12-30-24 FULL SHOW - Guest Host Deborah Flora joined by Riley Gaines and Kevin Sorbo

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy connellyn On KLAM ninety four, ONEm Gott, Kevin.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Nicety, through Grey Connall, Keith sad Bab.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
Welcome to the Mandy Connall Show. This is Deborah Flora
sitting in for my friend Mandy Connall, who hopefully is
getting ready to have a wonderful New Year.

Speaker 5 (00:36):
I hope you are as well.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
It was great to be in this chair one week
ago and wishing you all a very merry Christmas and
happy Hanukah, and now I get to wish you a
happy New Year, which is wonderful to do. We're gonna
have a great show today.

Speaker 5 (00:50):
I hope you stay tuned for all of it.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
Coming up at twelve thirty bottom of the hour, after
the first break.

Speaker 5 (00:56):
We'll have Kevin Sorbo.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
Many of you know him as Hercules or perhaps the
actor that is most known for God's Not Dead and
many other inspirational movies like that.

Speaker 5 (01:09):
He's also a friend, and we're going to.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Have him coming up and joining us, and then you
aren't going to want to miss. At the top of
the next hour, at one o'clock, we are going to
have Riley Gains. Many of you know Riley for her bold,
brave and courageous stand after tying Leah Thomas, who was
failing as a male swimmer, moved over to the female

(01:34):
category and they tied in that famous race and they
gave the trophy to Thomas. Anyway, well, she's going to
be with us to talk about some of the major
changes that are shifting.

Speaker 5 (01:44):
If you haven't felt it, there's.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
A tectonic shift happening in this country towards common sense,
towards protecting women and girls' sports and safe spaces. And
I think no one deserves more credit for that than
Riley and all the other young women that she's inspired
to be bold and courageous and stand up. But before that,
I think we're gonna kick it off with some good

(02:07):
old fashioned New Year's resolution conversation. Okay, you may or
may not be someone who looks into New Year's resolutions.

Speaker 5 (02:16):
A lot of people do, a lot of people don't.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
It's kind of a fifty to fifty split. And I
do want you to text at five six six nine
zero if you have a New Year's resolution going into
twenty twenty five.

Speaker 5 (02:28):
What is it?

Speaker 4 (02:29):
Would love to hear five six, six nine zero. And
if you think New Year's regular resolutions are just playing hogwash,
want to hear from you too about that.

Speaker 5 (02:37):
But as we head into.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
This, I want to share some stats with you, and
then yes, I'm gonna I'm gonna get personal and ask
a rod Hiss, so I know he's prepared for that.
But New Year's resolutions, let's just look at this phenomenon
for a while. I'm reading that it actually goes all
the way back to the Babylonians would have a ceremony. Obviously,
it usually involves some kind of pagan ritual, but they

(02:58):
had a ceremony where they talked about their promises for
the new year, and I don't think probably some of
their still in the same category. I'm not sure what
their resolutions were. But here's some statistics for New Year's
resolutions today here on the Monday before New Year is
leading into twenty twenty five.

Speaker 5 (03:19):
Now, the reality is.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
Fifty percent of people, according to some statistics, make New
Year's resolutions, but less than ten percent of the people
who make resolutions actually keep them. We're going to talk
about how you can do that.

Speaker 5 (03:32):
In a moment.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
But what are some of the top ones this year?
The number one for this year, coined to Forbes, I
always put a really great list and reached far beyond
business items. The top New Year's resolution this year is
to improve fitness.

Speaker 5 (03:46):
Now, there are many other.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
Categories below, like lose weight, eat healthy.

Speaker 5 (03:50):
Et cetera.

Speaker 4 (03:52):
So improve fitness forty eight percent, improve finances thirty eight percent,
and improve mental health the thirty six percent. Now what's
interesting about this is that's what you would usually think
they are last year at this time, and we're gonna
talk a lot about the year in review and why
this was probably the top one one year ago. The

(04:13):
top New Year's resolution for twenty twenty three, one year
ago was improved mental health forty five percent.

Speaker 5 (04:22):
Put that number one. When you think.

Speaker 4 (04:24):
About where our country was one year ago and even
over the past year, some of the ups and downs
that we'll talk about, you can kind of figure out why.
And that was highest highest UH for gen Z forty
nine percent. Now, let's remember gen Z uh and I've
got a couple of gen zs that we've been raising.
They've grown up on a steady diet of apocalyptical uh,

(04:48):
calls of what's going to happen, hearing that you know,
we're all going to you know, h double l and
a handbasket, all of that, as well as a lot
of strains, so pressures and experimentations.

Speaker 5 (05:02):
So it's not surprising.

Speaker 4 (05:03):
But what I find interesting is this year that is
not the number one anymore. In fact, it went down
to third. The number one is improved fitness. I think
there is a general sense that we're turning a corner.

Speaker 5 (05:15):
And it's not just the election, although.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
With that will bring some change policies to the things
that shouldn't even be partisan, by the way, security, securing
our border, getting inflation under control, basically getting crime under
control as well. These are things that have been plaguing
people a lot in their thoughts. So the reality is

(05:39):
the number one is improved fitness.

Speaker 5 (05:41):
Now I like some of the other ones.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
Some of the other also mentions we're make more time
for loved ones, always a good one, learn a new skill,
make more time for hobbies, improve work life balance, travel more,
et cetera. So here's the question, a Rod, what is
your New Year's resolution?

Speaker 6 (06:00):
First of all, last year's raging success. Last year's was twofold.

Speaker 7 (06:04):
Number one is the one I'll well, i'll say number
the real number one after.

Speaker 6 (06:08):
Us because it's my twenty twenty five as well.

Speaker 7 (06:10):
But travel more was last year's and we did a
plethora of it. We went on our first ever cruise
to the Cariban this year. Now we've gone to oh
my goodness, we've gone to New Orleans.

Speaker 6 (06:24):
We've gone the whole bunch places I can't eve think about.

Speaker 7 (06:26):
But the number one that will continue to always be,
probably for the rest of my life, is to continue.

Speaker 6 (06:31):
To keep the weight off.

Speaker 7 (06:32):
I just passed two years of having lost one hundred
pounds and awesome, thank you.

Speaker 6 (06:37):
I just want to keep on keeping it off.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
Well, you know what, and a Rod, you are the
exception because when we talked about, only half of people
make New Year's resolutions, and of those have only ten
percent keep them. So you are amongst the high elite
of New Year's resolutions. All right, A Rod, awesome, you
know what.

Speaker 5 (06:58):
I think?

Speaker 4 (06:59):
That is full deserve, my man. That is awesome. Well,
and I think then you know some of what I'm
going to share about how you can keep your New
Year's resolutions is something you obviously have done. A Rod
I mean because when we talk about this, on average
a resolution will last less than four months, less than
four months, so that's you know, one third of a year. Now,

(07:22):
I'm not hey, no shame here. If you've struggled before,
that's a new Year's always a good time to start again.
And by the way, though, you don't want to wait
for a new year. I always remember this story and
a good friend who was a life coach, and she
talked about how one of her dear friend's husband vowed
to lose weight like a rod has successfully done Kim
n off over one hundred pounds for two years.

Speaker 5 (07:43):
And it was it was over.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
Thanksgiving and he said, you know what, in the new year,
I'm going to lose that weight. Well, unfortunately, we're never
promised tomorrow. And he passed away before Christmas from heart attack.
So not to be a downer's we kuld got this show.
But by the way, you don't have to wait for
the new year. You don't have to wait for the
new year at all. So what I want you to.

Speaker 5 (08:05):
Do text your new Year's resolution.

Speaker 4 (08:07):
If you have one to five, six, six nine zero,
already getting some good ones in. We're going to share
those before we go to the top of the hour
and we'll share them throughout the show. But here's some keys,
because I always think it's interesting. It doesn't have to
be a New Year's resolution. But there's some people who
actually make lasting change. You know, you hear people talk
about this. Some people say, oh, nobody can change. Others say,

(08:28):
you know what, it's so easy, Well, it's really not.
Human nature makes it so that it isn't. But you
can change. I'm grateful I can always pray and ask
for a little help from God on.

Speaker 5 (08:37):
These changes I need to make.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
But what are the keys to lasting change? I love
these I was looking and reading because there's some changes
I want to make in the new year.

Speaker 5 (08:45):
Also, Number one.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
Be specific, be specific, and make it manageable. So many
people say I'm going to lose one hundred pounds. Now
Era did that, but I'm sure he broke it down
into little.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
Pieces along the way.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
For instance, instead of saying get fit, you can't commit
to walking twenty minutes each day, break it down into
douablel chunks and say, if I'm going to lose one
hundred pounds or I'm going to lose twenty pounds, or
how are you going to do it.

Speaker 5 (09:11):
Break it down.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
Instead of saying I'm going to learn a new language
this year, maybe say every day, I'm going to learn
two to three words or phrases.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
The key is not just to say where you want
to end up, although you got to keep your eye
on that.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
You have to talk about how you're going to get there.
What are you going to do. Accountability is great.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
If there is someone that you can ask to hold
you accountable, whether it is let's say, a trainer or
a friend who meets you at the gym, you're less
likely to not do it. Consider fun things as well.
You know, a Rod was sharing about traveling. That's what
my husband and are talking about this year. One of
the things we suddenly realize with our kids being nineteen
and twenty one, Wow, we actually get to travel just

(09:49):
the two of us, and so we're going to do
that this year. We're obviously going to take trips with
our kids, who we love, but we're going to do
that because it's it's something fun, it's something important to do.

Speaker 5 (10:00):
But consider fun things.

Speaker 4 (10:01):
Make a list of twenty five things you want to
do in twenty twenty five. That's kind of a fun thing.
To do and then check them off as.

Speaker 5 (10:08):
You go along. Here's another key.

Speaker 4 (10:11):
If you are really going to make a significant change,
take immediate and massive action. If it's not immediate, then
it's called procrastination. Now I have to admit, we're going
to go on a trip with our kids this coming week,
so I'm going to wait till we get back. But
talk about massive action. For instance, with health changes. If
you're looking at all of the yummy pies, coffee cakes, cookies,

(10:36):
all that stuff like we are, just get it out
of your house, or hire a trainer, or calendar your exercise,
things like that, and little action equals little results. Massive
action equals massive results. Now we're going to get to
the biggest thing I want to talk about with New
Year's resolutions. But afe more here. Oh hey, you know
I'm gonna take them moment. I'm going to read somebodies

(10:56):
that are coming in because they're great listener text and
said I would like to learn to play the piano,
and I'm going to try and read one book a month.
That's great, by the way, because you narrowed it down
to something you can do each month. Read a new
book each month, learn to play the piano. Then an
immediate action would be find someone to teach you.

Speaker 5 (11:18):
I love this one.

Speaker 4 (11:19):
I'm going to try not to worry so much and
pray more and give it to God.

