08-13-24 FULL SHOW - AI Comes to DougCo Schools, and Tina Peters Found Guilty

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy Connell, Mandy Conall on KOLA ninety one,
F M.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
God Way, can the nicety It's.

Speaker 4 (00:20):
Free, Andy Connall, Keith sad Bab Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to
a Tuesday edition of the show. I am your host
for the next three hours, Mandy Connall, joined by my
right hand man, Anthony Rodriguez. You can call him A Rod.

(00:44):
I'm just over here. Rock it out. I'm good, I'm fine.
I'm over here. I did have to take off my
stunning nineteen eighty five ish red blazer that I woreed
a because Ross wore his old clothes from his club days,
and I have to tell you it's amazing. First of all,
the jacket still looks it, Ay Rod, give me your
opinion of the jacket. It looks good, doesn't it? Sure?

(01:05):
For forty years old?

Speaker 5 (01:06):
Yes, which people can see on our x account and
on Instagram Facebook Ika caller Idot in Mere Moments for
forty years old, it's pretty good.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
But yes, it's an eighties blazer. It's fantastic. It's not bad.

Speaker 5 (01:20):
Absolutely means you've washed that properly because that red is
still still gleaming.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
Well, it's a drect clean only situation, is it, Yes,
direct clean. Back when I bought, back when I had
things in my closet that were drect clean, only those
days were over completely over. Uh No, it was just
it's I realized something. When I was younger, I had
spent a lot of time thrifting. You know. Thrifting was
how I got all my clothes all the way through
college and really to the first through my twenties. Honestly,

(01:47):
everything was thrifted or consigned or whatever. And now to
get vintage, I just go to the back of my closet.
That's where I am in life, and now I get it.
I understand it. When my grandmother saved all kinds of
things and I was like, Nana, that's what do you
Why are you saving that? It's never going to come
back in the style, And she'd say, just you wait, well,
just you wait.

Speaker 5 (02:07):
You can let us know in the text line right
now five six six nine zero Common Spirit Health text line.
If you go to our all of our social accounts
at Kaylee Color, you can now see it. The clubbing
shirts of one Ross Kaminski, which is thirty five years old,
and the forty year old snazzy red blazer from the
Mandy Goneald.

Speaker 4 (02:25):
It's so good, it is it still good to good?
So good Ross's shirt? I mean, could you know you
throw a blazer over that and he's fine. It's a
big front pocket on his shirt that really dates that. Ah. Fashion.
Fashion is just a completely fabricated thing designed to help

(02:47):
some people feel better about themselves and better than other
people based on what they put on their backs. And
this is why I've struggled with fashion. I really I
don't get it. It's it's it's a totally made up
construct and yet people it's it's the life. For some people,
it's everything. I just that's one of those things that

(03:08):
I don't understand. There are things that I don't understand
in life. If I'll take a moment then do the blog.
One of them is like making your life all about
anything that is other than your immediate relationships and family.
And hear me out, because if you are a slave
to your sports fandom, or you are a slave to

(03:31):
whatever fashion, or a slave to activism or politics and
nothing else matters in your life, you're just doing it wrong.
I'll just throw that out there. Everything about that is wrong.
You gotta have, you know, focus on what's important. I
say that because I realized today as I was getting
ready to do the blog, I wasn't just not looking

(03:52):
for political news. I was actively avoiding it. So today
is not going to be free of politics. Because it
can be free of politics because this is the world
we're in, and we're in the most insane election cycle
in the history of election cycles that I have ever
been a part of. So we can't ignore it or
we're gonna try and talk about some other stuff today.

(04:14):
Let me tell you about it by directing you to
the blog Mandy's blog dot com. That's Mandy's blog dot com.

Speaker 5 (04:20):
Someone said you look like an eighties era real estate agent.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yes, would you buy a home from me? Only I
have I would have a gold jacket on for century
twenty one. Now we're going back to my childhood. I
do look like a real turn that anyway today on
the blog. To find the blog, go to mandy'sblog dot com.
That's mandy'sblog dot com. Look for the latest posts. Look
for the headline that says eight thirteen twenty four blog

(04:45):
AI comes to dougco schools and Tina Peters found guilty.
Click on that and here are the headlines you will
find within.

Speaker 5 (04:52):
I think you're in office half of America all with
ships and clipments, and say that's going to press.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
Plat today on the blog we are talking about South
Korea and Japan. Today. AI comes to Dougcoe's schools. Tina
Peters is guilty. No Elizabeth school Board. Your job is
not to protect students from controversial issues. The folks see.
Tim Waltz is coming for a visit. No prison for
the J six Grandma. The Aurora Homeless Navigation Center is

(05:18):
taking shape. Should I pack my riot outfit for the
DNC or not? Scrolling? Go ahead, scroll Scott. Plastic surgeons
aren't part of the gender affirming consensus anymore. Trump has
a plan. Uh scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. The UK is going
full authoritarian. I thought this was really Reagan. Men are

(05:38):
going to be dying of cancer at much higher rates
very soon. If a different f word gets a Red
Sox player suspended, can someone check on coach Prime? This
is the electric car I've been waiting for the most
affordable states for retirement. Trump's full interview with Elon Musk
and those other headlines on the blog at mandy'sblog dot com.

(06:01):
And okay, now that I just had a little more
of the reading of the there's a lot of politics
on here, but I'm sorry, it's just that time. I
want to start with a quick question for you, a Rod.
I don't want to spend a lot of time on
this story, but I just I was thinking about this,
and it's the story of a Boston Red Sox player.
He's being heckled by someone because Red Sox fans are obnoxious,

(06:22):
the most obnoxious fans in Major League Baseball in my opinion,
and I have experience in that American League East Division
for many years I lived in the New England area.
I would not argue with you. Okay, you're backing me up.
That's perfect. So somebody is heckling him, No, I guess,
I'm sorry. His own fans aren't heckling him. Whoever he

(06:42):
was playing against, somebody was heckling him at Fenway Park.
So he's being heckled. And instead of just ignoring the
guy or saying something clever like I remember my first
year too, or something like that, he said, I guess,
shut up. The the F word, not the CKF word,

(07:03):
the word that refers to gay people as a slur.
And I am not gonna lie now. I went to
theater school in college back in the nineteen nineties and
there was a large gay contingents in the theater school
and they constantly referred to themselves as facts constantly. So
the evolution of this word, it's almost like it's gone

(07:26):
backwards because gay people used to use it and now
it's you know, verboten, which I'm fine with. I mean,
I'm I really am fine. I don't want to make
it seem like I'm sticking up for this particular word.
But it's amazing how this, like a vocabulary shift takes
place in such a fashion. Right, So, nonetheless, Jaron Duran yells,

(07:48):
shut up f at this guy, and now he's serving
a two game unpaid suspension. And I wanted to ask
a Rod this because my experience with that particular word
is much different as I just explained. It was used
among gay people. Now, I would never call somebody else
that word, you know, it felt like it would have
been weird, but much like I would never use the

(08:10):
N word, But you hear black people using that word
casually and even affectionately among each other. It's the same.
I would have never called somebody that word. But what
do you I mean do people Do people even use
that word anymore?

Speaker 5 (08:22):
No, extremely rarely, And I do kind of get like
a little twinge of uncomfortability when, especially when they use
the full one, Like I'm like, ah ah, And the
problem is, like you just said, with what that guy's
immediate reaction was that player?

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Yeah, the fact that was.

Speaker 5 (08:35):
His default and come to it, that tells you he
uses it probably relatively frequently with friends or people that
he doesn't think we'll judge him. I don't think it
was enough of a suspension because I think you got
to use more time to look in word and realize
that's not cool.

Speaker 4 (08:49):
It's not cool, it's not I think for him now,
the public humiliation along with the two day suspension or whatever,
and the loss of pay and all of that stuff.
I just find it interesting that we have grown ups
who still continue to do this. And it's not just
baseball players. I think about all those Karen videos of
these middle aged white women going off on someone and

(09:10):
calling them everything but a child of God, Like that
is not that doesn't occur to me. If I'm in
a confrontation with someone, I never think to myself, you
know what I should do. I should call him a
really juvenile, nasty name. That'll teach him. It's just not
how I'm wired. But what makes someone do that? I mean,
don't you just want to go, dude, what what are
you thinking?

Speaker 6 (09:30):
What are you thinking?

Speaker 5 (09:31):
It's coming from? And I don't how how old is he?
I think he's a younger player. I don't know for sure,
even I don't know. My point is is like that's
just been ingrained in him as like an acceptable slur,
Like that's just something that calls somebody.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
But here's my daughter and she's Jenna Alpha, and they
take every they take all of that stuff, so seriously,
it still happens, right, But.

Speaker 5 (09:51):
It's it's I don't know, in some cultures it it
is deemed as an acceptable slur, like it's a haha.
Like between people that are not of that culture, they
think that word is just a you know, yeah, I mean,
okay slur.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
What where is he from? What's his name again? Jarendran
Jaren Jaren j a r e A r r e N.

Speaker 5 (10:15):
He's from California. He's a Cali boy, twenty seven years old,
not quite young.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
But no, there's literally no excuse for that. No, no,
And I.

Speaker 5 (10:23):
Think two games whatever, I think two games is a
slap in the face. This is the this is the
until further notice, when you have gone through the proper
channels of getting trained to understand that that's not okay.

Speaker 4 (10:37):
I don't think that was enough, because that that immediate.
He didn't think about it. Oh that was so qui immediate.
We have a question. And as you're definitely the gamer
in our friendship, as I don't game at all, Mandy,
could the use of the language be gamer culture. Oh,
it's part of gamer culture. Oh, that explains I mean,

(10:57):
and I'm assuming it doesn't. Again, but explaining and and
and dismissing it are two different things, right, I want
to understand why this guy's using that word, and if
it is pervasive in gamer culture, that at least explains
white still.

Speaker 5 (11:13):
Wall video game culture or gaming as in sports culture,
because that's two different things, because we don't know if
this guys a video gamer.

Speaker 4 (11:18):
Remember, it could be not be video game related.

Speaker 5 (11:20):
It could be him and his friends the culture of
them calling each other that as a like a haha,
you punk.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
It's another word to.

Speaker 5 (11:28):
To to get at your buddy without you know, and
you make them, you make them feel like, oh.

Speaker 4 (11:33):
I'm not that well, well, how do you call me that? Well,
that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (11:37):
So fast The guy's reaction was so quick to you,
that tells you that is in his regular day vocabulary.

Speaker 4 (11:45):
This person says, I definitely use rechard and fag with
my friends because I can. I wouldn't use it to
people I don't know, and I have to ask, like
I don't know, I don't get I feel little hypocritical
because I will share an inappropriate joke, usually an inappropriate
joke at a large group of people, not racially based, right,

(12:08):
I'll share a joke at the expense of men. I'll
share a joke at the expense of women. So I'm
a little bit hypocritical in this.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
But you're not.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
There's ones I think that I would say that with
my friends, because honestly, I I've never asked my friends
about that, and at this stage in my life, I
know that there are things that I no longer feel
comfortable with. Like to he ay Rod's point, you hear
something and you go, wow, dude, you know, and but
at least at this point in my life, I do
say wow, dude, really and let them know that's not okay.

(12:36):
I I would as well.

