally, like if you're acashier, you work there for a
year, you get promoted to beinglike the head of, of the
cashiers you know, for that,that branch, all of a sudden

(02:09:32):
your title is vp.

Wow.

Sir Gene (02:09:36):
So titles don't mean a whole lot.
It's what people actually did.
And this is where I'm a huge fanof Musk's approach where he
says, education doesn't matter.
Titles don't matter.
What matters to me are youraccomplishments.

Well, and that is one thing I will say that Fox
News does is Fox News even saysin their hiring thing, like, we
don't care if you went tocollege anymore.
Like, if you have a passion forthe news and you have a drive,
we'll take you.
And I look at that and I'm like,good for them.
You know, because any kid todaylooking at the amount of death
that they'll occur after goingto four years of college, when

(02:10:11):
now everybody has a degree, it'sbasically just four years to
party.
Now granted, there are somepeople that go do work hard.
I I see them too, you know, but.
I, I, for example, like one ofmy ex-boyfriends was a surgeon
and he walked out of medicalschool with$300,000 in debt.

Sir Gene (02:10:32):
Mm-hmm.

It was a surgeon.
And surgeons do not live thelife that people think that they
do anymore.
Surgeons aren't walking aroundFlash and Benjamins

Sir Gene (02:10:44):
depends if you're a plastic surgeon.

Well, even there, they, they're having some
different difficulties now too,because people have seen how
everything is, you know, they,they, you know, they take
everything and they'll take itcash.
And now insurance companies arelooking at that and they're
saying, no, no, no, no, no.
We want a piece of that pie.
So now they're having to paylarger insurance fees in order
to run, you know, ev every,every insurance companies don't

(02:11:10):
let anything get by.

Sir Gene (02:11:12):
Yeah.
Well that's the thing is if I, abuddy of mine said this years
ago, and we always kind ofchuckled about it, but it's so
true, is that if your goal is tomake money, you need to be in
the money business.

mm-hmm.

Sir Gene (02:11:25):
makes money like the money business.
You gotta be a bank, you gottabe, you know, somebody that is
actively engaged in makingmoney, everything else, you just
get paid a salary.

Yeah.
Yeah.

Sir Gene (02:11:41):
Well, I, I know I've been going for a while here.
So I, I think we should probablywrap it up, but before we do, I
wanna ask you a couple ofquestions.
One is, is there anything thatwe didn't cover that you wanted
to bring up?
And then two is where can peoplefind you?

that I didn't cover that I wanna bring up.
You know, and it's so funny, I,I will say this, it's so funny
you asked me this questionbecause, you know, I've mentored
a lot of young journalists, evenone, just the other day, who
interviewed a number of peoplethat are in East Palestine right
now, east Palestine, Ohio, withthat whole chemical train crash.

(02:12:21):
And he was like, you know, whatare things that, you know, what
do you think I should ask?
You know?
And I was like, well, thebiggest thing is, is you just
listen.
That's the one thing withinterviews is, is a lot of
people don't listen.
So I will say it is a little bitweird being on this side of it
versus how, you know, but I waslike, he's like, you know, any,
any last advice?
And I was, you know, I wastelling him about, you know,
different, the interview processand just kind of, you know, you

(02:12:44):
ask the two punch questions aswe call in journalism where
it's, you know, you ask kind ofa fact and then follow it up
with an emotion so that if theycan have their answers a little
bit longer.
But I was like, you know, thenalways, always end with, is
there anything else you think weshould.
for anything else you'd like toadd.
And I told him, I was like, cuzthose were the times that I got

(02:13:05):
the best sound bites, the best.
You know, I, I'm doing thisinterview with somebody and then
all of a sudden I ask anythingelse you, you want us to know or
you wanna add?
And then all of a sudden they'dstart crying or they'd start,
you know, I would just get thisringer of a sound bite.
And I was like, and when Ilearned that technique, I was
like, I'm doing that everysingle interview.

(02:13:26):
So it's, I just find it funnynow that you ask that because
it's like, you know, I havenothing else to, I have, I have
nothing.
No zinger for you though.
But no, I, I appreciate thehaving you have me come out.
I, I could do this all day, butlike I said, you know, whatever
you need to guess for sure.
But I love talking history, thenews.
I, I truly think, if there's onething that I could add is it's

(02:13:50):
stay informed folks, you know,the news and it doesn't have to
even be with the news.
Just ha develop, just, justdevelop an idea, like this
passion for just always wantingto learn.
My dad is extremely successfuland I once time asked my dad,

(02:14:13):
you know, dad, what do youthink?
What, what makes you sosuccessful?
And he said The simplest terms.
I never stopped.
And I think that if more andmore people have that idea,
again, I don't know everything Iknow that, you know, I know what
I don't know or what is, howdoes it go?