Speaker 5 (11:25):
I love that.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
I'm going to share something later on as I go
through the top in the last hour the top news
events of the year. But here's one that I found interesting.
I'm going to share this with that listener. December first
of this year. The Bible, a proven bestseller, one that
I have numerous copies of. Publishers attribute a twenty two

(11:47):
percent jump in Bible sells this year to what the
New Year's resolution was from last year to have better
mental health. They said there was rising anxiety, and the
Bible jumped twenty two percent in sales this year. I
think that's great. By the way, I highly recommend it,
great read, best book ever in my in my estimation.

Speaker 5 (12:09):
So I love that.

Speaker 4 (12:10):
I'm going to try not to worry so much, pray more,
and give it to God.

Speaker 5 (12:14):
I agree with that one.

Speaker 4 (12:16):
Let's say another one in the same vein. I want
to be of use to someone, be a blessing sansa.

Speaker 5 (12:23):
I'm on the receiving and more. I love that one.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
We were talking about over Christmas time. You know, for
this listener, things you can actually do, and you just
break it down, like, hey, take a pie to a
police station, babysit, offered a babysit for a single mom,
somewhere on your block, shovel the snow in your neighbors.
Little things you can do. This is this is an
amazing uh New Year's resolution.

Speaker 5 (12:47):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
I'm gonna go on with some other steps, by the way,
and we're going to keep reading these text in your
New Year's resolution five six six nine zero.

Speaker 7 (12:54):
By the way, someone asked on the text line. Someone said, ay, Rod,
you always say you lost fifty seven on so and
now it's up to one hundred. So I lost fifty
six pounds with the Soda weight loss program, but I
lost weight a different way before I started Soda.

Speaker 6 (13:07):
Combined my combined weight losses over one hundred. Listener.

Speaker 4 (13:10):
So, well, there you go, Thank you for asking, listener,
and there you go. You got the actual information. And
I think the key what I love a Rod is
you've kept it off. That's the thing. If it's serious,
if you do it in the right way.

Speaker 5 (13:21):
You keep it off.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
So we were just talking about ways to keep your resolutions.
Take immediate and massive action, free yourself of perfection, and
focus on progression.

Speaker 5 (13:33):
The key there is if you make a mistake, don't
just throw in the towel.

Speaker 4 (13:36):
Oh I'm not gonna you know, I'm not gonna eat
that many desserts and then suddenly you slip and then
you just give it up. No, keep with it, because
you can do it. I asked someone who's a friend
of mine who I mentioned he was a life coach,
and I said, what is the difference between people who
are successful in things like resolutions or making real.

Speaker 5 (13:56):
Changes and not? And she said this The number one thing.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
That success will people do differently than others is they
do what they promised, even if they don't feel like it.
I know that sounds simple, but as something if you
keep in mind, I love that you says success is
never owned, it's rented and you have to do it
every single day. Here's the thing I want to really
put into perspective for this next year. I think for me,

(14:22):
the biggest way to make a lasting change, be it
a New Year's resolution, a July promised to yourself, a
March change of direction in your life. The biggest thing
is this, find out your big why? Why are you
doing it? Are you doing it, let's say, if you're

(14:43):
going to lose weight, are you doing it because you
want to be around for your grandkids? Are you doing
it because you feel like you've got things you've got
to do in your life? You haven't done it yet.
If you want to travel, why is it more quality
time and building relationships?

Speaker 5 (14:55):
Start?

Speaker 4 (14:56):
What's your big why? A long term vision of how
you're right now. Choices will affect your life much further
down the road.

Speaker 5 (15:04):
Well, you take it a day at a time. You
look at the.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
Big picture of what you want to see different. You know,
then you really think about your resolution and why you
are making it. And by the way, the bigger the vision,
the longer lasting the change.

Speaker 5 (15:19):
I got to tell you my big vision.

Speaker 4 (15:21):
Many of you may know this is Debrah floora sitting
in from Andy Connell that I've run for office twice.

Speaker 5 (15:26):
But on top of that, what I have done.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
Is worked in school choice policy across the.

Speaker 5 (15:32):
Country, which I'm doing.

Speaker 4 (15:33):
And I've been down to the border and reported live
what was going on down there, and you know, I
put it all together and I finally realize pretty much
The through line for everything for me is because I
love America and I want to save it for future generations.
That's a huge why. Huge But when I keep my
eye on that, it helps me focus and put everything

(15:55):
through a filter. If I'm going to be able to
do that, That's actually why I want to get healthier,
because if I'm going to actually keep working on that,
I got to have the stamina to do it. You know.
For me, my big why comes out of two trips I've.

Speaker 5 (16:09):
Made in my life.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
One when I was studying in Salzburg, Austria as a
present scholar, we went far behind the wall into East Germany,
all the way back to Leipzig and Dresden, and that
was the first time I saw what the opposite of
freedom looks like.

Speaker 5 (16:25):
And I had a teacher pull me.

Speaker 4 (16:26):
Aside when we got away from the Commedyes, she get
his party with tears in his eyes. He taught it
Carl Marx Universe. He always say.

Speaker 5 (16:32):
I went from SMU Southern.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
Methodist University to KMU Karl Marx University, and he said,
in my country, we are not allowed to think or
teach others to think. We only can teach them what
to think. And that when I see that, when I
see when I was in the Soviet Union, what that
looked like. Here's my big why, and I encourage you
to find yours. This is my big why because I

(16:57):
love this country. I think we have a new opportunity
to have smaller government, to secure our borders, to have
safety abroad, to live our lives, to make sure that
those around us can purchase their groceries instead of one
woman I spoke to a year ago who had to
get powdered milk instead of regular milk because she was

(17:17):
on a fixed income and the economy was so bad.

Speaker 5 (17:21):
I want to save what has made America great.

Speaker 4 (17:24):
And I think about it as a mom and as
an American, and when I think about my big why,
here is a great quote from Ronald Reagan. It was
sixty years ago, nineteen sixty for his time for choosing speech,
and it's an amazing speech. It got televised nationally. But
here's his last line. You and I have a rendezvous

(17:45):
with destiny. Well preserve for our children this the last
best hope.

Speaker 5 (17:49):
Of man on earth.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
All real sentenced them to take the last step into
a thousand years of darkness. Having seen socialism, having seen communism,
having seen tyranny.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
I know what that darkness looks like.

Speaker 4 (18:02):
That's my big why why I get up every single
day and do what I do. And this year it's partly.
There's a great scripture that Daniel says, excuse me, David says,
teach me to number my days. I'm like, okay, I
only have so much time left.

Speaker 5 (18:16):
In order to get that done, I need to eat healthy.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
So those are some tips to making sure if you're
making a resolution, whatever it is, it could be something
like learning the piano, which is amazing. It's life enriching.
It could be losing weight. It could be traveling more,
it could be being kinder to others. We're going to
continue to read our New Year's resolutions as we go
along five six six nine zero text them in. But

(18:42):
whatever it is, what's your big why? What's the thing
you want to do and make a difference in what
is so big that you can't imagine the future without it?
For me, it's preserving this amazing experiment called America.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
But I want to know what yours is. Five six
six nine zero. We're going to head to a break now.
When we come back. We're going to have Kevin Sorbo.
You may know him as Hercules, you may know him
as the actor and.

Speaker 5 (19:12):
God's Not Dead.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
He's also a producer, writer, director, is also a friend
and a patriot. When we come back, club Kevin Sorbo
on the show, So don't go anywhere. I'm Deborah Flora
sitting in for Mandy Connell coming up now. Got a
friend of ours, my husband and I've known this gentleman
and his beautiful wife Sam for many many years.

Speaker 5 (19:32):
Now.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
My guest coming up now is Kevin Sorbo. He is
an author, producer, actor.

Speaker 5 (19:38):
You may know him from.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
Hercules where he met his beautiful wife Sam, or you
may know him from God's Not Dead. He also, by
the way, is a busy guy coming up for twenty
twenty five. He's got three docs or movies that will
all be released part of the Sorbo Studios as well. Kevin,
thanks so much for joining me. I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
Mary Christmas and a happy New Year to you.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
Happy New Year to you, and Merry Christmas. Hope you
had a great one. You know, hey, Kevin, we we
knew the story because we've talked over the years about it.
But some of the listeners don't. And I kind of
want to set the tone for this interview as we
look into the new year by having you tell listeners
your story. It was, you know, many people know you
from Hercules, but during the filming of that, you wrote

(20:24):
a book after as about your experience, my journey from
Hercules to Mirror Mortal, How nearly.

Speaker 5 (20:29):
Dying saved my life.

Speaker 4 (20:31):
Can you tell listeners about what happened and how you
got through that experience.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
Well, that's that's the subtitle, the title of books that's
all true strength. Yes, And I think you know, you know,
we all we all have roadblocks in our lives. God
never promised any of us an easy life. And to
those roadblocks, how are you going to react to that?
You're gonna blame God. You may be God. You don't
believe in family, friends, the world, government, and everybody looks
for excuses in the reality is look in the mirror.
You know, my wife said to me, she said, Coving

(20:59):
that happened. What are you gonna do about it? You know,
Sam's a strong New York or Pittsburgh gal, so she
doesn't see, you know, she doesn't cheers men's words very
often what happened at the end of season five in
Hercules out there and all kinds of problems with my leftom.
My twinsigle was going on because yeah, I was doing
about ninety five percent of my own stunts. You know.
I grew up to the jock football, basketball stuff, and

(21:21):
my ego said that I could keep doing these times.
I enjoyed them. So I was all getting bumps and bruises,
cut sprains, whatever. But this was really bothered me. And
I came back to America. I lived in New Zealand
seven years for those who didn't know, that's what the
series was shot. And I went to see my doctor
and in La there in Beverly Hills, and he found
a lump on my shoulder and he wanted to do

(21:42):
a biopsy on them. But before you do the biops,
he I went to see my chiropractor. Now in eight
years that the chiropractor has never cracked my neck. I
don't have anybody ever cracked my neck if I don't
like a crack, and so a voice and something said,
don't lem crack your neck, which I thought was really weird.
And they kept saying, don't let them crack your neck
and I didn't listen to his voice. He cracked my
neck for the first time eight years. Well, that that

(22:03):
lump that was in my arm caused all kinds of problems.
My arm was an aneurysm. When that brack of the
neck for three of those class which got is called
retrograde flow, sent three clocks into my brain. I sup
with three strokes, and it took me four months to
learn how to walk and balance it, and it took
me three years to fully recover from it. And it's

(22:23):
you know, it's number one. I said, listen to the place.
But number two I never didn't want to write the book.
My wife Sam named you write the book. She said, Kevin,
you were playing hercules. You were an amazing shape. You
were in your thirties. You know, I'm six three At
that time, I was two twenty five. I maybe seven
percent body fat. I was an amazing shape, and yet

(22:44):
I still suffered strokes, which is usually reserved for other
people for other health reasons. And so I wrote the book.
And she was writing with a godsend because number one
I got me on the speaking rail road, and I did.
Most of them was written with doctors and nurses and
people the health motivation field. But then through the book,
people found out that always a Christian's conservative and all

(23:05):
of a sudden, Wow, I'm doing fifteen a year. I
got turned down multiple I do. I limit the fifteen
a year, And it's amazing what happened with this, because
it's not only dealing with health and things I deal
with now, it also deals with deals with I do
a lot of pro life speaking. I do a lot
of Christian education speaking. My wife is a homeschool advocate.