Speaker 5 (12:38):
I have I have in the past, and people that
come to mind that I had used that long time
ago growing up as a kid, people used it. Now
I would definitely say something, But there's there's words that
are off limits. We all swear. But this is what
I'm doing, I mean, not it.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
I have to give it to the gay community for
taking a word that that they used freely and all
of a sudden making it like the F word the
other F word. That's a pretty significant shift, and I
just missed it.

Speaker 5 (13:05):
I guess well, it's in my mind, worse than most,
if not all, swear words.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
To me, no other normal swear word, and we all
know what they are.

Speaker 5 (13:15):
None of them give you that weird, uncomfortable twinge in
your back by hearing this one.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
But see this one. My son's two friends are gay
and they use it like I use the F word,
and they call everyone fags. Just another example. It's okay
for them to use it with each other and everyone else,
but when someone else uses it. It's wrong, and I
guess that's the point I'm getting.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
To then, so be it.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
I'm gonna have to ask uh some of my gay
friends if they still because my gay friends now are
obviously older, right, I'm not hanging out with the utes. No,
I don't have anything against the utes and the gays,
but you know, my gay friends are my age or
or a little bit older. I'm gonna ask them how
they feel about this. I'm gonna do a gay survey
and find out Mandy. As a Hispanic male, old school

(13:54):
I think any of those words shouldn't be used, not
even casually among your own ethnic groups, shouldn't be used,
their derogatory and just should not be used. I agree
with this so much, and I try to impart this
to my daughter that even if you're calling each other names,
you're still in a joking manner. You're still your brain

(14:15):
is still taking that in your brain is hearing those
words directed at you. And I know tone matters, but
why why create that kind of negative atmosphere? Why why
allow negativity like that in your life, in your.

Speaker 5 (14:27):
Vocabulary, Because in my assumption, fair or not, is that
just like with this player, it's just so part of
his vocabulary and it has been with him in his
circle for so long. Yeah, that he has never been
told or been made to understand that it's not cool. Yeah,
and it needs to be. And the two game suspension
is a joke, and that's most people are calling you.
That's silly.

Speaker 4 (14:46):
There we go that I did not know we were gonna
go on. I think that's an interesting conversation though, because
today on the blog I have a whole thing about Britain,
and Britain has gone full authoritarian clamping down on free speech.
And the reason I bring these two things up together
is that we don't need to clamp down on free
speech because we have the Internet, the hive mind of

(15:08):
the Internet, which decides rightly or wrongly, what is correct
and what is not correct. And if you dare put
your toe over the line, they're gonna lop off your head,
not just your foot. So it's it's fascinating to see
the culture police language, especially because at the end of
Ross's show, he had the numbers for how many Americans.
The American people say that X amount of them want

(15:31):
a company to weigh in on political matters. That's changed
by twenty five percent from two years ago. So what
that tells me is the American people are stupid and
they don't know what they want. They think they know,
and then when they get it, they're all like, oh no,
but we didn't want it like that. That's not we
wanted even agree with us, not the other people. I mean,

(15:55):
it's just uugh so insane, absolutely insay. Now, I got
a couple guests coming up. One coming up very quickly
here in the one o'clock hour. I've got Aaron Kane,
the superintendent of Douglas County Schools, on to talk about
this AI program that they have signed on with con

(16:16):
Academy con Academy. Do you know what con Academy is, Aaron, Okay,
con Academy is super cool. Con Academy started when a
man whose first name I don't know, but his last
name is Con. He had a nephew. He was like
a physics guy or something, and he had a nephew
who was struggling in math. So he would then go
online and record videos of him solving a math problem

(16:38):
to help out his nephew, and he would just post
them on YouTube, and they started getting all kinds of traction.
And I'm like ninety percent sure that I have that
story right, but don't quote me on that without checking
my work. I've read about him a really long time ago.
In any case, So con Academy exploded and now it's
a business and they have all kinds of math homework.
And what I say to the queue when she said

(17:00):
I don't know how to do this complicated problem that
I don't know how to do either, I'm like, go
to con Academy and see if you can find it.
Find out how to do it from con Academy. Well,
they now have an artificial intelligence program for schools and
Douglas County is going to be one of the first
to use it. I'm interested to talk to Aaron Kane
about that. I think that's very very cool. And then
at two point thirty, my friend Bethany Manchester from Cruisin

(17:21):
Tour is going to join me. We're going to talk
a little Japan. I really want you guys to go
on this Japan trip with us. And when you hear
and I have questions for Bethany as well. She's been
many many times. We're gonna do a little deep dive
in a Japanese culture. So we got that coming up.
But when we get back, the trial of the century
has come to a close. Tina Petz has been found guilty,

(17:45):
not on everything, but on some big stuff. When we
get back, I want to talk about the fact that
there is part of me that feels a teeny tiny
bit sorry for this woman, just a teeny tiny bit,
not a time, but a teeny tiny bit, because I
don't think she got the best defense she could have gotten.
We'll talk about that, what she was convicted of and

(18:06):
more coming up next right here in ka. Hey, Rod,
do we have a do do do?

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Do?

Speaker 7 (18:11):
Do?

Speaker 4 (18:11):
Do breaking news?

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Sounder?

Speaker 4 (18:13):
Anything breaking?

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (18:15):
Here we go, Yes, I have breaking news. I just
asked Rob Dawson. You know Tim Walls, the vice presidential
candidate on the Harris Walls ticket. He's coming to Denver
tomorrow And I said, so are we going to get
an interview with him? And uh, Rob said, oh no,
it's closed to the press. Oh you don't say, you
don't say, we.

Speaker 5 (18:34):
Don't need access to the person who might be the
VV of the United States.

Speaker 4 (18:38):
Do you know why, though? Do you know why this
is like the best strategy in the history of strategies,
Because ballots dropped pretty shortly. I mean we're looking at
maybe six weeks maybe before ballots start to drop around
the country. So all the Harris Walls campaign has to
do is give a few more drips out to the press,
who are literally licking their boots every single day. And

(19:00):
Harris is going to come out with her economic plan
this week, and the press is going to let her
get away with this until right before the election, and
then she's gonna give a series of interviews. They're all
going to go badly, but'ally too late. The damage is done.
Shall I say to the audience, here's a tip. Don't
let him get away with it. Come on, now, was
timely the tipping thing, Come on, got it? Come on?

(19:24):
It was a stretch. It was a little bit of
a stretch, but it was a good tip anyway. So yeah,
I just want to let you know breaking news. Tim
Wall's not talking to the media at all at all.
Come on, Steve Martin look alike. We want to hear
from you. Hey, wait a minute, I know you. You're that

(19:44):
guy who looks like Steve Martin. That's how i'd introduced
myself to Tim. I won't portray you on SLPHI exactly. Okay,
let me get to the teen of Peter story, because
I feel like this is almost anti climactic. Now I've
got to tell you, guys. So I got an email
this morning from a listener for my show in Fort
Myers that I left in twenty ten. Okay, So she

(20:06):
emailed me and said, I've been watching this Tina Peters trial.
What the heck? Like, what what is going on? Why
wasn't she allowed to introduce any evidence? So let's talk
about that for a second. The reason I said I
feel a teensy tiny bit sorry for Tina Peters is
because she sold her soul to the devil that is

(20:26):
Mike Lindell paying her attorney's fees, and he is facing
a billion dollar defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems. They
have already cleaned Fox News's clock to the tune of
about seven hundred I think seven hundred and eighty nine
million dollars. It's a big number, and they're going to
be cleaning the clocks of several other companies. They very

(20:48):
may well put Salem Media out of business. And I
don't say that lightly or wishing for that to happen.
That's not what I wish to have happened, but it
very well could happen. So Mike Dell's facing this billion
dollar defamation lawsuit and he's trying to come up with
a defense that will stick. His attorneys are intimately embedded

(21:10):
with Mike Lindell's attorneys, if not the same you know people.
So she got a lousy defense because they didn't care
about getting Tina Peters off. If they did, they would
have urged her to take a plea bargain because the evidence,
the actual evidence, was overwhelmingly against her. So, you know,
this thing it was going to end this way. She

(21:32):
did manage to put enough doubt about the guy whose
ID badge was used. Now, he says he had no
idea that after he was hired by Tina to come
in and do something, got a security badge after passing
a clearance, and then gave the badge back when he left.
He was just a contractor. He says he had no
idea it was going to be used by this other
guy to come in and make a copy of the

(21:55):
hard drive. He said he had no idea. Well, they
cast enough doubt that she did not get found guilty
of the charges around that identity theft and things of
that nature. So she was let me see here, she
was found not guilty of identity theft, one count of
conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation impersonation, and one count of

(22:18):
criminal impersonation, so she was acquitted of that. But she
was convicted on three counts of attempting to influence a
public servant. I believe those are felonies, one count of
conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first degree official misconduct, violation
of duty, and failing to comply with the secretary of State.

(22:40):
So she is facing I would assume she's facing some
kind of jail time. I haven't seen a good analysis
of that. I don't know what the penalties for these
various crimes actually is. I think that the fact that
she has been absolutely unapologetic will be remembered by the judge.
She still believes that somehow what she did, even though

(23:00):
it didn't prove what she said it was going to
prove it was the right thing to do. And about
her defense, I want to throw this out. So arguing
that the ends justified the means, which is what she
wanted to do, would probably have been a more effective
argument for the judge if the ends actually justified the

(23:20):
means she was going to show by copying the database
before a software update that all election services have to
go through by the way designed to keep them secure,
which is the most ironic thing in the entire world.
So other clerks of court followed the rules and the
letter of the law to make copies of their database

(23:43):
in a secure way without breaking the law. Tina Peters
just disregarded all of those policies and procedures and created
a plan that involved burner phones for her colleagues so
they could talk about their scheme without any record. If
that doesn't say I know what I'm doing is wrong,
I don't know what does. Seriously, Mandy, I only have

(24:06):
one thing to say about dominion. No election system should
use the word proprietary. I agree with certain parts of
that I don't love, and I think it's okay to
criticize dominion. I think it's perfectly fine to say I
would prefer a system that when someone casts a ballot,
you get a receipt like an ATM receipt, right, and

(24:27):
you look at that receipt and you can see exactly
how you voted, and if there's anything that's off in
that tabulation, then you immediately take it to an elections
official and say that machine counted my vote incorrectly. If
it counted it correctly, then you slide that into a
ballot box as you leave the area. That way, we
have an electronic trail, and we have an actual paper

(24:48):
trail receipt of what you actually voted for that has
then been checked not just by you, but you know
you can actually recount it later hard copies of stuff.
I don't think that would be crazy, and I don't
see why you can't make that. I mean, my goodness,
the technology for ATM machines already has existed for forever.

(25:11):
So there you go. Mandy. You talk about the twenty
twenty election like you did the COVID vaccine, just so
sure about yourself. We all have that. Saw how that
turned out. You guys want to give it a new information.
I have to change my view when I'm given information
that wasn't released to the public about the COVID vaccine,
I have to be honest about it. Would you rather

(25:31):
me just stick to my positions that I truly believe
through a prepunderance of the evidence that I have at
this moment in time. I'd love to tell you that
I'm never wrong. I do try to correct myself when
I am, And if you listen to the show long enough,
you've certainly heard that before. Now am I saying I
think the twenty twenty election was stolen? I do not
believe that enough fraud occurred to change the outcome of

(25:54):
this election.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (25:56):
There's not any evidence, and it would require a conspiracy
so vast that at some point somebody's gonna let it slip. Now,
at some point, maybe somebody lets something slip and we
are on, you know, But I don't believe that the
election was stolen in that manner. Now, do I believe
that the election was deeply affected by things like the

(26:16):
censorship of the Hunter by laptop story? Yes? I do.