(02:14:33):
I know.
Is

Sir Gene (02:14:36):
Yeah,

know what I don't know.

Sir Gene (02:14:38):
Yeah, I mean, that's the distinguishing
characteristic generally ofintelligent people is that
they're, you know, peoplegenerally, everybody knows what
they know and then somethingpeople.
They know or they don't knowwhat they know as well.
And then some people actually, alot of people don't know what
they don't know, but the mostintelligent people actually know

(02:15:02):
what they don't know, which is away it's a, it's a, and I
probably butchered it, but it'sa way of saying, I understand my
limitations and myincompleteness of knowledge.
I'm not and therefore I'm alwayslooking to improve my knowledge.
People that are not particularlyintelligent say things like the

(02:15:27):
science is in

right?
Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene (02:15:30):
and, and any, any type of vista's already been decided,
kind of conversation isgenerally a, a sign of lack of
intellect.

Yeah.
So I, I think that's, that's,that's what I've seen.
And my journey is, is, and evenhearing from my own father is,
you know, never stop learning.
And it, it was the, the, theslogan at RT America.
But it's so true.
Question more don't take thingsat face value.

(02:16:02):
You know, like if, if you thinkthat, you know, for example, you
know, you know what this lawmeans or you know, like for
example, like what's fair usewhen it comes to copyright law
and you have a very staunchopinion on it.
Go and watch a couple ofdifferent videos.
Have an open mind look at it andsay, is this really what I think

(02:16:22):
it is?
And, you know, questioneverything.
Don't just say, yep, I know it,and that's it.
Question everything.
And don't be afraid to questionyourself because sometimes you
might be proven wrong and that'sokay when you're proven wrong.
What I've learned, cuz it'shappened to me a lot, you'll
never forget it.

Sir Gene (02:16:43):
Yeah.
And I, I really encourage peopleto play devil's advocate with
others who share their opinions,because when you surround
yourself with a group of peoplewhere everybody agrees, with
everybody else in the group,you're isolating your ability to
learn more.
Like you're, you're preventingyourself from growing further

(02:17:04):
and understanding more.
Because if everybody's inagreement, there's nothing more
to be said.

Yeah.
I, I remember,

Sir Gene (02:17:11):
even if you don't believe it, just play devil's
advocate sometimes, and you'llbe amazed at what kind of
insights you gain.

I remember in a my college rhetorical criticism
class where we had to do speechand we had to pick a topic, you
know, and it was a controversialtopic.
Mine was, should sports teams beallowed to have Native American
mascots?
And I was all for it.
I was like, yeah, it's honoringthem.
It's this, it's that, you know,all that.

(02:17:39):
We all give our speeches.
And then he goes, okay, now fornext week, I want a speech
arguing for the other side.
And I was just like, what?
You know, and I'm not gonna lie,that was a moment in my life
where I was like, wow, I havebeen so like narrow minded

(02:18:01):
because, you know, now, now I, Istill do sometimes think that
it's okay as long as it's takenseriously, you know, like with
these mascots and if the, and ifthe tribe is okay with it, like
go for it.
You know, not to like veer offtopic really quick, but like,
you know, but learning about,you know, the suffrage that a
lot of these Indians wentthrough when the Americans fir
or when of Europeans first gothere and all that other stuff.

(02:18:23):
There are some people, you know,that if, if I was Native
American I might get pissed atsome stuff too.
And it just makes you putyourself in the other person's
shoes.
And it sounds so simple, but itsexually not until you have to
argue.
You know, and I will say, that'swhy I think lawyers can bullshit

(02:18:43):
the right way out of anythingbecause they can put their
selves in, in anybody's shoesand figure out how to win it for
them.
You know, they're, they're,they're, they're, they're the
best

Sir Gene (02:18:52):
Well, good lawyers anyway.

Yeah, true.
Yeah.
Good lawyers.
But yeah.
So yeah, question more and thennever stop learning and then you
can find me anywhere at Fair andBalanced Fairen, F A R A n,
balanced dot com or on YouTube,Twitter, Facebook, all that
stuff.
So I'm around and I'm, I'llalways be, I'll never stop
covering the news.
That's one thing I will neverstop.
I know that.

Sir Gene (02:19:13):
Well, I appreciate you being on Faron and giving your
honest opinions and takes andeverything and, and it's fun
hearing about your history andkind of the path you took to get
to where you currently are.

Thanks for having me.
I'll come back anytime.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}0103 Sir Gene Speaks with Chick named Faran

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

All Episodes

0103 Sir Gene Speaks with Chick named Faran

Stuff You Should Know