(23:27):
She travels the country. You've got multiple books on homeschooling
and the importance of it, and I think people are
waking up to that fact too. So it's been very fortunate.
The whey I survived, I think it was God's plan
to have me going to do other things and other
movies of the industry, and that's what really happened. Fifteen
years ago. I started doing more and more faith based

(23:47):
in family friendly movies. And you mentioned God's not dead, Well,
you know it's left to be light ables fields. I mean,
I've done so many different ones now dealing in that world,
and I've been blessed to send a message out of
God and hope and love and faith and redemption.

Speaker 5 (24:04):
Yeah, it is great.

Speaker 4 (24:05):
And for anyone who doesn't know, my guest sent Kevin
Sorbo Deborah Floores sitting in for me, Andy Connell, Kevin's
wife Sam. We you know Kevin, as you know, we
were together Sam and I in d C in August
for the first ever March for Kids and she spoke
about homeschooling and I got to speak about parental rights.
So you both are doing so much. You know, you
talked about going from Hercules, which was a number one

(24:28):
television show worldwide at the time, then focusing on faith
based movies, and you know, there's some amazing statistics. Twenty
fourteen's God's Not Dead made over one hundred and forty
million in theatrical, streaming and DVD sales and really kind
of began to shift. What we're seeing is a beginning
renaissance in a lot of faith based films, which is great.

Speaker 3 (24:50):
You know.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
We also, however, you and Sam and my husband and
I all met kind of in an underground organization in
Hollywood for conservatives. How did that impact both being a
conservative and a Christian, the more mainstream opportunities given to
you or not? And does it even matter because obviously
you're doing so much now with Sorbo Studios and other films.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
Well, I would say or not. Hollywood gave me the
booth about twelve years ago, my manager and agents of
twenty five years I was with ICM, so they couldn't
work with me anymore because of things I was posting
on there and that. I so I've been posting on
there and that those things forever. And they said, yeah,
but the winds are changing in Hollywood, as we know,
they really have in the last ten years. And if
they're woke, idiocy and craziness, and so I formed Silvi Studios.

(25:38):
I said, fine, whatever this is. It's so childish to
me because I don't harbor anger and hate those people.
I've hated your friends those days. I've Agnostic friends, right,
I have, I have Democrat friends. I've lost friends in
those fields as well because there's you know, it's such
a childish behavior. So I hate you now because you
don't believe the way I do. So I feel sorry
for people like that, but I'm you know, I'm gonna

(25:59):
keep doing the movies I'm doing, and it certainly hurt me.
And we can we can say friends of ab but
it's not a secret anymore. They don't do it anymore.
But you know it's you know, it was really started
by you know, our differend Gary Sine's. Yes, that that
group of guys where they wanted to say, hey, you
know what, there's a lot of conservatives in Hollywood, but
people are afraid to do it. We're the conservatives closet.

(26:21):
Conservative and Christians are the ones in the closet now.
The gays are completely out, but we're the ones in
the closet in Hollywood now.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
And I'm not and ivery.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
Move up and doing last six or seven years. I
get an actor, I get another director, I get a
lighting guy, camera whatever, coming up to me privately saying hey,
thanks for being a voice for us, you know, be
a voice for yourself. Yeah, being afraid they're going to
cancel anyway. But I mean, look at Hollywood's even waking
up slowly now because they're realizing Disney has been taking
huge losses in the last two years.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
Yeah, I don't know how keep.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
Playing this game, but people are sick of the movies
they're forcing down their throats.

Speaker 4 (26:56):
Yeah, you know, that's that's definitely a theme because come
up at the top there, I'm gonna have Riley Gaines
and a lot of it's about having the courage to
use your voice. But we had the same experience, as
you know, my husband was a producer.

Speaker 5 (27:07):
At Walt Disney Studios.

Speaker 4 (27:08):
We left because no longer could go along with the
agenda that was happening there, and we've been busier ever
since with the projects we're working on. I mean, you
really do find a much better opportunity to work with
the people that don't cancel.

Speaker 5 (27:23):
You because you don't agree.

Speaker 4 (27:24):
And like you said, on our sets, we've got people
that believe all sorts of things. It's are they good
at their job, which is what it's about.

Speaker 7 (27:31):
You know.

Speaker 4 (27:31):
Also, Kevin, because we're heading into New Year's and we're
talking about resolutions all that at the beginning of the show,
about the big why. You know, that's really the thing
that helps you make a lasting change. And obviously you've
done that. As I was sharing at the beginning, you've
got three docs, four movies in post all coming out
in twenty twenty five. What would you say to listeners
is your big why?

Speaker 5 (27:52):
Why do you do what you do?

Speaker 3 (27:56):
I love the reactions I'm getting from people. I love
the reactions and that people are letting me, they're reinforcing
the fact that the road I'm on now, the door
that God opened for me now, is that is the
road I was all supposed to be on. And that's
why I got this business. That's why I've had a
love I want to be an access since I was
eleven years old. I've gotten a lot of producing and
directing now as well, obviously, but to me it's it's

(28:19):
it's my way to harvest in a way, because I
get every day on SERB Studios, people at service studios
dot com they can sign up. I get people saying
every day, I become a Christian because of your movies.
They gave me conservative because of your belief and where
you're at, because you know, we're friends with John Boy.
You know John and you know guys like Dennis Miller
and those risks. They said, I didn't leave the Democrat Party.

(28:40):
The party left me because everything has been shifting more
and more to the left over the last fifty years,
and it's just accelerated on sales down. So I look
at this as a chance for me to at least
get my voice out there and hopefully be heard and
you know, I go through airports, people stop me all
the time, even pastors saying we love what you do
and keep doing what you're doing. So I realized this

(29:02):
was meant to be on all lot.

Speaker 4 (29:03):
Yeah, that is the big why, real least, because I
do believe every single one of us has been made
with unique gifts that no one else has. I mean,
they may be similar, but they're different our callings. And
you know what, we're heading into the break. Thank you, Kevin,
because that's a great way to talk about, you know,
looking into twenty twenty five, each one of us find
out what that is that with that thing.

Speaker 5 (29:24):
That we're uniquely made to do, and you were doing it.

Speaker 4 (29:27):
Give our best to your beautiful wife, Sam, and Merry
Christmas and happy New Year to you Kevin.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
All right, same you guys, thank k, thank.

Speaker 4 (29:35):
You, thank you. Well that was my guest, Kevin Sorbo
Hercules also from God's not Dead, very busy man doing
all kinds of work. And if you don't take anything
else away from that interview, it would be an amazing read,
true strength my journey from Hercules to mere mortal, how
nearly dying saved my life.

Speaker 5 (29:53):
Many people don't know.

Speaker 4 (29:53):
That part of his story, but that's where it all
began for him.

Speaker 5 (29:57):
Let me come back.

Speaker 4 (29:57):
We're going to continue with the conversation about New Year's resolutions.
Text in at five six six nine zero. Let me
know yours and we're going to continue with that conversation.
I'm Deborah Flores sitting in for Mandy Connell. If you've
missed any of the show, be sure to check out
the podcast afterwards. A Rod, I know we'll get that up.
When we just had Kevin Sorbo on the show. You
may know miss Hercules, but what you may not know

(30:20):
is that I think he said in the fifth season
of that show he had three strokes as a young
healthy man and that turned his life around. Kind of
ties in with what we've been talking about, which is
this is New.

Speaker 5 (30:35):
Year's Week coming up.

Speaker 4 (30:36):
As we know, some people make resolutions, some do not.
In fact, some of the statistics show that about half
of Americans make New Year's resolutions, but only ten percent
of them keep them. And I was discussing at the
top of the show, I believe that the biggest way
you keep your New Year's resolution is knowing your big why.

Speaker 5 (31:00):
Why are you doing it?

Speaker 4 (31:02):
Why would you want to lose weight, for instance, Is
it just to look better. That's okay, there's nothing wrong
with that, But is that a big enough why to
keep it off? Why do you want to as when
listener texted because we're taking different New Year's resolutions from
the listeners five six six nine zero, they said they

(31:22):
want to get involved in local politics. I think that
is an awesome step, because our republic only works when.

Speaker 5 (31:29):
We all get engaged.

Speaker 4 (31:30):
That's why it's struggling so much when you see this
lack of engagement. You know, the big why for me
in that area is because I love this country. I
think America is the only country in the history of
mankind that was founded on the idea that every individual
has intrinsic value. Therefore individual rights and government has one

(31:52):
job to protect our rights and our safety.

Speaker 5 (31:55):
That's it. That's my big why.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
And then everything else comes down to that, even the
fact that I want to get into good shape because
I want to know that I have the endurance to
do the work.

Speaker 5 (32:05):
We only have about a minute.

Speaker 6 (32:06):
Love.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
But I wanted to ask a rod Arod, you've kept
off one hundred pounds for over two years, what was
your big why and how do you keep it off?

Speaker 7 (32:13):
Yes, Well, three years ago when we wanted to know
the weight of our puppy that we had just gotten,
and I stepped on a scale with a puny little
thing and it read three point thirty and I realized,
you know, this is a very small dog. That's not
much in the puppy, So most of that is me. Well,
and I just decided enough was enough. I'd been the
big guy for most of my adult life and I

(32:33):
wanted to just stop being that guy. But the biggest
why my wife and I want to have kids, you know,
pretty soon, and I never want to say no yeah
to the kids when it caught regarding wanted to do
some fun activity, wanting to go out and do something
anything that requires me to just be in better shape
to came up, keep up with them, have the energy.

Speaker 6 (32:54):
Never want to be that that dad. So I'm ready
for it.

Speaker 4 (32:58):
And that is a big enough why to keep off.
So whatever your big why is, definitely that's the thing
to think about this week. Well, when we're thinking about
big whys, if you're thinking about the courage it takes,
you're gonna love the next interview I have coming up
aff the top of the hour break. I'm gonna have
Riley Gaines join me now. Talk about someone who's had
courage to stand up, who knows her big why, which

(33:21):
she's often says to protect future generations of girls and
women in sports and safe spaces. It's gonna be an
inspiring interview. Don't go anywhere. When we come back, Riley
Gaines will be joining me. I am Deborah Flora sitting
in for Mandy Connell.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury lawyers.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
No, it's Mandy Connell and Connall. Ninem got.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
The nicety through Freyconnell Nerrius B. Welcome to the Mandy
Connell So this is Deborah Flora sitting in for Mandy Connell.