Speaker 8 (26:20):
Do.

Speaker 4 (26:20):
I believe that the media worked double time to attack
Donald Trump while supporting Joe Biden as he did nothing,
just like they're doing Kamala Harris. Yes I do. If
you want to count that as a stolen election. Now
you have an argument with me. Lots of you weighing
in about the Tina Peters' decision, and uh, Peters was

(26:43):
way wrong and stupid, said this person. Yes, indeed, indeedy
she was a lot of you commenting on the basement
campaign strategy from the Harris Walls ticket after I broke
the news that Tim Walls will not be doing any
media close to the media media. Why do we need
the media? They're already on our team. Why do we

(27:05):
have to talk to them? It's gonna be a genius strategy.
When's the last time you interviewed Trump? Says this Texter.
You know what, When was the last time Trump offered
to come on the show or respond to any requests?

Speaker 7 (27:19):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (27:19):
Let me look at my email. Oh wait, now never. Yeah,
although I read it really interesting column today, I don't
remember where I read it. What you denied the request
to join the spaces last night?

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (27:29):
I you know what I did? I did find out well,
me and you know, two hundred thousand of my closest friends,
we were all there. No, I watched. I listened to
a good bit of it this morning. The first part
is very like, oh my god, you're so awesome, and
tell us about your assassination attempt and don't get me wrong,
dude almost got murdered. Okay, so I am not downplaying that,

(27:50):
but I yeah, you know what I'm gonna Nope, I'm
not gonna say what I was gonna say, because I'm
thinking about the audience that probably listened to that whole
thing last night. And if you were listening live last night,
you probably fell into one of three camps. You either
love Trump already, you despise Trump already, or you remember
the media. That's probably who was listening to that entire

(28:11):
thing last night. And yeah, maybe those people do want
to hear about the assassination attempt, But for me, it's
like a little bit later. If you kind of skip ahead,
it's like two hours long. Skip ahead and start listening
to talking about policy positions, talking about the border. He
made some really sharp attacks on Kamala Harris that, of
course won't get reported because the news media is so

(28:33):
absolutely one hundred percent in the bag for the Harris
campaign that it is mind blowing. It is. It's very
creepy to me, it's very nineteen eighty four. It has
me very, very concerned about the future of the country
because we now have a media that, for the most part,
of course, there are outliers. Fox News will always be

(28:55):
an outlier from that, I mean, not from rooting for
a candidate. It'll be an outlier for this particular power base,
and no one's going to hold these people accountable. That's
the job of the news media is to hold people
in power accountable the way it is difficult to hold
people in power accountable unless they're elected officials that we

(29:17):
can vote out of office. So yeah, anyway, Okay, I
didn't mean to you go on that tangent. When we
get back, Superintendent Aaron Kane of Douglas County Schools is
coming on. We're just going to talk about We're not
talking about the school district. We're talking about something very
cool happening there, and that is they've signed on to
be part of I think this beta rollout of con Academy,
which is a math academy. They have an AI program,

(29:40):
And I got to tell you, I could not stop.
I could not help but think of the conversation we
have with Thomas Frye about the future of education where
a student and I love this concept so much so,
a student from the first time they are in the
classroom would have a teacher avatar that was their teacher avatar,
and that teacher avatar would be with them from the

(30:01):
time they are learning basic stuff. Their colors their letters,
how to write basic letters and numbers and things of
that nature, all of that stuff, and it would grow
and change and evolve. So by the time they were
seniors in high school, their avatar would have grown and
evolved with them, and that teaching assistant companion would be there. Now,
will it be a robot with a face on it

(30:24):
or will it be like Max Hedrow in a computer.
I don't know, but this feels like the beginning of that.
And I'm I'm all for any system or program that
speaks to students how they learn best. Some students learn
by telling being told something. Some students learn by reading something.

(30:44):
Some students learn by writing something. And it's hard in
a classroom environment to create all those individual plans and
execute them all. It's impossible. It's so far beyond what
one teacher in a classroom can reasonably do. So this
would kind of help that. I just find it super interesting.
So we're going to find out what is what is

(31:04):
actually going on exactly where this is. Unless electronic voting
machines are completely auditible, do we really have elections? And
this is kind of what I was talking about before
when I said I'd like a printed receipt of my
vote that I could then drop into a ballot box.
They are, but I think that they are inherently mistrusted
because we've all been caught up in some kind of

(31:26):
data breach. For those of us that are not in
the tech world, we're all like, yeah, it's too easy
to break into that hard copy. It's you know, now
you're talking about something completely different when we get back,
we're talking AI, math and schools all that.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Next, The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and
Pollock Accident and injury lawyers.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
No, it's Mandy Connell and con onk nmday.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
The noise through Byronne Keeping Nerds that way. So I
was just sitting here, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, telling my guests,
Superintendent Aaron Kane about the AI that was used to
create our new theme song because we're here today to
talk about AI in schools. Yeah, I'm really excited to

(32:19):
be here. Thank you for having me. Mandy. I want
to a lot of people don't know your background. You're
a nerd. I mean you are, You're like a trained nerd. Yeah,
So I mean what is your background?

Speaker 6 (32:30):
Sure?

Speaker 9 (32:31):
So my degree is in computer science and applied mathematics
from the University of Colorado Boulders. So I spent a
decade in the high tech industry before shifting into education,
and I think this is the most amazing time to
be leading an education, absolutely amazing.

Speaker 4 (32:46):
And Douglas County is leading by signing up for a
beta I'm guessing it's a beta project. Well it's it's
a pilot. Okay, it's a pilot. Yeah, yeah, so a
pilot project using their new con Academy. AI and I
gave my listeners in the last our little kind of
briefer about con Academy as I know it, and it
started out as an online you know, video that an

(33:07):
uncle made for his nephew in schools to help him
with math problems. And then all these other strangers started
looking at his math problem solving and it became this huge,
huge platform where when Q comes me with math problem,
I'm like, go to Knacaday Acounty because I don't know
how to do what you're doing. Now, So how what
are they doing and how is Douglas County partnering with them?

Speaker 9 (33:27):
Well, so, as you mentioned, con Academy is an amazing
platform for learning. That is, it's a nonprofit so all
of those videos are free. They're being used by schools
all across the world, really not just in the country,
certainly all across Douglas County. And so we are con Academy,
which is a very well known and established brand, has

(33:47):
created a layer to sit on top of Open AI,
so like chat GPT, but it's made specifically for schools,
and it's called Conmego. It has all of the safety
guard and student data privacy, safety and guardrails that are
needed in order to use in a school application. But
it will really allow us to dig in and see

(34:09):
what this technology can do and what the implications are
for student learning, for student experience, and what the implications
are on the educator side in terms of saving them
time on a Ministruvius so that they can really focus
on their kids.

Speaker 10 (34:23):
We're really excited about.

Speaker 9 (34:25):
Seeing what it can do, and we'll be recording all
along the way all of the amazing applications that we're
able to find through this pilot program.

Speaker 4 (34:33):
So the first concern that I have, because this has
been a big topic of conversation, is that what we
found out about these AI platforms is that they are
built with significant bias in some circumstances, and I know
that that is the first thing my listeners are going
to ask, So how do we ensure that the information
and data that is coming through this is not coming
through and leaving out really important parts of stuff.

Speaker 9 (34:56):
So the con Migo platform helps with some of that,
but I think really the bigger question is thinking about
what kinds of skills we need our kids to have
to prepare them for the workforce. And you know, so
many people are like, well, you know, AI will make
it so they don't have to do anything, and that
is not true. They will have to have those critical
analytical skills to look at any information that comes out

(35:19):
of any AI platform and to validate it right, make
sure that it's verify absolutely, you cannot just the open
AI platform is known for just making things up.

Speaker 10 (35:32):
So you want to make sure.

Speaker 9 (35:33):
That your kids have the skills to say, you know what,
this this isn't quite right. This, this part is really useful,
this part isn't quite right. I'm going to need to
dig into that more. So they need that skill set.
They need the skill set to be able to write
prompts for AI that will get them the information that
they need. If you've ever used chat GPT, or for

(35:54):
any of your listeners who've ever used chat GPT.

Speaker 4 (35:58):
You have to ask the right question to.

Speaker 9 (36:00):
Get the answers that you're that you're looking for in
the way that you're looking for them. And so those
kinds of skill sets are something that that adopting conmgo
as a pilot program will help us be able to
teach our kids those skill sets. It'll be a perfect
entry way into how do we validate data? How do
we validate what kind of information comes out of a

(36:20):
platform like this?

Speaker 4 (36:21):
So are we going to be monitoring the overall accuracy?
I'm trying to think away, is that going to be
one of the things that studied, Like, Okay, what is
the quality of the information that we're getting out of
this platform? Yeah?

Speaker 9 (36:33):
So we are well And of course the quality of
information depends on the quality of information that would come
out of open AI.

Speaker 1 (36:39):
Right.

Speaker 9 (36:39):
So, and conmgo has some filters to make sure that
we're not giving any inappropriate any inappropriate information or things
to students.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
Right.

Speaker 10 (36:48):
It has some of those safety layers.

Speaker 9 (36:51):
But in terms of evaluating the pilot, So our plan
to evaluate the pilot is we're asking our teachers who
have voluntarily agreed to completely delve in to report back frequently.

Speaker 4 (37:02):
We've got a whole.

Speaker 10 (37:03):
Mechanism to be able for them to be able to report.

Speaker 9 (37:05):
Back on what they did this week with open AI.

Speaker 10 (37:09):
What were the great thing.

Speaker 9 (37:10):
What were the successes, what were the challenges, what were
the unintended consequences, So that we back at the district level,
can study all of that information across the eighteen schools
that are piloting so that we can really chart a
path forward in terms of how we can best leverage
this technology, not only to teach our kids, because the

(37:30):
technology has incredible implications as far as being a personalized tutor,
personalized learning. You know, you may be learning a math
problem in English, but your tutor can speak to you
and your language whatever that language would happen to be.
I mean, it's amazing the implications. And we also have
to teach our kids the skills to go out into

(37:53):
the workforce to use to use this technology revolution, to
be able to use these technologies so that they can
the way when they graduate.

Speaker 10 (38:01):
From Douglas County School District.

Speaker 4 (38:03):
What kind of have you guys even begun to talk
about specific applications or are you allowing this to be
one of those more organic situations where a teacher over
here may say, you know what, I'm going to use
this to plan my syllabus or I'm going to use
this to manage my classroom better or whatever, and then
kind of take best practices from across the district. Exactly.

Speaker 10 (38:23):
This is completely organic.

Speaker 9 (38:26):
We don't even know if if a year from now,
con Migo will be the right answer. The technology could
have advanced so much that we could make our own
conmgo right. So this is really an opportunity to have
those organic discoveries right for our teachers and our and
our kids in a safe in a safe on a
safe platform, to be able to go in and see

(38:46):
what it can do. Like this is kicking the tires, right,
We're going to kick the tires and see what it
can do and have everyone report back to us so
that we can start to create a network of best
practices and amazing ideas and things that are really moving
learning forward and preparing our kids for the workforce and
saving our staff an incredible amount of time. So the
way I see it, that's those the three those three passibilities,

(39:09):
each one of them individually is incredibly exciting.

Speaker 4 (39:11):
I you know, I'm not one of those people that
would ever come up with a good idea.

Speaker 6 (39:14):
To use AI.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
I mean, I'm just not I'm I'm not a complete lutite,
but I'm not at all technologically advanced. But some of
the stuff that I see young people doing stuff online
and I'm like, what, how are they doing this? The
guy who made my theme song that was like voodoo,
it was like witchcraft me. I had no idea how
to do it, but you actually made a song I did.

Speaker 9 (39:32):
When we did we did an AI presentation for our
Board of Education to talk about this pilot and the
implications of AI for our system as we look forward
to the next decade, and we used AI to create
a song about our Board of Education in our school
district and how dedicated they are to our kids, and
you know, like your theme song.

Speaker 10 (39:53):
We did two different versions.

Speaker 9 (39:54):
We did one that was kind of rock and roll
style and one that was kind of indie style, and.

Speaker 10 (39:58):
They were both amazing. I would be happy to share
them with you.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
They're very catchy.

Speaker 10 (40:01):
Some of them are still in my head.

Speaker 4 (40:02):
They're very catchy.

Speaker 9 (40:03):
But you know, it was a great way to just
introduce the topic when when there was a song about them,
you know, being played.

Speaker 10 (40:11):
So it's just really amazing the things that can do.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
So in the actual practical application within the classrooms, are
students going to have access, our teachers going to have
access combination of A and B and what is that
going to look like?

Speaker 9 (40:24):
Really great question for our eighteen pilot schools, both students
and teachers will have access.

Speaker 10 (40:31):
All of the students.

Speaker 9 (40:32):
Everything students do with CONMGO is reported out to the teachers,
so the teachers can actually look at their entire class
and see skills kids are struggling with individually or as
a group or in a small group or whatever it
might be. So they're going to get a lot of
information about what the kids are doing with com EGO,
the kinds of questions they're asking, all of those things.

(40:54):
Outside of those eighteen pilot schools, all of our teachers
are trying out commego the teacher level that can help
save them time they can do they can have it
help them with lesson plans, personalized lesson plans right right,
incredibly high quality IEP goals, just so many amazing implications.
Imagine a master schedule for a high school. If you're

(41:16):
you're at all familiar. For those of you who work
in a high school, you know exactly what I mean.
There's a room that has, you know, like the spreadsheet,
except it's all on the walls and it's you know,
they're moving all the pieces. AI can do that, you know,
in two seconds flat. It's amazing the different implications. And
you said, you know, you wouldn't know what to do
with it, but you would think of any question in

(41:37):
the world that you can imagine. You know, we we
have two kids that are about to graduate college, and
so they were asking chat GPT, Here's what I want
to do. Here are the skill sets I have, Here's
the degree I'm about to get. Name all the companies
in these three states you know that I find really
interesting that would have a position for someone with my qualifications,

(41:59):
and boom you out of holistic companies.

Speaker 10 (42:01):
Now tell me what my resume should look like. Boom,
Now tell me.

Speaker 9 (42:03):
What kind of skills I'm lacking that I could go
get a certification and whatever whatever.

Speaker 10 (42:08):
You know, just having this conversation, it.

Speaker 9 (42:11):
Just gives you this list that would take you forever
to go research.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
So essentially it's the supercharge librarian. Yes, yeah, this person said,
the AI songs are terrible, not good music. For someone
who can't write music and has no musical ability, that's
an amazing thing to be able to create any kind
of something.

Speaker 10 (42:28):
Many of us have a very low bar.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
Yes, and this is the I started the conversation with it.
I'm going to ask it again because I really feel
like this is going to be the sticking point for
a lot of people. Mandy, would you please ask if
they're taking into account the built in biases of the
instructors themselves. I worry about more if my tax money
is going down that rabbit hole. And this is the concern,
you know, because we've seen some pretty egregious political bias

(42:51):
out of these chet clients, and I don't want you know,
there's already that impression for a lot of people, and
perhaps it is, you know, earned for the a teacher
experience that was not positive, or the perception exists that
you have a bunch of left wing teachers who are
trying to indoctrinate your kids, and now we're going to
bring this in. How do you make sure that is
not happening?

Speaker 9 (43:12):
You know, our at least I can speak for a
Douglas County School District. Our teachers are amazing and they
try really hard to bring balance into their classrooms, and
it is it is absolutely something that is up to
the teacher to make sure that they are monitoring the
use of any technology.

Speaker 10 (43:30):
You know, a bias can come into play in a
whole number of ways.

Speaker 9 (43:34):
Introducing introducing an AI technology does not change that, right,
Right If a teacher's determined, you know that that can
go down a different road. But I can speak for
our awesome teachers in Douglas County School District and we
work really hard to bring balance into our classrooms and
they have They've done just such a remarkable job of
doing that. And I trust our teachers to continue to

(43:55):
do that. And I would tell any parent if you
have a concern about a teacher you know in your
students school, no matter where they go.

Speaker 10 (44:02):
To school, go talk to them, Go have a.

Speaker 9 (44:04):
Conversation with them, because our teachers are essential. They are
absolutely essential to be able to monitor the use of
this technology.

Speaker 4 (44:13):
So for when does this start And how enthusiastic were
the teachers. I'm guessing some were super enthusiastic. There's got
to be some like me or are like yep, you
you go on whipper snappers figure that out. Oh, you know,
there's always.

Speaker 9 (44:25):
The early adopters and the live adopters. And so what
we did is we we talked to our school leaders
who went and talked to their staff, and we asked
for volunteers. So the buildings that are piloting con Migo
are doing it because they want to, right, the staff
in the building wants to, and because they're super excited
about it. Because the last thing you want to do
is how anyone feel like one other thing?

Speaker 10 (44:48):
Right is one more thing.

Speaker 9 (44:49):
But we we did a big survey of all of
our teachers to ask them kind of what their thoughts
were on this technology.

Speaker 4 (44:57):
Handy.

Speaker 10 (44:57):
They are so excited.

Speaker 9 (44:59):
There is so much excitement out there and as far
as you know, kind of the negative implications, which there
are many, Right, we have to teach our kids to
use it ethically, to look for biases, to do all
of those things.

Speaker 10 (45:10):
But ignoring this technology is not the answer.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Right.

Speaker 9 (45:13):
I'm a huge believer that AI will not replace humans,
but humans who can leverage AI will replace humans.

Speaker 10 (45:21):
Who cannot leverage AI.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
That is exactly right.

Speaker 9 (45:24):
That tells me everything I need to know. I can't
turn my back on this technology. I have to prepare
our kids to ethically and responsibly take this technology, turn
it on its head, and lead the way when they
leave our system.

Speaker 4 (45:35):
So you're going to do this for a year and
then is it going to be one of those things
where we're going to do this for a year and
then we'll we'll crunch all that information for a long
period of time or is this one of those things.
We're doing this for a year and we'll decide whether
to continue.

Speaker 9 (45:48):
Yeah, after a year, I think we'll decide what kind
of district wide deployment we want to do of you know,
whatever it is that we want to do well. We'll
be looking at a district wide deployment with district wide
resources and professional development to really prepare our teachers to
take everything that we've learned from the pilot program implemented
in our classrooms and help our kids just supercharge their education.

Speaker 10 (46:11):
We're really excited.

Speaker 4 (46:12):
Is this going to make it easier to spread best
practices when it comes to AI? Do you think? I do?

Speaker 9 (46:19):
I do think so, especially if you've got a contained
AI system that has kind of your school system right,
and what your teachers have kind of determined our best
practices so that your teachers can learn from each other
versus sort of learning from the random everybody out there.
Because I don't know the quality of everybody out there,

(46:39):
but I know the quality of my system, and so
really helping our giving our teachers the ability to work
on their collective knowledge of what has worked really well
will be incredibly powerful and again it will save them
so much time, I hope.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
So, I mean, this kind of stuff is fascinating to me,
even though, as I said, I'm a lie a doctor.
I just have this message for you, Mandy, since Aaron
is in your studio, I have a shout out to
missus Youngberg, a DCSD teacher at Rockridge. She is absolutely
amazing teacher and really helped and made a positive impact
on my son, So I thought that would be nice
to hear.

Speaker 10 (47:15):
That's amazing. Thank you for that comment.

Speaker 9 (47:17):
I love getting comments about our amazing teachers.

Speaker 4 (47:20):
So let me ask you one more question about this,
because now my mind is just racing with this. Do
you think we have some really amazing science and stem
in the Douglas County school districts? I mean, really really incredible.
I can only imagine with these students, some of who
are performing at such a high level, it's mind blowing
at our high schools, are they going to be able

(47:40):
to utilize this technology in the things that they're already
working on. Some of the projects that these young people
are working on at various high schools are just like what, Oh, yes, yes,
you're absolutely right.

Speaker 9 (47:51):
We have amazing high school students that have started their
own businesses and are already incredibly successful and don't even
have their diploma yet. And so it's it's our it's
our job as an education system to incubate that right
to take to take that talent and give them everything
that they need to be able to leverage that talent

(48:12):
and become everything that they can be.

Speaker 4 (48:14):
Right, that's the whole point of an education system.

Speaker 9 (48:17):
So yes, I think the implications for many of our
students are amazing, and especially for our students that already
love STEM and computer science and textibotics, robotics. Even in
Douglas County School District, the robotics that we're doing are
far beyond you know, what you and I would think
of as the lego robots, right, I mean, they're doing

(48:38):
robotics that are how do you how do you set
up a manufacturing line with all of those all of
the advanced manufacturing robotics that are required to assemble a rocket, Like,
how do you do that and make that automated? So
robotics is so much more than just the little robots
that you know was around. So the implications are just tremendous.

(48:59):
I I person believe that in the next decade we
will see the kind of wealth creation and progress that
we saw over the last century. It's the acceleration of
change and of technology is going to be absolutely mind blowing,
and our kids.

Speaker 10 (49:15):
Are going to be right in the middle of it.

Speaker 4 (49:16):
I'm talking with Douglas County Superintendent and super nerd Aaron Kaine.
This is you know, everybody knows you've been in the
education field for a really long time, but when you
talk about this, this is certainly I don't think a
conversation I would have with most superintendents that are that
are this capable of explaining the potential because I do

(49:37):
think it's important to get over that bias hump and
I have multiple text messages about that same thing. But
as long as kids are understanding that this is it's
kind of like Wikipedia.

Speaker 7 (49:46):
Right.

Speaker 4 (49:47):
I always saw my daughter like, if you have no
knowledge whatsoever of a subject, start at Wikipedia, but don't
trust Wikipedia.

Speaker 6 (49:55):
Right.

Speaker 4 (49:55):
You start there, you may get the basic framework, but
then you use it as a jumping off point because
Wikipedia is edited by idiots and anybody could put anything
up there. But it's a great starting point. And it
sounds like that's how this is going to be discussed well.

Speaker 9 (50:07):
And it's it's so important for our kids to understand
the garbage in garbage out right effect.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
Right.