Speaker 5 (34:08):
Hope you're doing well.

Speaker 4 (34:09):
Hope you're getting ready to have a wonderful twenty twenty five. Well,
when I think about big wise we've been talking about,
that's what gets you set up to succeed and make big,
bold moves. I could not think of a better guest
than my next guest here, that is Riley Gains.

Speaker 5 (34:24):
Many of you may.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
Know because she stood up and spoke out when she
tied with Leah Thomas, a biological male, a male who
was failing as a swimmer in the male category switch
over to the female and despite that, they gave the
trophy to Thomas. Since Nriley's been bold, speaking up and

(34:48):
making a difference on one of the most important civil
rights issues of our day. Riley, thank you so much
for joining me on the show today.

Speaker 5 (34:54):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 8 (34:56):
Well, Hello, it is so good to be with you.

Speaker 4 (34:59):
So you got it absolutely well, Riley.

Speaker 5 (35:02):
I appreciate we had a chance to.

Speaker 4 (35:04):
Talk before at the Western Conservative Summit, and now I'm
happy to have you on now. And you know, most
people know how you have stood up boldly. I mean
when you made that decision, by the way, to speak out.
I want to know what first motivated you to do that,
and then did you expect the onslaught that happened, because
you've been attacked verbally and even physically at San Francisco

(35:26):
State University where you had to be in hiding in
a closet or something after being assaulted. But let's talk
about what first made you choose to stand up and
then sticking with it through the onslaught afterwards.

Speaker 8 (35:39):
Absolutely well, you're exactly right, gosh, what a whirlwhen it
has been even since I last I left.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
So you.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
I think maybe what.

Speaker 8 (35:49):
Really motivated me and encouraged me and even still really
truthfully gives me the conviction that I have. Number One,
I have an awesome support will around me. I have
great friends, I have great family. I have a wonderful
community even online. You know, common sense everyday Americans who
intuitively know that men and women are different.

Speaker 4 (36:10):
Right.

Speaker 8 (36:11):
My faith, that's what keeps me grounded on a day
to day basis, is central in my life and how
I conduct myself, how I you know, how I go
about my day, and so that is something that gives
me all the reassurance really that I need, knowing that
it's an audience of one I have to please and
nothing of this world matters. So I think, really those

(36:33):
two things and just knowing I mean this topic in particular,
knowing I'm on the right side of history, it's easy
to take the backlash.

Speaker 6 (36:45):
It really is.

Speaker 4 (36:46):
Yeah, Well, I mean it's easy for you because you
do have the things that ground you. I know a
lot of people find it hard and we're all wired differently,
but I do love that. I even have a T
shirt that says, creating for an audience of one. When
you realize that, then at the end of the day
and you can look yourself in the eye and know
you're standing up for what's right, that's what's important, you know.

Speaker 5 (37:04):
I find it.

Speaker 4 (37:05):
Fascinating that in the day and age of the Me
too movement and you know, the the you know, at
the end of this push for feminism and protecting you know,
girls and women's sports and safe spaces, which was titleline
was all about, this is where we've ended up. We're
just talking about in xx versus an x Y chromosome
and the actual physiological.

Speaker 5 (37:25):
Difference it makes.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
I mean, you know this, listeners may not know that
just even in utero, someone with you know, that has
the male chromosomes, or he has greater cardiovascular, skeletal muscle mass,
all of these things.

Speaker 5 (37:39):
That's just biology.

Speaker 4 (37:41):
What do you say, because I love the lie biology
is not bigotry, what do you say to people who
claim it is?

Speaker 8 (37:47):
Yeah, well, honestly, the people who believe that truthfully, in
most cases are too far gone to convince. And I
don't say that because it's just you know, sound like
someone who has no hope. That's a very very small
portion of society who actually believe that men can become women,
men can get pregnant, men can breastfeed, men can be lesbians, whatever,

(38:09):
all this crazy stuff. It's actually a very small percentage
of people who truly believe that. There are a ton
of people, people who would call themselves even lifelong liberals,
who have been persuaded. I think we definitely saw that
on November fifth, this issue that's the general idiology movement
and what we're seeing there and how it's terming children,

(38:29):
how parental rights are being taken away, how women are
being harmed. What we saw is people moderates, even even
people who are a part of the lgbtqu community, are
realizing the harm that's being done, and they're having kind
of what they what they describe as their red pial moment.
So the people who actually believe that men can become women, truthfully,

(38:53):
I believe in most cases are too far gone to convince.

Speaker 4 (38:55):
Yeah. Well, and the thing the thing I find interesting is, obviously,
in a free culture, if someone's an adult, they can
identify how they want to, they can live their lives
how they want to. But we're talking about an intersection
here where I interviewed a fourteen year.

Speaker 5 (39:08):
Old girl in Vermont who literally.

Speaker 4 (39:10):
Was being asked to shower next to an anatomical male.
Paula Scanlon, who is a good friend of yours, who
was a teammate of Thomas, had that same experience after
having been sexually abused. I mean, it's amazing that we've
gone this farm this crazy, but I do think it
is turning around, and I think that's what's exciting.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
You know.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
One of the headlines Riley this year has been the
San Jose State Volleyball Tournament, where many teams decided to
boycott it because it wasn't fair. We saw, you know, previously,
a female volleyball player really suffer a severe concussion because
of the fierceness of a spike that came down from

(39:49):
a male athlete.

Speaker 5 (39:50):
On the other side of the net.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
You've been a part of this project Boycott movement, and
I love boy is all Caps, and in fact, it's kind.

Speaker 5 (39:58):
Of your Riley game the Center.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
Talk to folks about that and what's really going on
with courageous young women across this country.

Speaker 8 (40:06):
Well, absolutely, I'll tell you this is something that I've
changed my mind on and I have no problem admitting
that because at first I genuinely didn't believe it was
up to women to take that stand. I thought, it's unfair,
This is a compromise that we shouldn't have to be
willing to make. But guess what.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
It is unscar But it's.

Speaker 5 (40:26):
A definition the way exactly.

Speaker 8 (40:29):
No one ever said it was going to be fair.
No one ever said it was going to be easy.
But what I can tell you is it is going
to be worth it. It's a sacrifice that that I
believe is necessary to be made for the greater good
of not even necessarily just this generation or just that
game or that sport, for generations to come, and so

(40:49):
encouraging and incentivizing women, to providing them with the support
and the guidance to step down, helping them realize that
some things matter more than victory, and some of those
things include safety, the entire sort objective truth, and biological
reality itself.

Speaker 4 (41:03):
Yeah, you know, this has been such a year of headlines.
We're looking obviously through the headlines of the year, and
when I came across the Olympics, unfortunately, the first thing
that popped to mind for me was a female boxer
who was championship level, and one blow from the opponent
with the.

Speaker 5 (41:21):
X Y chromosomes just leveled her.

Speaker 4 (41:24):
I mean, if we needed to see the difference, and
it's biological fact, I do think this tide is turning.
Do you see that? I mean, this really is the
civil rights movement of our day. And I love by
the way that you mentioned you know, folks from the
LGBTQ movement, because I've had you know, women from a
Wolf Women's Liberation Front who are called TERFs.

Speaker 5 (41:43):
Now they're amazing.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
They stand up because everything they fought for is being eradicated.
They even called the erasure of womanhood. Can you talk
to that larger Uh? Really, what is at stake on
a larger level here?

Speaker 8 (41:57):
Well, I feel pretty convicted about this at the moment.
Just and I'll take this globally, just looking at what's
going on in countries in the Middle East, countries like Afghanistan,
which might I say, divide administration Afghanistan. Afghanistan withdrawal will
go down in history as one of the greatest policy
failures of all time as cabstraphic consequences for women and

(42:20):
girls especially, And so globally, what we're seeing, what these
the Taliban have decreed Afghan women from doing. They can't talk,
they can't speak, they can't read, they can't write, they
can't go to secondary school. I mean, really, really, for
Reelly and stuff, that Western government and the feminist organizations
other than Wolf really have entirely abdicated themselves any responsibility

(42:45):
or or even remotely drawn attention to the claim to
care for women or or about oppression or these things.
So globally do I believe there's a war on women, absolutely,
but I'm very excited to hear in the US with
the new adminis what we will see. I think a
lot of this will be fast tracked on its way

(43:05):
back to normalcy, which leaves to me, of course, feeling
hopeful for not just the US, but for the rest
of the world.

Speaker 3 (43:11):
To find us.

Speaker 5 (43:12):
Yeah, without a doubt, without a doubt.

Speaker 4 (43:13):
I mean, and I'm going to talk about Afghanistan later
in the show. Growing up in the military and having
a husband who's an eighty second airborne veteran, that was
a debacle. And I often say, like you, Riley, I'm
seeing her thinking women here were marching when there was
the Woman's March, saying you know, I kept asking what
are you marching for? What do you have here that
is not a right you think you should have, versus

(43:36):
focusing our attention on Afghanistan where a woman slips her burke,
comes up too far and she's literally shot in the street.

Speaker 5 (43:43):
That's happening so crazy.

Speaker 4 (43:45):
It is crazy, And I appreciate the passion that so
many people have for issues, but it's time to find
out where the real, the real persecution is going on,
and it's definitely in the Middle East for women. You
talked about the election coming up, and I do think
that many people's sense that we are on the precipice
of a historic change, in my mind, getting back.

Speaker 5 (44:05):
To the proper role of government, which.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
Is getting out of our personal lives, smaller government, writing
these wrongs, getting back to normal. Title line was a
protection for women and girls from the very beginning. What
do you think we'll see with the incoming administration, Well.

Speaker 8 (44:21):
Hopefully we will see across the board common sense and
America First policies implemented, whether that has to do with
the border, whether that has to do with affordable living
and taxes and things like that. I'm just hoping to
see again America First and that agenda implement it. But
I think in specifically talking about this issue, I'm hopeful

(44:45):
that President Trump on day one, which he has said
that he will do, if he will enforce Title Line
as it was intended to be enforced. He has said
recently that he will declare there are only two sexes.
Can you believe that even has to be a declaration
that needs to be issued from the president, and so
only two sexes will be legally recognized, which is fantastic

(45:07):
news what we're seeing happening to children. I hope again
this is hopeful. But what I'm hoping for is every
single doctor, every single hospital, every single insurer who has
enabled the surgical or chemical castration of children should be
prosecuted or prosecuted and thrown in jail. So well, this

(45:28):
is all something we can expect from a new administration.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
There's certainly some lawsuits that are going I know you
also know Prisia Moseley, who is courageously standing up for
what she wasn't told. There was not informed consent, and
now she's a young woman who is realizing you can't
actually at de transition fully because of what happened. But
the reality is there's a lot that's going on in
the court system. In fact, it's probably even heading to

(45:52):
the Supreme Court. What do you see where do you
do you think this is going to the Supreme Court?