Speaker 9 (50:12):
You know, if you think of open AI has become
quote unquote intelligent from all of the content on the Internet,
which is there's a lot of insane content on the Internet.
So that's you know, where those critical analysis pieces absolutely
have to come in.

Speaker 4 (50:26):
One of those things that I wonder, and this isn't
necessarily a question for you, just a general ponder, and
that is, do we get to a point where AI
platforms are going to say, Okay, maybe we're going to
thin the herd on where we're getting the information that
we're getting and we're going to stick with the Library
of Congress, We're going to stick with you know, historical documentation,

(50:48):
We're going to stick with I don't know if there's
a way to do that, or maybe there's an academic
AI platform that would focus on that, because that would
be amazing.

Speaker 9 (50:56):
It's been done, there's absolutely a way to do that,
and it's been done where where some large organizations have
created their own AI platform that's just based on all
of their things versus versus the Internet at large, almost
anything you can imagine as possible, And I do want
to I do want to say that I in no
way believe that AI will replace or supplant teachers. Teachers

(51:19):
are always going to be a critical, critical part of
our kids education, and I think this will actually unleash
teachers to be able to imagine, have to deal with
craft work exactly.

Speaker 4 (51:33):
If I think you've used correctly, this is essentially an
AI teacher assistant. It's a tool, yes, yeah, but that.

Speaker 9 (51:39):
You know it will free our teachers to truly use
their craft yeah, to educate our kids, which is teachers
are just amazing, and the more we can free them
up from other stuff, the better off our children will be.

Speaker 4 (51:52):
This text message I think I agree with wholeheartedly. I
hope these kids can answer questions during an interview without AI, well,
they can in the zoom interview. Maybe not after that.
I actually saw an interview of a guy using AI
in a job interview, oh and just reading the answer
of af AI, and I'm like, that is not the
way to go because AI makes stuff up.

Speaker 9 (52:11):
Well, and that's you know, that's where the rubber meets
the road, right. Our kids have to be ready to
go out and interview. They have to be ready to
sit here and do the Mandy Connell Show without you know,
look a having AI look up all the answers. They
have to be prepared for all of those things. So
we're excited to be on the leading edge of doing that.

Speaker 4 (52:29):
Aaron Kaine, Superintendent of Douglas County School thank you so much.
I find this absolutely a fascinating topic and I can't
wait to revisit in a year and hear what happened.
I want to hear the results of this Lilent program,
so we'll check back in about that when we get back.
I've got so much stuff on the blog today it's
not even funny. We're going to talk about Elizabeth's school
board's decision about some books that I think is a

(52:50):
little bit shady. But someone in this commercial break I mean,
maybe is going to have a real lucky break now.
Completely coincidentally, we happen to be giving away a pair
of season tickets for the Broncos this year, and someone
is going to get registered at some point during the
show today. Maybe maybe your lucky break is coming up.

(53:10):
I think, very very soon. This one is so good
that listeners, I have to share it with you. So
A Rod. You know, I get a ton of pitches
every day, right pitches people want me, hey, would you
like to talk to this person about this? As a
matter of fact, I just sent you a pitch that
I said, yes, I would like to talk to them
about the deficit. This is the one I just got.
Subject Anti Racist Roadmap author interview Mandy A. Rod. Let

(53:35):
me know if you're interested in this interview. Co authors
and racial justice educators Shelley and Christine want to help
people to navigate, interpret, and combat manipulative messaging in the
lead up to the twenty twenty four presidential election. Their book,
Being White Today, A Roadmap for a Positive Anti Racist Life,

(53:56):
offers various scenarios that reveal how race influences white people's
interactions with one another and the consequences of some far
right and anti racist messages heard today. The authors explain
how racial identity affects white people's lives, society at large,
and today's politics, and they offer concrete and useful strategies

(54:17):
to help people have productive conversations with less misunderstanding. And
here's a blurb from one of the reviews. By illustrating
how common far right and anti racist messaging can hinder
a person's white identity development, the authors provide ideas for
disarming tactics that typically shut down conversations about race. They

(54:39):
offer suggested approaches adapted to different roles, such as building relationships,
offering perspective, cultivating curiosity, engaging in critical thinking, practicing self care,
and so many others bill help us understand how people
can navigate the most common messages about race delivered by

(54:59):
both the far right and anti racist today. How today's
media landscape amplifies concerns over white identity, exacerbating social and
political polarization, various reactions to the It's Okay to Be
White meme, and in response, a liberating pathway towards a positive,
anti racist white identity. So do I get them or not?

Speaker 5 (55:23):
Do you want to come clean up? My throw up
now or after the show.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
And by the way, the white women, yeah, these are
white women. By the way, the road map is maybe
we're the problem, ay ride, because I have not given
nearly enough thought to the development of my white identity,
I obviously need to be reflecting on what makes me
a honkying this I am not I am. I'm let's

(55:51):
see what are the things the attributes that make me
super white? Number one? When I am on a hiking trail,
I indeed greet everyone by saying, hey, you guys, have
a good day everyone. I know how I know I'm
extremely punctual, which we learned from that point checklist from
the Smithsonian or somebody that said white features were being

(56:11):
on time. How dare you I know I'm on time?
I am. I'm not super pasty like I tan up nicely.
I really have like Eastern European olive skin, So you
know that's not a bonus here, it's not a bonus.
I have very white hair, and I don't mean color
like I have white person hair. Okay, totally nothing ethnic

(56:33):
about my hair. It's just white person hair. I just
maybe it's my problem. Now, what do I think about?
How do I develop my white identity? Do I need
to do this? Like? How often do white people actually
have a conversation about their white identity. I have never
in my entire fifty five years had one single person
say to me, you know, I'm just not feeling great

(56:53):
about my white identity right now, just not never had
that happen to me, not one time. But think about
this consumes these people. This is this is what this
is what they do to make themselves feel better about
you know that they're better is the studio on fire?

(57:15):
You're blowing a lot of smoke. That was just the
pitch I got people.

Speaker 3 (57:19):
But you need to learn how to navigate, interpret, and
combat your manipulative message as a white person. How dare
you think about those things?

Speaker 4 (57:30):
Well, I'm gonna do that to the person who said
listening in about the Elizabeth school Board. I'll get to
that in the next segment, and I'm going to reach
out to the school board to get them on the air.
We're gonna do that in the next segment. But I
was sure reaching out for this. Oh yeah, Mandy, we
are not white people. That spelled white. We are white people.
According to some That's just why Tea. I never knew

(57:53):
that's what hy Ta meant. There's so many Internet and
acronyms are acronyms. I just stopped. I just stopped trying
to keep up. I sent a text message to my
daughter the other day which is actually very funny. And
you've thought about your whiteness? Yeah, no, but it should
have been, because obviously I have not thought enough about

(58:13):
my white development, and this is a huge problem. Keep
a journal how I thought about my whiteness today. That's
a good idea. Every day. Yeah, And every day I'll
just sit down and I'll say, how do I feel
white today? And how dare I be born this way?

Speaker 8 (58:27):
Right?

Speaker 4 (58:28):
How dare I? Mandy? I'm just learning about time blindness
that my students have, and I just can't understand it. Ty.
It works like this. People who are never on time
want to tell you that they are time blind so
they can excuse their own bad behavior. Being late is
the I is so rude, because essentially, you're saying to

(58:48):
everyone else, my time matters more than your time. Doesn't
matter when I get there, because the party doesn't start
until I get there. It's incredibly narcissistic and a very
annoying trait. I sent this to the queue the other day.
I knew I'd get too old to recognize new celebrities,
but I did not expect to get too old to
recognize what celebrities are now famous for. Every day I go,

(59:10):
is that a new singer? And then a person born
in two thousand and seven goes, oh, no, they're a
people streamer on dupe, and I inch closer to the grave.
And that's how I feel dupe. It was just a
made up okay, gonna say heard of yeah does not
I've been duped A Rod's Poindexter voice is fine? That
from Steve keep it blob. It's it's kind of like,

(59:31):
you know, is that what? Yeah, Mandy, I'm brown and white.
We don't navigate as any group but American. Also, this
white hatred will lead to our destruction like Rhodesia. But see,
it's just us. We're the problem, whitey white heads, we're
the problem over here. We just need to reflect more
on our white identity, focus less on things like being

(59:53):
on time and striving for perfection. I can't do that,
be less white, Mandy. I would pay good money to
hear you interview them. And now we're talking.

Speaker 5 (01:00:06):
I'm really really tempted five six six nine zero comments
for your health text line?

Speaker 4 (01:00:11):
Should the interview?

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:00:12):
Do we take the interview? Yes, you all decided to.
Problem is, generally speaking, I try not to talk to
people that I just think are fundamentally wrong about everything right,
because then there's not a good conversation. Maybe they're not
maybe people not know that people are going to talk
to you next week. Oh yeah, yeah, we're going to
the DNC next week. We have to get some questions.

(01:00:33):
I've got some ideas, yea of people, he says Mandy.
We're officially entering Basic White Girls season and the kickoff
of Pumpkin Spice Lattes, PSL's yoga pants, ugs and Big
Infinity scarves, check and snow Chick and DD. My high
school band director always said better never than late. Your

(01:00:53):
high school band director was a genius. We'll talk about
the Elizabeth School Board when we get back. I want
to talk about the Elizabeth School District. And when people
talk about the danger of interfering with what libraries have
on the shelves, this is exactly what they're talking about.
Because though I am in favor of keeping blatantly graphic
and by graphic, I mean books that specifically talk about

(01:01:16):
graphic sex acts instead of just talking about sex, things
that have graphic imagery or graphic novels that depict sexual activity.
I don't think those should be around little children. But
what we have going on right now in the Elizabeth
School District is well beyond what makes sense. And I'm
going to try and have aroon. I need you to

(01:01:38):
reach out and get hang on one member of the
Elizabeth School Board, any of them, I'll take up for
the president about this particular thing. Because they are now
they have approved a list of around one hundred and
thirty eight books for public review. They unanimously adopted a
protocol to notify parents when they're child checks out such

(01:02:01):
texts that include books like and Frank Diary of a
Young Girl for sexual content, the Color Purple by Alice
Walker for racism and violence, or nineteen eighty four by
George Orwell for graphic violence. And I don't understand this now.
Don't get me wrong. When I was a kid, you
could not check out certain books from our public library

(01:02:24):
if your parent was not there with you checking the
books out. There were certain books of the library and
would look at you and go I don't know how
your mama feels about this. It was like a little
one woman censorship machine. But it was fine, you know,
it was fine. I do have a concern now the
district's library collection materials that veered further into the egregious

(01:02:48):
category have already been pulled from the shelves. There are
nineteen texts like The Perks of Being a Wallflower and
The Kite Runner by Khalid Hassini. The Kite Runner is
about an Afghan boy and there is a sexual assault
in The Kite Runner. It's a very depressing book, like
I just would not recommend it just because it's so depressing,

(01:03:10):
but it's also a very well written book about a
very difficult topic. So this is where you go, Wait
a minute, who's going to be the decider here, Because ultimately,
pornography is in the eye of the beholder, right What
maybe pornographic to you is just a walk in the
park to a Rod's what's pornographic to me? Maybe you know,

(01:03:34):
Friday night for you. So this is where things get difficult,
And this is why I hate saying, you know, I'd
love for them to pull these very very graphic books
because this is the next step, and it's never good.
Being the person who censors more is never the right
position to be in, especially when you're talking about, you know,
putting books in a category where like the Hunger Games,

(01:03:56):
where book kids can't check those out without printal no,
well notification. I mean, I love to know what my
daughter's reading. We talk about books that she's reading all
the time. In this school year, she has to read
three books. I've read two of them. I'm going to
read the third one just because i'd like to read it.
So I think it's an interesting conversation when you ask

(01:04:18):
your kid about what they're reading, because I find it
interesting to hear their perspective about the books that I've
already read. So yeah, I don't know about this. This
just feels like a bridge too far. And apparently I
got an email today saying that that teachers are no
longer allowed to have libraries in their classroom. That's crazy

(01:04:39):
because the libraries the teachers have in their classroom are
generally books that are just designed to get kids to
read right, and in elementary school, they are of a
very specific ilk. Now the teacher has graphic sexual content
in there, then we got to talk. But kids should
not only not be protected from the color purple, which
is just an outstanding book in nineteen eighty four, but

(01:05:06):
they have to be able to read challenging texts and
then be able to talk about why they're challenging. That's
the purpose of school. So this I just you know,
I don't know Dobe live in Elizabeth. Now's the time
five six six nine zero to text me and let
me know how how you feel about this. Mandy, Lol,

(01:05:27):
I was reading Penthouse letters at age thirteen, talk about
fine literature. There you go, there you have it. By
the way, we told a few spots, some have filled
a few spots.

Speaker 5 (01:05:38):
Mount Plagan's manny and of the day today, email me
a Rod at iHeartMedia dot com.

Speaker 4 (01:05:43):
From the ESD direction that the board direct no classroom
libraries of books are maintained within the Elizabeth School District
and that students are encouraged to keep a book, either
from the school library or from home, in their desks
to utilize when necessary. That is not okay. And I
know that from volunteering in Que's classrooms when she was little,

(01:06:03):
that is not okay. We should be making it easier
and easier for kids to read, not harder and harder.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
No, it's Mandy Connell, Many John.

Speaker 4 (01:06:18):
On kla Am ninety more one FM s got wanna
study the ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
Three than Donald keeping sad thing the two minute drill
at two.

Speaker 4 (01:06:37):
Hey, we're I go to too minute mornings.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
Reponfire stories of the day that we don't have more
time for by Ma Jecklin. Let's call. This will take
longer than two minutes.

Speaker 4 (01:06:46):
Are are you up?

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
Here's Mandy Connall.

Speaker 4 (01:06:49):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the two minute Drill. Update on
the January sixth, Grandma, the woman who lives in Falcon
was not given prison time for her participation in the
Jinuary six, twenty twenty one capital breach. Now what a
magistrate judge did Levy for her April fourth conviction on
four misdemeanor counts One year of probation, six months of

(01:07:12):
house arrest with an ankle monitor as soon as she
returns to her residence in Fountain, and a one hundred
and three thousand dollars fine for funds she's raised from
the public. To be clear, video showed it footage shows
Rebecca Levrenz, seventy two years old, of Fountain, entering the
Capitol with a crowd of other demonstrators and leaving after

(01:07:35):
ten minutes because she said protesters learned that congressional leaders
had left the building, and for this she has fined
one hundred and three thousand dollars. She has one year
of probation, six months of house arrest with an ankle monitor.
And this, my friends, is in the United States of America.
Just saying to drill it too. I'm excited to see

(01:07:55):
Aurora move forward with their homeless Navigation center. They purchased
a hotel in January and are now moving forward with
an actual plan. What I like about this is they
laid out legislative intent for operating the navigation campus. The
appointed city council members is overseers of the operation, meaning
that council members will be in charge of annual performance

(01:08:17):
audits on the success of the shelter. They're actually going
to measure whether or not this program is going to work.
I absolutely love it. It incorporates things that I feel
passionate about, and I hope they work and help tons
of people get off the streets and back into a normal,
stable life. It too very interesting development from the American

(01:08:41):
Society of Plastic Surgeons. They've become the first major medical
association to challenge the consensus of medical groups over gender
affirming care for minors. This organization is reviewing and prioritizing
several initiatives that best support evidence space gender surgical care

(01:09:01):
to provide guidance to plastic surgeons. They are rejecting the
standards of care put out by an organization called w
PATH after it was exposed that most of those recommendations
are made for political reasons, not based on good science.
This is a huge rupture because up until now, all
of the US organizations we're supporting gender reforming care for minors.

(01:09:24):
So congratulations to the plastic Surgeons for saying, you know what,
we need to wait until there's better science around this.
It too okay, guys, we need to talk and we
need to talk about cancer. Cancer cases and deaths among
men are projected to skyrocket by twenty fifty. This according
to a new study, especially for those age sixty five

(01:09:45):
and older millennials. I'm talking to you. The research was
published in the journal Cancer, showed a current sharp disparity
in cancer mortality and cases among men is likely to
increase without interventions. Did you guys know that for black men,
prostate cancer is the number two cause of cancer death
and it is entirely beatable. You've just got to get

(01:10:07):
over the ick factor and have your prostate taken care of.
At least get a PSA, and please, but the love
of God, go to the doctor. If you have things
like blood in your urine, just do it. Guys, you
are standing in the way of a longer, happier, healthier life.
Go to the doctor when you need to get the
checks that you need to and live longer and healthier.

(01:10:29):
Trust me, your family will thank you for it. It
too good news on that front. And I'm trying to
think of how to do this story on the radio
with having it without having the FCC rain down upon me.
A new set of research says that men who achieve
a certain standard of sexual satisfaction if you know what

(01:10:51):
I mean, men, you are no longer master of their domain,
if you know what I mean, are less likely to
get prostate cancer. So have some fun, either with someone
or by yourself. It doesn't matter. You just fighting prostate cancer. Guys,
you're welcome to drill it too. And finally, the electric

(01:11:12):
vehicle I have been waiting for, and I am not kidding,
the extended range electric vehicle is finally a thing. And
unlike hybrid vehicles, this car has an electric engine, batteries,
and then it has a small combustible engine. Your car
is never powered directly by that small combustible engine. Its

(01:11:34):
job is to solely recharge the batteries as the car
drives along, so you can get up to seven hundred
miles on one charge. And that combustible gas engine does
not take a lot of gas as well. It's only
in China from what I can see, but here's hoping
this technology spreads to more automakers, especially ones who sell

(01:11:54):
cars here in the United States. Would you do that,
a rod, Would you buy an electric vehicle with a
seven hundred mile range? You have the capacity to pull
up to BUCkies, put a little gas in there and
keep going. Uh, yes, I would. Can I tell you
today I had a thought.

Speaker 5 (01:12:08):
And I just looked up how much they are For
a second today, I said, you know, the cyber truck
would actually be kind of cool to have.

Speaker 4 (01:12:14):
Oh my goodness, do you know how much they are
like one hundred, and I saw one on the used
market for one thirty two.

Speaker 5 (01:12:20):
Unless I looked something wrong up the starting base is
only thirty nine thousand.

Speaker 4 (01:12:24):
No, I'm looking again.

Speaker 5 (01:12:26):
No Tesla cyber IM just saying waitning, no, yeah, that
can't be right now. The starter it looks like, oh
I no, no, that's a different Tesla. The cyber truck
starts at seventy nine.

Speaker 4 (01:12:37):
Yeah on the on the secondary market for like one ten. Yikes.
The price of the twenty twenty four Tesla cyber truck
starts at eighty one thousand, eight hundred and ninety five
dollars and goes up to one hundred and one thousand,
nine hundred and eighty five dollars depending on the trim
and options. Here we must have thought, I'm in another
Tesla of some kind.

Speaker 5 (01:12:55):
Maybe maybe seventy nine thousand is the starting MSRP.

Speaker 4 (01:13:00):
Did you know not having cancer is a good thing?
This texter says, correct generally speaking, every day I wake
up without cancer, I'm like, you know what, I don't
have cancer. That's something this texter said. Maybe, how do
you feel about Tina Peters being found innocent of the
charges regarding wood and we talked about this earlier in
the show, but I'll quickly recap my position. Tina Peter's

(01:13:21):
attorneys cast enough doubt on whether or not Gerald Wood,
the IT contractor, was in the on the gig. They
cast enough doubt and that is why reasonable doubts all
that's required to acquit someone. And at some point early
in the deliberations, the jury asked if they could just
basically vote hung jury on some charges. And it's obvious

(01:13:42):
to me they were talking about those identity theft charges
and those were serious. Those were serious felonies. So it's
very good for her that they did not. She did
not get found guilty, and that was really the only
part of the defense that was really, you know, good.

(01:14:03):
Some people are making hey of the fact she was
not allowed to quote mount a defense she wanted to mount.
That was before because the jury or excuse me, back
that strain up to the station there the train of thought.
She had already been told by the judge that that
was a form of jury nullification and that she could
not argue the ends justifying the means, especially because what

(01:14:24):
she thought she was going to find she didn't find.
So there you go. Oh, thank you combustion engine. I
did say combustible. That's a completely different thing, and you
really want that, So you just put a generator on
your roof, same thing you could, but this is already
incorporated and you don't have to have the the you know,
power cord flapping in the wind. That's something right there

(01:14:48):
now that China is doing. I'm sure it will happen
here and you never Yeah, I may buy an electric car.
You don't know. We'll have to find out on the
Common Spirit Health text line at five six sixth nine.
Oh Mandy, are you electric vehicles? Please check out Edison Motors,
a Canadian company making electric semis with generators. They also
have retrofit hits for pickups. You know, my only issue

(01:15:09):
with the trucks that are battery powered is they have
so much weight from the batteries. So maybe with the
generator they don't have to have as many batteries. But
if you know right now, if you're in a car
and you get creamed by a semi, there's a chance
you'll survive if you get creamed by one of these semis,

(01:15:33):
Although I don't know how much more weight they could
add to it as a payload I'd love to know
what the payload limitations on those are, because if you
get much heavier in a truck, you can't stop that thing.
Can you imagine an electric vehicle that weighed even more
twice as much as a regular truck in the mountains?
Holy mackerel Mandy celebrating being cancer free, celebrates white power.

(01:15:55):
Oh gus, see there, I am a rod. I did
not develop my whiteness properly. Dang it, dang it, dang it.
Ross read an interesting email from somebody who purchased an
electric vehicle this morning. All the subsidies and everything from
the government are a complete joke. And yes, indeedy I
got that same email. So for those of you that
did not hear it, let me share that with you

(01:16:19):
right now. Wait, hang on, that's about a car.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
Hang on.

Speaker 4 (01:16:25):
I don't know where it is, dag nab it. I'll
find it later. But it is like, by the time
you buy the car and get all the subsidies for
putting this stuff in, the car's like four grand.

Speaker 5 (01:16:36):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:16:36):
I don't want one of those cars, though, I want
one of these extended range electric vehicles. They just look
so so cool. Can we talk for just a second,
a Rod, what is going on with Coach Prime? He's
he has he has taken an adversarial stance with the
media that I'm guessing I'm not there every day. I don't.