Speaker 8 (45:58):
I certainly do. I we've already seen the Supreme Court
here at least oral arguments when as it pertains to
again what I describe as unregulated child abuse, but what
others refer to as gender affirming care on minors. So
hopefully we'll have a decision sometime. And I imagine this
is of course, I'm not a liar, I'm not an attorney,

(46:18):
but I expect hopefully sometime in June or before June,
maybe we have a decision on what the Supreme Court
thinks there. But yeah, I think the courts will continue
to see cases as more and more women begin to
defend themselves and defend womanhood. We're seeing cases of female inmates.

(46:39):
I know there's a female inmate in the state of
Washington who is suing. After the correctional facility put a
male convicted child rapists, mind you, into her cell, she
was ultimately raceed. I mean, I don't know what they
expected would happen to her. She just announced that she
is suing we've seen. I think there's eleven D transitioners
who are suing. I mean, I'm suing the instable a

(47:02):
me and about nineteen other athletes. So I think the
courts will continue to see a rise in women who
finally have found the gumption to defend themselves.

Speaker 4 (47:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (47:12):
Well, and that that's really the key.

Speaker 4 (47:13):
And I knew we're gonna be heading to a break
and I need to let you go with your busy schedule.
But that's a final thing I wanted to ask you.
Because you have courageously found your voice. You have stood up,
you've spoken up. You've literally, as we said, taken assault
physically as well as verbally. What would you say to
anyone listening right now who maybe is trying to find

(47:34):
the courage to speak up as they go into this
new year about whatever they feel committed about, but also
about joining this fight to protect girls and women in
their sports and safe spaces.

Speaker 8 (47:44):
It is worth it ten days out of ten days.
I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that you
won't get back lashed, because I would be lying, But understand,
it's it's again, it's just worth it. I don't know
how to describe it other than it's most of the
time as baseless name calling, which like literally who cares
about that? That's what you do in like second grade

(48:06):
or some sort of like petty personal attack that has
nothing to dissuade from your actual argument. And understand, we
are in the majority now, right, I think hopefully that
can provide a lot of security for people knowing that
people especially who were maybe closeted conservatives, closeted Trump supporters
for a long time who didn't feel comfortable enough to
say it, we are in the majority. Cancel culture is fading,

(48:29):
then yourself because again and again, defend objective truth because
it's worth it. Ten days out of ten days.

Speaker 4 (48:35):
I love objective Excuse me, defend objective truth. I mean
that shouldn't even have to be said, but it is
important and it takes courage today unfortunately, but thank you
so much, Riley. I appreciate it, and thanks for sharing
about your faith. We had Kevin Sorbo on earlier and
ultimately the end of the day, I'm grateful I can find.

Speaker 5 (48:52):
Courage there as well.

Speaker 3 (48:53):
Well.

Speaker 4 (48:54):
God bless you. Happy New Year to you, Riley. I
appreciate all you're.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
Doing, yes, ma'am, and you two.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
Thank you, take care. Well that was my guest, Riley Gaines.
This is Deborah Flora sitting in for Mandy Connell. Well,
you know it's interesting.

Speaker 5 (49:08):
If you want to.

Speaker 4 (49:09):
Hear some inspiring stories, go to the Riley Gains Center
at the Leadership Institute. There are so many young women there.
There's women as young as twelve, thirteen, fourteen.

Speaker 5 (49:20):
You're standing out. There is a woman in.

Speaker 4 (49:22):
Her eighties who's a bowler who's deciding to stand up
and say I'm going to stand up for what's fair
and what's right.

Speaker 5 (49:29):
Inspiring stories.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
You know.

Speaker 4 (49:30):
I want to read this comment from a listener because
I really want to comment to it. This listener, when
I was talking with Riley Gaines, said, did you really
just compare this tiny issue to the civil rights movement?
I bet you don't even know a single trans person.
You know, here's the first thing I would say, let's
not presume anything about one another. I don't know this listener,

(49:52):
and to presume that would be to presume falsely. Actually
I know several, and I stand up for their rights
as adults to live their lives the way the they choose.
That is the beauty of a complex United States of America.
I will always stand up for children who have not
been given the full information, like Priscia Mosley and many
others who were told by the way.

Speaker 5 (50:14):
Priscia's story is interesting.

Speaker 4 (50:15):
She was told at fifteen that she did not have
the wherewithal the of liposeection, but she did have the
competence to go ahead and change her body physically forever.
Now six years later, she's finding out that she can't
change those things back. I will always stand up for
parents' rights to be involved in this decision, unlike my

(50:37):
alma mater school district of Cherry Creek, where they socially
transition children without their parents' knowledge or consent. Now to
the point of this being a tiny issue, what we
are talking about here is the attempt to eradicate Title
nine protections for women and girls, not just in sports,
but in safe spaces.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
First of all, tiny issue.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
We're talking about probably about half of the population here.
The redefining of what it means to actually be a woman.

Speaker 5 (51:05):
This is not just athletes.

Speaker 4 (51:07):
When the New York Times calls women non trans women,
that is a deconstruction.

Speaker 5 (51:15):
When ies a mom have been called a.

Speaker 4 (51:16):
Birthing person, that is a dishonoring of one of the
most precious things that I have.

Speaker 5 (51:25):
I am not just a birthing person.

Speaker 4 (51:28):
That is really, by the way, how far backwards are
we going when women are now being distilled down to
that being a mom means being up in the middle
of night, caring for those children, raising them, loving them,
knowing them better than any government bureaucracy can. So, no,
I don't think it's a tiny little thing when there

(51:48):
has been attempt to deconstruct half of the population. Now,
let's talk about the science, because I'm sure that this texture. Yes,
I'm getting my dander up here a little bit, as
my grandmother would say, but this extra probably would say,
let's believe the science. Well, let's believe the science. This
is about having the ability to look at actual science.

(52:09):
The science is this, if you have an xy chromosome,
then you are a male. That's just a reality you
can identify and as adult, however you want to you
and I will stand up for your right to do that,
because this is the United States of America. But when
it comes to sports and when it comes to what
is fair, science has shown, and these are embryologists, that.

Speaker 5 (52:34):
The moment a baby is xx or x y.

Speaker 4 (52:38):
By the way, there's a huge dowsing of testosterone for
the male baby. The male baby therefore immediately develops larger heart, lungs,
higher hemoglobin, which means more cardiovascular ability, skeletal, more dense
bone masks, larger size on average, muscle mass have problem.
Men have approximately thirty six percent greater muscle mass than

(53:01):
grown females. That's the science. Time for us to realize
that biology is not big a treat. I do appreciate
the listener texting that in so we could have this conversation,
because too often things just get thrown And just by
saying that does not mean that I do not have
compassion for children that do truly experience gender dysphoria. They

(53:25):
deserve help, They deserve support, their parents deserve full information
like the fact that suicide levels go up after transitioning,
because that's the biggest thing they're warned about. And then
when you're an adult, you can live how you want
to live. This is the United States of America. But
we are able to achieve balance in a complex society.

(53:48):
And when it comes to women who are incarcerated who
cannot escape a biologically male prisoner, and there are stories
of them having been abused in those situations, or in
Alaska where they had a battered women's shelter, and in
a battered women shelter a man was admitted because of

(54:08):
this time to step back time, do have respect, mutual
understanding of rights, and when it comes to this area
of sports, it's pretty darn clear and it's dangerous. I
gotta tell you's the mom of a daughter. I will
not back down from this, and I think we're finally

(54:28):
reaching sanity.

Speaker 5 (54:29):
It's not a tiny issue.

Speaker 4 (54:31):
It's a very fabric of our culture and the science
upon which many rights are based.

Speaker 5 (54:39):
Okay, that is about as.

Speaker 4 (54:41):
Heated as I think i'll probably get this holiday week.
But I appreciate thank you for texting in. I actually
appreciate people text in and don't agree, because then we
can have a conversation five six six nine zero.

Speaker 5 (54:51):
When we come back, we're going to talk more about this.

Speaker 4 (54:54):
And I also want to continue to read some of
these New Year's resolutions that people are texting in. Five
six six nine zero. Don't go anywhere. I'm Deborah Flora
sitting in for Mandy Connell. Boy, the time goes fast,
particularly when you have great guests and great texts coming in.
If you missed any of the show, be sure to
listen to it later. The first hour I had Kevin

(55:16):
Sorbo joining me Hercules manybe you may know him as
or the actor from God's Not Dead, talking about how
having three strokes while filming Hercules changed his life forever.

Speaker 5 (55:29):
And the theme throughout.

Speaker 4 (55:30):
This entire show really is about courage, about the big why,
about what happens in your life, how do you react
to it, and what do you do then to resolve? Yes,
this is New Year's Week, resolve.

Speaker 5 (55:44):
To make a difference.

Speaker 4 (55:45):
We also just had Riley Gaines on the show, and
she is a.

Speaker 5 (55:48):
Woman of courage. You know, gotten a lot of texts
which has been very interesting.

Speaker 4 (55:55):
You know, one texture talking about it being a tiny
issue love. Another texture said safety in girls' sports.

Speaker 5 (56:00):
Is not a tiny issue.

Speaker 4 (56:03):
A small few women standing up for what is common
sense is not right.

Speaker 5 (56:07):
I completely agree with that.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
I've interviewed young women at the age of fourteen who've
had to stand up. One story in Vermont, a fourteen
year old young girl on a volleyball team was basically told,
or they actually weren't even told in advance that they'd
be showering next to an anatomical mail And then when
she dared to say something because she was shy, let's

(56:30):
all put ourselves back in high school, she didn't feel comfortable.

Speaker 5 (56:34):
She was actually told.

Speaker 4 (56:35):
By the school that she needed to apologize to the
transgender athlete and form a healing circle.

Speaker 5 (56:42):
She didn't.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
And in Vermont, of all places, which is not necessarily
a bastion of conservative thought, she stood up. She actually,
with her dad, sued the school. They changed their policy
for all of the girls in Vermont.

Speaker 5 (56:56):
That one young woman.

Speaker 4 (56:57):
At fourteen that kind of courage, which is tremendous. And
wherever you are on this issue, I hope that we
can at least agree on that. Boy.

Speaker 5 (57:08):
It's hard for.

Speaker 4 (57:08):
People that age to speak up about anything, and she
did and.

Speaker 5 (57:12):
Made a change for everyone.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
Another listener texted, it's funny how this male female thing
has come full circle. As a male growing up in
the sixties and seventies, it was quote, anything you can do,
I can do better. Girls protesting to participate in traditionally
male groups and institutions.

Speaker 5 (57:31):
Now the tables have turned welcome to our world.

Speaker 4 (57:34):
Well, I want to say a couple of things about that,
you know, when you look at the feminist movements. The
first wave was in the turn of the century, the
suffrage movement, and that was so successful because the premise
was this equal but different. Men and women are equal
but different, and that's really was the sanity for quite
a long time. Then it began to change in the sixties.

(57:57):
Equal in the same, which really I think we all
need to read. You know, women are from Venus, men
are from Mars, or it's the alternative, just to remember
what we all used to know.

Speaker 5 (58:06):
Is common sense.

Speaker 4 (58:07):
Granted, there are wide ranges within women, womanhood and masculinity,
and that's great, but if you don't fit in this
narrow little profile, suddenly somehow you're not either a male
nor female, you're you know, in the wrong body. I
think that that is problematic, particularly when it gets enforced

(58:29):
on people against their will and their rights to privacy
once again in America. I stand for anyone's right as
an adult to live their lives the way that they should.
The other thing I would say is I'm all for
traditionally male groups being male groups if they want. It
gets back to this, the basic freedom of the right
to assemble, the basic right to privacy. I think that's

(58:53):
what is at stake here as well.

Speaker 5 (58:55):
As just common sense.

Speaker 4 (58:56):
So last words on those will keep taking suggestions for
news resolutions. Got to give a shout out to the
texture who said his New Year's resolution was to be
a better husband. I think that's awesome, and I think
about those tips.

Speaker 5 (59:11):
You know what is great to break it.

Speaker 4 (59:13):
Down into things to do, but that is a great one,
a great resolution. So good for you.

Speaker 5 (59:18):
Good Anya, as they would say down under.

Speaker 4 (59:20):
I want to switch a little bit now because as
we're doing this show getting ready for New Year's this
coming up week, looking kind of through a retrospective of
twenty twenty four and what are the top stories? Went
through the Wall Street Journal list of top stories, and
it was very interesting to see some of what they had.

(59:41):
I can't get through all of them right now, but
I do also want to hear from you. I want
you to text it and tell me what you think
the top stories or the top story twenty twenty four is.
And then I'm going to read some of these to
you as well. But I'm going to read a couple
and then I want to hear from a Rod. But
he thinks there's some of the top stories, but there are.
Let's start in January last year. January second, twenty twenty

(01:00:05):
four the resignation of the Harvard president. Ivy League President
Clauding Gray resigned after her really tone deaf response about
anti Semitism. That was followed by the Cornell president resigning
in May May ninth of last year, and that's when
all of those anti Semitic riots, I don't really want

(01:00:30):
to call them rallies, were all over the college campuses.
That was a big thing that happened. There's about five
of them. I think that all had to do with
Trump and prosecution. January twenty sixth, Trump was hit with
a penalty of eighty three million dollars in damages for
Jean Carroll. February sixteenth, Trump had a fraud case and

(01:00:54):
your judge rules at Donald Trump and his business should
pay more than three hundred and fifty million. They said
he misrepresented his financial gain. Another one in April fifteenth,
Trump hush money trial begins. May thirtieth, Trump convicted in
New York. It goes on and on and on July fourteenth,
Trump dismisses the document's case against the judge dismisses.

Speaker 5 (01:01:18):
It against Trump.

Speaker 4 (01:01:20):
That was interesting how it was a year of all
of those headlines throughout the year and then it wound
up with a completely different tone. Obviously, some of the
other headlines were the assassination attempt on July thirteenth on
Donald Trump. Then there was a second assassination attempt that happened,

(01:01:44):
and all of this leading up to a historic, whether
you like Trump or not, a historic return to.

Speaker 5 (01:01:55):
The White House.

Speaker 4 (01:01:56):
So I want to hear from you, what do you
think was the top story of the year five, six, six,
nine zero. I'm going to read a few more of these,
but a rod, what was in your mind the top
story of twenty twenty four?

Speaker 7 (01:02:09):
Uh, you know, having the coverage being so dominant here,
I think it's it's got to be the election. It's
got to be the election. Just how polarizing it was
on both sides. I think the number one catalyst to
that was the was the debate between Donald Trump and
Joe Biden, where that's where all the questions started to arise,
should Joe drop out, is he fully healthy, et cetera,

(01:02:31):
et cetera.

Speaker 6 (01:02:32):
I think that was definitely it.

Speaker 7 (01:02:35):
But also when the election is the other biggest one,
which is the assassination attempt, So so many of the
biggest storylines. If you were to come up with the
top five top ten, least I think at least three,
if not four, are in that top five top ten
from the election. So broadly, I think the election itself
has got to be number one.

Speaker 5 (01:02:55):
I absolutely think.

Speaker 4 (01:02:56):
So it's interesting you bring up the debate because I
wrangly all the way back on February eighth of twenty
twenty four, there was a report that came out that
basically it was a special counsel report basically saying that
President Biden's age and leadership abilities were basically presented as

(01:03:18):
him being quote, an elderly man with poor memory. That
was all the way back in February eighth. When we
look back and all that happened last year, that was
February eighth. It became apparent to everyone during that disastrous
debate June twenty seventh, and then it was only about

(01:03:39):
less than a month later July twenty first, that Biden
bowed out. Boy, it was a historic year in so
many ways, and yes, it seems to keep revolving over
and over and over again around Donald Trump, around the
shift in tides over the revelations of Joe Biden's declining health,
which everybody really knew, but it was azing how much

(01:04:00):
it was covered up.

Speaker 5 (01:04:01):
And actually we're going to talk a little bit more
about that when we come back.

Speaker 4 (01:04:05):
Also at the top of the hour, when we start
the final hour of the show, we're going to talk
a little bit Jimmy Carter and his legacy, and boy,
when you look at some of the comparisons between Jimmy
Carter's presidency and Joe Biden's presidency, it's pretty stunning to
see the solemony similarities. However, the legacies I think are

(01:04:30):
going to be very, very different.

Speaker 5 (01:04:32):
So when we come back, we're going to be talking
about that. I want to hear from you.

Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
What do you think was the top news story of
twenty twenty four?

Speaker 5 (01:04:41):
You heard a Rod's it was the election.

Speaker 4 (01:04:43):
I think it was probably for me, it was all
about the election. There were so many moments in that,
from the debate to the assassination attempt to the outcome
at the end for the election itself, well, don't go anywhere.
When we come back, we're going to talk more about that.
I also want to hear your New Year's resolutions. We're
going to talk more about that as well.

Speaker 5 (01:05:04):
Den't go anywhere.

Speaker 4 (01:05:05):
I'm debraah Flora sitting in from Mandy Connell. I so
appreciate all the great text that.

Speaker 5 (01:05:10):
Are coming in.

Speaker 4 (01:05:11):
We're continuing our twenty twenty four review, our conversation about
twenty twenty five resolutions or goals, whatever you want to
call them. I love what one texture was timing out
because before we went to the break, we were discussing
top headlines for twenty twenty four, and granted, there's a
crazy year, a lot of things to talk about, historic year,

(01:05:33):
for sure, but I do love bringing it back home
to Colorado sports. This texture said McKinnon, Jokich, and Hunter
all in this same year.

Speaker 5 (01:05:43):
Big news. Way to go Colorado.

Speaker 4 (01:05:45):
I do agree with that, growing up cheering for the Broncos,
growing up in Aurora, Colorado, and now seeing just a
banner year in some ways, at least for individual players.
You got Nathan McKinnon Avalanche obviously won the Heart trow
n each L MVP Award, Nuggets, Nicola Jokich he won

(01:06:05):
the NBA MVP Award, and Travis Hunter the buff won
the Heisman Trophy. That is pretty darn awesome. I do
have to say I'm married to a Buck guy. My
husband's from Ohio, so I do cheer for the Buffs
as well. But speaking of the Heisman Trophy, we are
such Buck fans that our dog is even named Archie
after Archie Griffin, the only two time Heisman Trophy winner.

Speaker 5 (01:06:29):
So there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:06:30):
But it does make me think of another interesting change
that came up in twenty twenty four. It has to
do with college sports, and this one I really look
at a lot from different directions. Our son plays college football.
It's an NEI level, but it's a great sport.

Speaker 5 (01:06:47):
We just love.

Speaker 4 (01:06:48):
Watching him and cheering him on. But May twenty three
pay for playing. The NCAA and the five most prominent
collegiate athletic conferences agreed to a two point eight billion
dollars settlement for a class action lawsuit, which now allows
this new era in which schools can pay athletes directly.

(01:07:08):
I got to say, as an SMU alumni, the school
that received the death penalty for that which is now
completely legal, I've got very mixed.

Speaker 5 (01:07:17):
Feelings about it.

Speaker 4 (01:07:17):
I've always loved college sports the most, college football in
particular because it's a pretty pure.

Speaker 5 (01:07:25):
Team oriented loyalty.

Speaker 4 (01:07:26):
I do understand that many many players can make a
good case that they bring a lot of money to
a college, But I want to hear from you.

Speaker 5 (01:07:35):
Do you think this is good?

Speaker 4 (01:07:36):
I kind of feel like we're starting to see the
negative side of the money game in sports. Infiltrating college
it's changing everything a lot. Probably good for individual players.
I don't think it's as good for the sport. But
that's my two cents on that. By the way, texture
just said, oh Io is the appropriate response for that,

(01:07:57):
even though I am a Colorado girl. Another Texter listener texted,
and when we're talking about top stories, this is.

Speaker 5 (01:08:07):
The next place I was going to go.

Speaker 4 (01:08:08):
This texture said the pager's targeting hesba Lah talk about
a game changer on so many levels. So there are
so many top news stories from twenty twenty four.

Speaker 5 (01:08:18):
I had to start categorizing them.

Speaker 4 (01:08:20):
There's obviously the Trump law, fair prosecution, there is the election.
But then I put a whole new category, which I
called the sci Fi category of news. Top news em
from twenty twenty four that is one of them. So
when we look at things that happened that were just
seemed like they were out of a movie. That's the
only way I can describe. But you have September twelfth,

(01:08:43):
SpaceX had the first private citizen astronauts that made a spacewalk. Obviously,
you know, pretty amazing for Elon Musk and his groundbreaking technology.

Speaker 5 (01:08:57):
Is kind of the Howard Hughes of our day.

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
September seventeenth, Hesbela's exploding devices that was something straight out
of Mission Impossible. Really, page is carried by thousands of
Hesbela operatives exploded at the same time. It was described
as an audacious Israeli operation that authorities said injured and
killed numerous Hesbelah members. That was pretty amazing. That comes

(01:09:23):
under the sci fi headlines. We also have catching a
starship shout out goes again to Elon Musk, showing that
SpaceX could catcher catch a towering booster rocket back at
its launch pan in South Texas.

Speaker 5 (01:09:38):
Those are the ones that just make you feel.

Speaker 4 (01:09:40):
Like you're watching Mission Impossible or some kind of thriller
action movie.

Speaker 5 (01:09:44):
Good good text.