(01:16:58):
I don't go to these press conferences, but I spent
more than my fair share of time in sports press conferences.
And there are reporters who sort of develop an antagonistic
relationship with a coach. Steve Spurger at Florida, he had
guys that he would relentlessly pick on. But it was
good spirited, even though it was mean spirited. I know
that sounds ridiculous. The guys that he was directing it

(01:17:20):
at got it right. They understood that he was just
giving him a hard time. But Coach Prime seems to
be picking some fights right now. Have you been following
along with this? I have.

Speaker 5 (01:17:30):
I mean it's tough, especially with the stuff going on
with CBS.

Speaker 4 (01:17:33):
People know. I don't know exactly. I know the story
is Cboh, So here's the backstory is he looks at
the guy from the local CBS affiliate and he said, yeah,
I'm not talking to you, and he said, I'm not
doing anything with CBS. Next question, it ain't got nothing
to do with you. It's above that. It ain't got
nothing to do with you. I've got love for you,

(01:17:54):
I appreciate and respect you. It ain't got nothing to
do with you. They know what they did. And the
dude he said, I'm I'm I'm local, I'm not national,
and Dionne said, CBS is CBS. All right, I'm looking
at you in the eye as a man. I respect you,
of got love for you. But what they did was foul.
But nobody knows what they did.

Speaker 5 (01:18:11):
And everyone's speculating it could be related to a story
they did on on Shiloh. I think there's a again,
a lot of speculation. No one knows for sure. But again,
the local affiliates are on a day to day very
very very limited in their connection to the national like CBS,
for ex So almost.

Speaker 4 (01:18:32):
Yeah, I've worked in a CBS now it. I worked
in a building in Florida that had a television station
and there was complete separation of church and state. There
was there was really very little interaction between the local
affiliates and the national arms. So I don't know he
went after Sean Keeler, here's a columnist for the Denver Post,

(01:18:54):
and you know there's an old adage, don't buy don't
pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel,
and it's very true. I mean I've used that before
when people have come at me. I'm like, really, because
I have a show for three hours a day, five
days a week. If I wanted to relentlessly attack you
three hours a day for five days a week, I
could do it.

Speaker 5 (01:19:12):
Yeah, And that's not the intention, and we love Deon.
It's just a matter of just fairness across the board.
I'm confused. Just fairness across the board, that's really anyone's asking.

Speaker 4 (01:19:22):
For, because honestly, Bobby Bowden would not have done that.
And for me, I want him to be like Bobby Bowden.
That's what I want from Dion. I mean, he's worked
for some great coaches, but Bobby Bowden one of the
greatest college coaches of all time and a stunning, wonderful
gentleman at the same time. That's who I want him
to be. So whatever's going on, somebody check on him.

(01:19:44):
Get him a Snickers bar, see if that helps. We
don't know, he could just be hungry. When we get back.
Let's talk a little Japanese culture for a moment, one
of my favorite people from cruising Tour join me. She
is Bethany, Manchester. She is in charge of all kinds
of stuff, but she's also been everywhere. Is there anywhere
you haven't been that you're ready to travel to Bethany
because you've been in the travel industry for how long?

(01:20:06):
Like a long time.

Speaker 11 (01:20:09):
And in the travel industry just about twenty years without
disclosing my age when you were. Some of the destinations
that are kind of on my hit list are definitely exotics.

Speaker 8 (01:20:20):
Madagascar is on there, Mongolia is really up there for me.
But just one that's a little closer to home is
definitely the Dua River in Portugal, which is on my
hit list hopefully for the next next year.

Speaker 4 (01:20:32):
Hopefully Portugal is definitely on my list. And then what's
that little island that's right off Portugal The Oh shoot,
I'm the the Azores. That's it. I want to do
Portugal and the Azores all on one trip. We're not
talking about that today. We are talking about Japan, which
is our next Mandy Connell adventure, which is going to
be incredible. I have only been to Japan once when

(01:20:55):
I was a flight attendant and I went and laid
over in Narita, Tokyo and did not have any sort
of cultural experiences. So this trip that we're planning, what
kind of cultural stuff are we going to be doing?
Because this culture goes back thousands and thousands of years.

Speaker 8 (01:21:14):
Yes, Japan is one of the oldest civilizations that has
a beautiful and very diverse history. And one of the
best things about going to a country that has this
much history and civilization is linking back.

Speaker 6 (01:21:28):
To their culture.

Speaker 8 (01:21:29):
And what's so beautiful is that Japan is very modern
thinking as far as technology and ways to kind of
make things work that are very sensible that the rest
of the world looks at.

Speaker 7 (01:21:41):
In awe as being very modern, but.

Speaker 8 (01:21:43):
Everything always connects back to your tradition and history, to
their core values. So they're kind of known as the
Yin and Yin Yin Yang society and the land of
contrast because of that. So things like UNESCO sites the
country has currently twenty one with eight pending, which hopefully

(01:22:05):
should come through for twenty twenty five for when all
of you visit along your way. And it's also known
for the eighty thousand temples, in which most of them
date back almost one thousand years.

Speaker 4 (01:22:16):
And see that's the fact, that's the fascinating part about
for me because the first time I remember the first
time I went to Europe and I stood in a
church that had been built in seven hundred, right, so
we as Americans, that's ancient, that's ancient. Then I had
the chance to go to Greece and see that level
of ancient. I thought, well, Europe is they're like a
baby country and we're a baby country. But then Japan

(01:22:39):
is truly an ancient culture. They've been around for how
many years? I mean, like how far does this history
go back?

Speaker 7 (01:22:47):
The history goes back to the second century.

Speaker 6 (01:22:52):
Really, that's dating back. So yeah, it's a huge history.

Speaker 8 (01:22:57):
So for example, many people think of Japan, they instantly
think of the Japanese gardens, which have a great little
mixture that all of them have to have stone, water
and plants. They're very minimalized, very natural kind of bringing
a setting of like reflection and meditation. Those gardens actually
date back to the fourth century that all the imperial

(01:23:17):
palaces would have them, and they're still building them today
in this with the same foundation of stones, water and plants.

Speaker 4 (01:23:23):
So the Japanese gardens, are we going to be visiting
any gardens that are truly ancient in origin. Obviously plants
come and go, but that would be super cool.

Speaker 8 (01:23:35):
There are many choices for short excurgeons throughout so some
of the Japanese gardens there, and I suggest visiting more
than one of them, because as your cruise is coming
down you start off.

Speaker 7 (01:23:46):
The first couple of ports are very rural areas.

Speaker 8 (01:23:50):
Compared to the massive cities that most people think of
when they think of Japan.

Speaker 6 (01:23:53):
Such as Tokyo and Kyoto.

Speaker 8 (01:23:56):
Because the country has over six thousand islands, Oh wow,
as well as three fourths of the entire country is forest.

Speaker 4 (01:24:05):
Holy cow? How big? What most people? I have this
vision of Japan as being very small. So is it
small or I just have this warped view of how
big it is?

Speaker 7 (01:24:18):
Well, it is small.

Speaker 8 (01:24:19):
As far as the areas that are actually populated because
they they're very they have a very large population, but
in a very small area because they're only actually populating
and living within about a fourth.

Speaker 6 (01:24:28):
Of the country.

Speaker 4 (01:24:29):
Oh wow. Wow. Somebody just said, enjoy the fancy toilets
in Japan. Is this something I need to worry about
the toilets in Japan?

Speaker 6 (01:24:38):
No, you're going to love them.

Speaker 4 (01:24:40):
Wait, what makes them? They're smart? They're warm, smart warm toilets.
That's a reason to go on vacation with us. Now,
what is your favorite part of Japan? What you've been
several times? Have you done this trip before?

Speaker 8 (01:24:57):
I haven't done this trip with celebrity unfortunately, but it
is a great one.

Speaker 7 (01:25:01):
The way that's it's put together, it's a toss up.

Speaker 8 (01:25:08):
I do like big cities like Tokyo and Kyoto, and
what's so great about both of them again going back
to that modern thinking, but going back to their roots,
is you're going to find ancient temples and tombs and
ruins that date back right next to or built around
modern buildings that were built in the last ten years.

Speaker 7 (01:25:28):
And they really get the modern buildings.

Speaker 8 (01:25:31):
And the old architecture to really compliment and embrace each other.
So that's kind of why I generate to larger cities,
and I generally don't. I usually stay.

Speaker 7 (01:25:40):
More in rural areas.

Speaker 8 (01:25:43):
But I did leave a piece of my heart behind
when I was in Hiroshima. Twenty twenty five is actually
eightieth anniversary of the first atomic bomb. But what really
generated with me was Peace Park because now, how Harokshima.
The locals don't view it as what happened back eighty

(01:26:04):
years ago. They're actually viewing it as a beacon at peace,
and it prides itself on a natural beauty and the
regrowth and the new life that has actually come up
since then. And it was actually just a beautiful way
not only for the memorial to remember those who lost
their lives and what happened there that day, but more
importantly how they viewed, how they handled it, and how

(01:26:27):
they evolved and how everyone became better people because of it.

Speaker 4 (01:26:30):
You know what's interesting is We're going to a wedding
in Albuquerque right before we go to Japan next year,
and I'm going to go to the Nuclear Science Museum
in Albuquerque and learn about the bomb from that perspective,
and then go to Nagasaki and Heroshima to learn about
the bomb from that their perspective. And personally, that's one
of the things I'm looking the most forward to is

(01:26:51):
to seeing how these cities have responded and reinvigorated from
what happened eighty years ago. I mean, I think that
we have a perception as Americans that everything was flattened
and nothing has been rebuilt. But obviously that's not accurate.

Speaker 8 (01:27:09):
No, Japan has done an amazing job. I mean obviously
during World War Two, Kyoto and Tokyo are also hit
and devastated as well, and they've completely rebuilt.

Speaker 6 (01:27:22):
And again you'll.

Speaker 8 (01:27:22):
Really see it as you're even if you just stroll
the streets in the city and all of a sudden
you see this, this pile of what you think is ruins,
and then as you're walking up to it, you see
how they made a historic piece of art, an architecture
that was there previously, and how they made it into
a modern building that the framework.

Speaker 6 (01:27:39):
It's actually quite beautiful.

Speaker 8 (01:27:40):
How they they took a devastated situation and really turned
it around. And that's a piece of what Japan has
that I don't think any other country even comes close to.

Speaker 4 (01:27:50):
So I want to ask you, what is your what
is the What would you say to someone who who
hasn't thought about traveling in Japan? What's the upside here?
Why do.

Speaker 6 (01:28:03):
The upside is?

Speaker 7 (01:28:04):
It really is jaw dropping in very unique ways.

Speaker 8 (01:28:08):
I know one of our listeners was just talking about
the heated smart toilets, and it's all about the little things.

Speaker 6 (01:28:14):
For me in Japan.

Speaker 7 (01:28:15):
So, for example, the first time that I went, I
was very intimidated.

Speaker 8 (01:28:17):
I was young, going there by myself. I jump into
a taxi cab. The service was incredible, having conversations back
and forth as I'm a ride in to the hotel.
He reached back with his white glove, White glove service
on a basic taxi. As you get out of the vehicle,

(01:28:38):
he noticed it was raining, ran around the cab, made
sure that I didn't get what with the umbrella. These
types of simple things that I think were more alive
in our culture one hundred years ago. It's their heartbeat
of what Japan is. They're so warm and welcoming kind,

(01:28:58):
the safety in the country and one of the safest
countries in the world. You can fall asleep on one
of their trains or on a park bench or one
of the Japanese gardens as you're sitting there doing your meditation,
and you'll wake up, your wallet, your purse, every thing
will still be there.