Speaker 4 (01:09:45):
Thank you for that. Well, we're heading to the break.
When we come back, we're going to talk a little
bit about the legacies of two presidents. We're gonna talk
about Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden. Where they're the same
and where they are different. Don't go anywhere. We'll continue
the conversation when we come back. I'm Deborah Flora sitting
in for Mandy Connell.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:10:08):
No, it's Mandy connellyn on Ka, Ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
Kenn Nicety, Prey, Many, Connell, Keithing, sad Babe.

Speaker 4 (01:10:31):
Welcome back to the Mandy Connell Show. This is Deborah
Flora sitting in for my friend Mandy Connell. Boy, it
goes fast. We've had a great show so far and
so appreciate all the great.

Speaker 5 (01:10:42):
Texts, the guests we've had.

Speaker 4 (01:10:43):
We had Riley Gaines on this show and Kevin Sorbo
also known as either Hercules or the actor from God's
Not Dead, both talking particularly at this season where we're
looking into the new year, about they're big wise. That's
really the key to keeping any change, be it a
resolution or just a decision or a goal. What's your

(01:11:05):
big why? Why do you want to make that change?
So we were talking about that. We'll talk more about that.
Is that the show goes along, but I also want
to make sure now just to take some time.

Speaker 5 (01:11:16):
As you heard at the.

Speaker 4 (01:11:17):
Top of the hour with the news break, and I
think everyone's aware that former President Jimmy Carter has passed
away at the age of one hundred years old. It
was interesting because as I was preparing for the show,
and I was looking at both his presidency and his
legacy afterwards, and you hear how Jimmy Carter is being
described far and wide as a humanitarian of as a

(01:11:41):
good man who really ended his life doing so many
good things.

Speaker 5 (01:11:47):
That wasn't the makeup of his presidency.

Speaker 4 (01:11:49):
And I began to look at the comparisons between his
presidency and Jimmy Carter's and Joe Biden's.

Speaker 5 (01:11:56):
And you know, many people have said.

Speaker 4 (01:11:58):
Prior to this period that there were a lot of
similarities and they weren't good. But I want to talk
about a legacy and what makes a legacy different. Let's
start by talking about the similarities of their presidencies. Now,
first of all, it's at the stage we know that
President Jimmy Carter was the longest living US president in history,

(01:12:18):
lived to be one hundred years old, and you think
about how tough.

Speaker 5 (01:12:21):
That job is how that wear and tear.

Speaker 4 (01:12:25):
You see it in people's hands, handwriting, when they enter
the Oval office. When they leave, you see it in
the wear and tear on even their demeanor. But he
lived to be one hundred years old. He became president
after defeating Gerald Ford in nineteen seventy six.

Speaker 5 (01:12:40):
Graduated from the.

Speaker 4 (01:12:41):
US Naval Academy in nineteen forty six and served in
the Navy until nineteen fifty three. My father in law
was in the Navy, my dad was in the Air Force,
my husband was in the Army. My hat is off
to anyone who has served our country, because people who
talk about that really say it's like writing a blank check.
You don't know if you're ever going to have to
catch stat check, meaning give your life, but you're willing

(01:13:02):
to do it if you have to. So hat is
off to anyone who served, including President Jimmy Carter, who
just passed away. As we know, he passed away just
recently and followed the death of his wife. I find
this interesting from a personal level, just to share this.
His wife, Rosalin, died November of twenty twenty three at

(01:13:23):
the age of ninety six.

Speaker 5 (01:13:24):
He died at the age of one hundred.

Speaker 4 (01:13:25):
They were married for seventy seven years and died just
over one year apart. No, I want to pause take
a point of privilege here of why I think that
is remarkable. My parents passed away seven months apart from
one another in twenty nineteen and twenty twenty, and fortunately,
by the way side note, they were able.

Speaker 5 (01:13:45):
To pass away peacefully in their home, not.

Speaker 4 (01:13:49):
Basically shut away as happened during this shutout, without our
ability to see them. But they were married for sixty
seven years, and I think it's interesting.

Speaker 5 (01:13:58):
When people have married that long.

Speaker 4 (01:14:00):
You think of Johnny Cash and his wife, you think
of others of that nature. They usually pass me fairly
close to one another. They both lived a very long life,
but just over one year part President Jimmy Carter and
Roslynd Carter.

Speaker 5 (01:14:12):
So that really does say something about it. I want
to talk about the good things that.

Speaker 4 (01:14:15):
I see here because I think we need to get
to a point where we can say someone is a
good human being, no matter how much we disagree with
them on policy. That's going to be key for us
to restore and heal this country. So from everything I've heard,
from everything I see in the evidence of his life,
particularly after his time in the White House, really pretty

(01:14:38):
remarkable and some wonderful things to say. As we know,
his legacy is about humanitarian efforts, and we'll talk a
little bit more about that what he did after his presidency. Now,
let's talk about some comparisons between Carter and Biden as
far as their presidencies. And I think it's iron because

(01:15:00):
this past weekend, Joe Biden claimed, quote, we're leaving America
in a better place today than when we came here.
I have to say, I don't think a lot of
people feel that way back. Most polls show the majority
of Americans fill there in a far worth place.

Speaker 5 (01:15:16):
Now, where's the correlation there?

Speaker 4 (01:15:17):
Remember how Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter with this line,
are you better off than you were four years ago?
I think we could sum up probably the outcome of
the election almost on that one point. This election, this
many years later, came down to Americans understood they were

(01:15:38):
not better off after four years under Joe Biden, just
like they were not better off under Jimmy Carter. So
let's talk about some of the similarities, because they're actually
pretty stunning. They're actually pretty amazing when you look at them.
So let's just talk about different areas. Inflation under Jimmy Carter,
inflationing up to fourteen percent.

Speaker 5 (01:15:59):
In nineteen eighty. That was devastating.

Speaker 4 (01:16:04):
Now we can talk about all the factors, all the
reasons why, but at the end of the day, this
was while he was in office, and that was in
nineteen eighty, after he was in office for four years. Biden,
as we know, under his policies, forty year high inflation.

(01:16:24):
I also think a big loser this year I was
going to talk about it would be the media because
Americans realized you can't keep telling them, oh, the economy
is just fine when their experience going to the grocery
store or trying to pay their bills is exactly the.

Speaker 5 (01:16:39):
Opposite of fine.

Speaker 4 (01:16:40):
Maybe that's why MSNBC and CNN lust think it was
fifty seven and forty seven percent of their listenership, respectively,
So that is something similar the level of inflation. So
the economic devastation under both Carter and Biden energy policies.
As we all remember, if you think of one image

(01:17:01):
of Jimmy Carter's presidency, now once again not faulting the
man personally, I think he seems to have been a
remarkable individual who did so much good after he left
the White House. That's kind of the point of this,
But we got to look at what happened while they
were in the White House. Carter synonymous with long gas lines.
I'm going to just reveal that I'm old enough to

(01:17:22):
remember my parents talking about the long gas lines.

Speaker 5 (01:17:25):
That is true.

Speaker 4 (01:17:27):
And with Joe Biden, when you look at his policies,
you could say, Carter, that was complicated by the Iran
Iranian Revolution, that was complicated by that.

Speaker 5 (01:17:37):
However, it's still policies that made oil.

Speaker 4 (01:17:40):
And gas such a rare commodity and prices skyrocket under
Joe Biden. He can't blame anything other than the fact
that he canceled the Keystone Pipeline, suspended oil and gas
leases in the Anwar region of Alaska, massive regulatory hurdles
to say the least, and that created record high gas prices.

Speaker 5 (01:18:00):
In the summer of twenty twenty.

Speaker 4 (01:18:01):
We have the highest gas prices in history, over five
dollars per gallon as the national average, and over time,
the average gas price under Joe Biden was over three
dollars per gallon.

Speaker 5 (01:18:14):
Now, why does that matter. It's not just about driving, it's.

Speaker 4 (01:18:16):
About what we saw people not even being able to
heat their homes in some cases. That's a similarity, another similarity.

Speaker 5 (01:18:24):
That I find interesting.

Speaker 4 (01:18:25):
Well, you know what, I'm gonna save that because we're
gonna have to a break right now. When we come back,
we're going to go to a few others that are
kind of eerily similar. But here's the bigger question. What
will their legacies be. I have a feeling they're going
to be very, very different. Well, don't go anywhere, we'll
be right back. I'm Deborah Flora City in for Mandy Connell.
So enjoying all the texts coming in five six, six

(01:18:47):
nine zero, And I even appreciate the ones I don't
agree with because that's a conversation, and I think we
need to have more of those in the new year.
Not less, I think it is about time we say
we don't have to agree, We just have to respect
one another. We just have to understand that everyone is
born with intrinsic value, and therefore if we treat one
another that way, we won't demand homogeny of thought. I

(01:19:11):
don't want that on the left or the right. I
want to be able to talk about things in question
and ask. So thank you, Thank you everyone who's been
texting in. We've been talking about Jimmy Carter and the legacy.
Before I continue some of the eerily similar comparisons between
his presidency and Joe Biden's presidency. We also are talking
about Jimmy Carter's legacy, which is as a humanitarian that

(01:19:34):
was deeply respected, mostly for his years out of the
White House and all that he did. Lived to be
one hundred years old. His wife, he and Rosalin, were
married for seventy seven years. I shared that story about
my parents were married for sixty seven years and died
within seven months of one another at the ages of

(01:19:57):
eighty nine and ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:19:58):
You know, it's not surprising that.

Speaker 4 (01:20:00):
Jimmy Carter only lived a little over a year after
his wife. One texture you know, texted in and said
that his parents were married or her parents were married
for thirty five years. It's a rarity to see that
a lot of other folks are texting in saying, let's say,
the only comparison between those two people, meaning Carter and Biden,

(01:20:21):
is they are both the worst presidents in modern history.
I don't completely disagree with that, and in fact, we're
going to draw that comparison, and then we're gonna talk
about the difference of how they will be remembered, because
in a way, I think that's a sad part for
Joe Biden, and we'll talk about that someone else.

Speaker 5 (01:20:38):
Jimmy Carter, worst president ever.

Speaker 4 (01:20:40):
Pardon draft dodgers, not to mention the economy he totally
ruined for the American people. There's a list of what
he was terrible and I and this person really is
not reversible that.

Speaker 5 (01:20:49):
He passed on you know what.

Speaker 4 (01:20:50):
That's that's okay, that's that's your right to be that way.

Speaker 5 (01:20:53):
I don't have sadness.

Speaker 4 (01:20:55):
He lived to be one hundred years old, of quite
a long life, to say the least, and was a
Vietnam veteran, and I do recall him talking about how
he was treated when he came back from Vietnam and
the way that draft dodgers were treated. You know, I
think people were drafted that were never meant to be

(01:21:17):
in the warrior class, so to speak. It's a different wiring.
But I do get that sentiment most definitely. But let's
get back to some of the similarities. As we talked
about when you look at Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden's presidency,
that's the only part where I'm out right now.