Speaker 6 (01:29:13):
Hopefully I don't sleep too long and the boat leads
without you.

Speaker 4 (01:29:15):
However, Yeah, that was one of the was that shocking
for you as a Philly girl to see how safe
everything was and that you could fall asleep and not
get robbed, not get robbed.

Speaker 6 (01:29:27):
So very very low crime rate.

Speaker 7 (01:29:29):
And it is also impeccably clean.

Speaker 8 (01:29:34):
And it is an understatement that you can eat off
of the streets in Japan in every major city. They
really take pride in their environment, their city, and their country.
You'll never find people littering, you won't find people eating
on the streets.

Speaker 6 (01:29:48):
It is immaculate.

Speaker 4 (01:29:50):
Well, I talked with Doug earlier and he said, hey, Mandy,
because they booked the state. The travel company books different
parts of the trip in different chunks, and they just
got a screaming good deal on airfare. So I think
there's going to be a little bit of a price
adjustment down and everybody who's already signed up is going
to get that. But they're working on that now. So

(01:30:11):
I'm super excited about that. This textor just said there
is no downside to Japan. If you want to go
with us, you've got to go and sign up. Go
to mandyconnelltrip dot com, or just call Cruise intour because
they can answer all of the questions. One thing I did,
and I don't know if you know the answer to this.
We have a lot of people that want to go
as singles, and I keep getting emails saying, you know,

(01:30:31):
can I go by myself? What's the situation with that, Bethany, Well.

Speaker 6 (01:30:37):
We are working on that now.

Speaker 8 (01:30:38):
I was just talking to Megan and our team inside
the office and we do have a couple that should
be coming.

Speaker 7 (01:30:45):
In in the next day or so.

Speaker 4 (01:30:46):
Oh, excell So we are.

Speaker 6 (01:30:47):
We are increasing that a lotment.

Speaker 4 (01:30:48):
Okay, So call one eight hundred and three eight three
thirty one thirty one to get on that list, especially
if you want to travel as a single. That any
Good to see you, my friend, Hope I see you
again very very soon, same too.

Speaker 7 (01:31:02):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 4 (01:31:02):
All right. That's Bethanie Manchester with cruise and tour. So
if you want to go, now's the time to sign up.
Low crime rate anything to do with not having guns,
I don't know the answer to that question. I think
it's a cultural thing more than that. And here's the thing,
you guys, we have a you know, we have a
firearm culture here in the United States, but not everybody's

(01:31:27):
out there using it illegally. And our firearm culture has
been influenced for many, many years. If you don't have
that firearm culture because you've already been disarmed like the Venezuelans,
then things can go well, or they could go quite sideways.
If you look at the article that I have on

(01:31:47):
the blog today about Britain. As a matter of fact, Britain,
hang on one second, there you go, a rod you're
taking care of had to do a little tech work
there on the air. So is now threatening to arrest
people who say mean things on the internet, even if
they live in another country. And I'm like, what, But

(01:32:10):
the British people, they're living in a totalitarian society where
if you say something as egregious as you know what,
I don't think that men should be boxing women in
the Olympics, they'll come after you for hate speech. So
our gun culture is intimately attached to our freedom of speech.
And don't think for a second that it could not

(01:32:30):
happen here. What's happening in Venezuela where the people have
been so downtrodden and so disarmed that they can no
longer fight back against a dictatorial regime? Oh oh gosh,
a rod? If I hit, yes, now you are my apology, sir.
So yeah, ask your guest about all the Japanese girls
that get gang raped on the buses and subways. I

(01:32:52):
don't think that we're going to talk about that. It
sounds like the Japanese trust us to get out. But
it's true. Please don't tell me there's just a great
country that they don't have evil in it. Well, nobody
said that. I mean, literally, where do you think we
go on these vacations? What do you think? How do
you think that works? How do you think that happens?

(01:33:15):
You think we're going to the places where people are
being gang right? No, No, we're not. No, we're not.
There's evil in every country, but I'm not gonna not
go somewhere because someone is evil. You'd never leave your house.
You couldn't even go anywhere. Forget about it, Mandy, Albuquerque
mostly sucks, but if you want some fine dining while

(01:33:37):
you're there, you should go to Los Pablados. We are
going down for my nephew's wedding, so it's very exciting
and we are very excited about the whole thing, and
I'm looking forward to it, and I'm looking forward to
the Nuclear Museum in Albuquerque. Now A rod is gathering
up right now. Three listeners via zoom to play of
the Day now a Ron, There's no way I can

(01:33:57):
play through zoom, can I? Because would be the only
even Stevens way. Okay, so we're gonna have to make
some did you already decide? Are you yelling in the world?
I mean, he's he's doing stuff right now. I'm supposed
to just be to keep talking until until he gets ready. Okay,
I think he's getting ready. Now he's letting people in,

(01:34:18):
he's putting on his headset.

Speaker 6 (01:34:21):
Is it time?

Speaker 4 (01:34:23):
Is it time?

Speaker 5 (01:34:23):
Now?

Speaker 4 (01:34:23):
It's time? We are we are ready. It's time for
the most who's who's doing the okay? And now it's
time for the most exciting segment all the radio of
its kind and of the day. It's all right, that
wasn't bad. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. Okay,
I've got Oh. Now, they don't even have their cameras on,
so I can't see who I'm about to face. No, Matt,

(01:34:47):
Ashley and Matt. Oh, there's Ashley. She's not afraid. She
turned her camera on so I could see who. Take
it down right now? All right? Matt, though, is not
going to show his face. Matt, can you can you
see us? Can you hear it? There he is. Hey,
you ask and you receive Yes. Was in the Azores
last week. It was beautiful. I'm still going to the a'srs.
It's not even funny. All right, let's talk about how.

Speaker 2 (01:35:09):
We do this.

Speaker 4 (01:35:09):
Oh there's Matt. Hey, Matt, how you doing? That's ready
for his daily beating? You Mandy? You don't have your
own camera and they can't even see you. Oh why
is my camera off? I don't know it was on
just a second ago. Oh, there we go, Sorry, kids,
there we go.

Speaker 2 (01:35:24):
Hello.

Speaker 4 (01:35:25):
See how you can see the studio all in there
you get a little window into the world. All right,
what is our dad joke up to day? Please? Hey,
ron I can't take credit for this one. Okay, this
is a Michael Brown listener. Ron k howe? Okay, I've
submitted this morning? Got it?

Speaker 5 (01:35:38):
Have you heard about the latest dance craze on TikTok?
All you have to do is avoid other people, don't
answer questions, and skirt the issues.

Speaker 4 (01:35:45):
It's called the Harris Waltz. Nice. Yeah, that's very funny
and a political dad joke. Okay, today's word of today?
Please it is an adjective. Okay, zomped? You know what
it means zomped, z o n K mean like sleeping,
you zonked out? Maybe act you want to take a
shot at it, zoked zarked.

Speaker 7 (01:36:07):
That's what I would say. An adjective.

Speaker 4 (01:36:09):
It is an adjective. You're tired or sleepy? Umm, it's
recently in the ballpark? Yes, exhausted or asleep? There you go,
all right? In what year did the Star Spangled banner
become the US national anthem? Has to be after the
War of eighteen twelve, So eighteen thirty, seventeen thirty three,

(01:36:31):
nineteen thirty three, Oh here comes back nineteen thirty three.
Let's see here he sounded like you knew in nineteen
thirty one. Very close. However, the song was commonly used
before then. In nineteen sixteen, President Woodrow Wilson announced that
the song would be played at all official events. Now,
for this round of Jeopardy, we're gonna do something we
don't normally do. We're gonna wait until the end of

(01:36:51):
the question because you guys have a little bit of
a disadvantage here. You know, you have to shout out
your name. Ashley, shout out Ashley, and Matt.

Speaker 2 (01:37:04):
Matt.

Speaker 4 (01:37:05):
See they got a very big disadvantage right there. Okay,
here we go. Ashley, you have to wait for go. Okay, wait, yes, Actually, and.

Speaker 5 (01:37:15):
Matt, you guys can blurt out your names anytime, you know,
but Mandy has to wait for the word go.

Speaker 4 (01:37:21):
Okay, Okay, I like that. Okay, that's good. All right.

Speaker 5 (01:37:24):
Category is Ashley and Matt to Mandy. Left to your
own devices.

Speaker 4 (01:37:28):
Left to your own device. Okay, here we go again. Ashley, Matt.
You can say your name whenever when.

Speaker 5 (01:37:35):
This device is on hook, the speech circuit is disabled
and the ringing circuit is connected. Go Matt, I'll give
it to you the form of a question.

Speaker 4 (01:37:48):
Who what is? Who is?

Speaker 2 (01:37:51):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:37:52):
Yeah, that's right, yes, yes, yes, okay. Correct.

Speaker 5 (01:37:55):
The name of this ancient device used for calculations is.

Speaker 4 (01:37:58):
From the Latin for count board. Go, No, it was.

Speaker 2 (01:38:06):
Matt, Matt, Matt.

Speaker 4 (01:38:08):
Were you gonna say ABOc? Isn't gonna be honest?

Speaker 5 (01:38:12):
Wash, We're moving on. It's still one zero, okay, Okay.
On a crash cart in a hospital, you'll find this
device that shocks the heart. That is correct, Okay, I'm
back on the board all right. So Matt one, Mandy one,

(01:38:32):
Ashley zero.

Speaker 12 (01:38:34):
It's killing me to wait until you say Otis's son
Charles improved on the device that slowed a speeding This,
whether or not the rope broke Ashley.

Speaker 4 (01:38:48):
Correct, is.

Speaker 2 (01:38:52):
One.

Speaker 4 (01:38:52):
We have to die. Here we go, good luck.

Speaker 5 (01:38:56):
Stretch a balloon over a glass, secure with bands, then
place a straw on top, and you have a simple
version of this device that measures air pressure.

Speaker 4 (01:39:06):
Go, Mandy, what's a barometer? Manda?

Speaker 5 (01:39:14):
Not Mandy Ashley and Matt very very well, respectable.

Speaker 4 (01:39:17):
We've got to figure out a way to do this
where I can play through zoom. No, I'm not right.
There was perfect. No, it's too hard for me not
to say I don't care. Maybe it's really hard to say. Guys,
thanks for playing.

Speaker 2 (01:39:27):
Matt.

Speaker 4 (01:39:27):
What are you snacking on right now? What our honey roast?
Well done? Thank you guys for playing today. We appreciate you.
Was it everything you'd read it? Of course we're studio. Yeah,

(01:39:48):
there you go. I like, I'm gonna close this so
we can go bye, guys, see you later, because we
got to make room for ka sports coming up next.
I'm sure the guy is going to be The guys
are gonna be talking about all kinds of stuff and
things and whatnot. We will be back tomorrow. Do we
have a half hour tomorrow? What do we have tomorrow?
Hour show tomorrow? What hour? Lots is gonna happen in

(01:40:11):
that hour? Jam packed? Trust me on this because it's
my show and I'm gonna make that happen. Join us
tomorrow for an hour at twelve, Keep it in the
meantime right here on KOA