Speaker 5 (01:21:34):
Then we'll talk about their legacies. Inflation.

Speaker 4 (01:21:36):
Both of them had record high inflations. Energy policies under
both of them, the gas energy situation was really challenging
for the American people. Let's talk about the immigration crisis.
I find this interesting. I had forgotten or really was
too young to realize at the time, but in researching

(01:21:57):
for this show, Carter was known for the Maurial boat lifts.

Speaker 5 (01:22:01):
So let's just look at this for a moment.

Speaker 4 (01:22:03):
Tens of thousands of Cubans migrated to the US. However,
it turned out that many of them were criminals and
psychiatric patients freed by Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Others were
escaping because of the economic plummet. Okay, so we can
say we see some similarities there. Right, Some people coming
across our border, our southern border under Biden, are coming

(01:22:26):
because they have been dealing with really terrible situations. They
deal with worse situations with an open border because they're
at the mercy of the drug cartels. But we do
know that we even have now had Venezuelan gangs. Some
of the worst criminal elements come across our border. So

(01:22:46):
that was a similarity under Carter, who was initially welcoming
of this wave of immigrants until the sheer number of
people coming across forced him to declare national emergency because
the state to Florida was being overwhelmed. Does that sound
similar right here in Colorado? Three hundred and fifty six

(01:23:06):
million dollars at least spent in Denver while other basic
services to citizens are not being taken care of. Yes,
it's overwhelming our system. So immigration crisis similarity, international instability.
Look at some of these comparisons. Under Carter, the Soviet
Union invaded Afghanistan. Under Joe Biden, Russia really under putin

(01:23:31):
the Soviet Union two point zero invade Ukraine. I do
believe when someone is in the White House that is
not a stronger commander in chief, we will see this happen.
It has actually encouraged the incursion, and I think for
Joe Biden, it was the weakness in Afghanistan, the way

(01:23:54):
that that was a debacle that emboldened Russia to invade
Ukraine and bold in China to be aggressive towards Taiwan.
We'll continue with a few other things when we come back.
We are going to go to a break now, but
when we come back, we're going to continue a little
bit more of the similarities, and then we're gonna talk
about the difference in the legacies. And be sure to
keep texting that five six six nine zero. I'm Deborah Flora,

(01:24:17):
sitting in for Mandy Connell. Hope that you are getting
ready to have a wonderful new year. We are gonna
wind it all up, talk a little bit more about
Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter, and then we're gonna wind
up talking a little bit more about our big y,
which is what we carry into the new year to
make lasting change. But before we do, want to just
read a couple of texts that are coming in. One

(01:24:40):
gentleman said, I voted or woman. Actually, this is not
a gender's specific text coming in. I voted for mister
Carter in seventy six, the first presidential election I was
able to vote in. It only took a couple of
years for me to become a Republican.

Speaker 5 (01:24:58):
It was an awful president.

Speaker 4 (01:25:00):
As Winston Churchill once said, if you aren't a liberal
at age twenty one, you have no heart.

Speaker 5 (01:25:05):
You aren't a conservative. By age forty, then you have
no brain. And that is a great point.

Speaker 4 (01:25:10):
Well, we've been comparing the similarities that are eerily similar
between Joe Biden's presidency and Jimmy Carter's presidency, and that's
not necessarily a positive thing.

Speaker 5 (01:25:21):
Although there was a high point for.

Speaker 4 (01:25:23):
Jimmy Carter when he did have the Camp David Accords.
It was enwar Sadad of Egypt and monocham Vegan of Israel,
the first time a treaty like.

Speaker 5 (01:25:33):
That had been signed.

Speaker 4 (01:25:35):
By the way, However, that is more similar actually to
the Abraham Accords under Donald Trump, where for the first
time you had the UAE and Bachrain lighting the Menora
next to the whaling Wall in Jerusalem with rabbis there
in that country.

Speaker 5 (01:25:54):
That's a little bit more similar.

Speaker 4 (01:25:56):
And Jimmy Carter did end up receiving the Nobel Peace
Price for that and his humanitarian efforts.

Speaker 5 (01:26:02):
I Bobin said that whether.

Speaker 4 (01:26:04):
You liked Donald Trump or not, he should have been
nominated at the very least for the Nobel Peace Prize
for the Abraham of Courts. All we have to see
is the big difference that happened as soon as he
left office. On that front, when you have someone that
people do not respect in the oval office as a
commander in chief, you have things happen like October seventh.
That brings me to another similarity. Now between Biden and

(01:26:29):
Jimmy Carter's remember under Jimmy Carter the Iranian revolution in
nineteen seventy seven and led to the Iranian hostage crisis
of nineteen seventy nine. Let's look at some really eerie similarities.
Those hostages were held in Iran for four hundred and

(01:26:49):
forty four days. Right now, Let's not forget that the
hostages being held still in Gaza or somewhere in that
area by the brutal terrorist Hamas had been held for
four hundred and fifty days. Another interesting similarity is this,
as we all probably remember, the moment literally minutes after

(01:27:14):
Reagan took office, Iran released the hostages. That was January twentieth,
nineteen eighty one. Now the comparison modern day that's going on.
We may all remember about a month ago, a few
weeks ago, Hamas no longer even connecting or really communicating.

Speaker 5 (01:27:36):
To Joe Biden, had one of their.

Speaker 4 (01:27:38):
Hostages a US citizen. Let's remember that, by the way,
over two hundred and fifty hostages were taken on October seventh,
and many of those were American citizens.

Speaker 5 (01:27:50):
One of those US citizens still being held nineteen years old.

Speaker 4 (01:27:54):
They put him on camera and he pleaded with Donald
Trump to negotiate to release him. I'm sure that was
under great duress and cannot even imagine what that young
man has been going through. It always chills me when
I think of our son as nineteen, our daughter's twenty one.
That young man, nineteen year old US citizen has been
held for four hundred and fifty days. I don't think

(01:28:18):
it'll be a big surprise if history continues itself and
those hostages are released right after Donald Trump takes office.

Speaker 5 (01:28:26):
Now maybe they won't, who knows.

Speaker 4 (01:28:28):
But certainly that is what he has indicated, and they're
not being released under Joe Biden. A final one that
I want to talk about similarity wise is education. Many
of you may know Deborah Flora is sitting in for
Mandy Connell. I've been involved in school choice, education freedom,
parental rights on numerous fronts, doing a lot of traveling
right now around the country working on some amazing things

(01:28:51):
are coming down the pike next year in the way
of education freedom and school choice legislation. But one little
fact that people may not realize. The Department of Education
was formed fairly recently in American history with Jimmy Carter
as a backroom deal with the unions because he was

(01:29:16):
realizing he was not going to win reelection. Before schools
were run locally, which is the way it should be.
School should be local control of all things. Well, where's
that similar with Joe Biden. Well, all we need to
know is that Joe Biden then has taken it even
further under him and Barack Obama. They took in all

(01:29:36):
they made all of these school loans basically federal loans
now where we the citizens are paying for it, and
then forgave them all. He was proven to be unconstitutional
in doing that, but his jerry managering in education from
a federal level is pretty well known. Also with overwriting
Title nine by redefining it. Those are their similarities. Now

(01:29:57):
I want to shift to their differences. When I look
at the legacy of Jimmy Carter, and.

Speaker 5 (01:30:05):
Many people are it's his years after.

Speaker 4 (01:30:09):
Leaving the White House that he will be most remembered
for because he had that opportunity he left and even
though his presidency was pretty much known with bad economy,
high gas prices, long gas lines, and the Iranian prisoners,

(01:30:31):
what he did afterwards was important, and I do think
that he concluded his life in a very admirable way.
One of the things, most notably was his decades long
commitment to the Habitat for Humanity program developed housing for
the poor, and the Carter Presidential Center that he used
as a place to promote human rights. Very noble, married

(01:30:53):
to his wife for seventy seven years and passed away
just a little bit over a year after her.

Speaker 5 (01:30:58):
It was a ward of the Nobel Peace Prize in
two thousand and two.

Speaker 4 (01:31:01):
As we said, both for the Camp David Accords and
also for what he did out of his presidency for
humanitarian Now, how does that compare with how Joe Biden
is going to be remembered? And honestly, I think the
sadness of all of this. I did not agree with
Jimmy Carter's policies in the White House. I do not

(01:31:21):
think he was a good president in any way, and
it was what the American people bore the brunt of
the policies just didn't work.

Speaker 5 (01:31:29):
Same can be.

Speaker 4 (01:31:30):
Said for Joe Biden. But that's all he will probably
be known for, because what's coming out now is not
only the fact that his policies have been devastating, but
we've talked about when I was here last week, how
White House aids are now coming clean and talking about
how they propped him up during his presidency.

Speaker 5 (01:31:51):
So not only were the policies bad.

Speaker 9 (01:31:53):
But he was typically The report says he was typically
trailed by aids who would tell him what to do,
giving him basic instructions like one to leave exit the stage,
who'd ask.

Speaker 5 (01:32:06):
Questions from etc.

Speaker 4 (01:32:09):
And most troublingly, they say he was not involved in
some of the most important decisions of his presidency, including
the Afghanistan withdrawal. There were many who were basically had
of different departments to say they dealt instead with handlers.

(01:32:29):
Some of the cabinet officials dealt with handlers instead the
president of the United States. I honestly personally think that
so much of the lack of legacy for Joe Biden,
what he could have done had he made a decision
to leave the presidency earlier, or maybe not even run.

Speaker 5 (01:32:46):
It seems from the very.

Speaker 4 (01:32:47):
Beginning there were some telltale signs of his inability to
do the job. Those around him did not, I think,
even care about his legacy or how he would be remembered,
because they're coming clean about how they up despite his
inability to do the job. A couple of other texts
coming in Carter was one of the worst president's office,

(01:33:10):
but had one of the best records out of office.
I agree, Thank you for texting that. I do think
that that is admirable once he was out of office.
Worst president. Oh, this is an interesting take. Someone disagreeing
saying the worst president in us A history sadly just
got reelected.

Speaker 5 (01:33:30):
You know what, I am happy to read that.

Speaker 4 (01:33:31):
What I would love to hear is what policies you're
referring to, because the point of this retrospective on Jimmy Carter,
I can wholeheartedly disagree with his policies and yet still
say he seems like he was a very decent man
who did great things. Don't have to vilify him for anything.

(01:33:53):
What I'd love to know from that listener, is it
the persona of Donald Trump that you don't like, or
do you have actual policies that you think we're negative.

Speaker 5 (01:34:01):
Because I got to tell you we.

Speaker 4 (01:34:02):
Were certainly better off four years ago than we are today.

Speaker 5 (01:34:06):
Okay, I'm gonna feel.

Speaker 4 (01:34:08):
Free to text in any more New Year's resolutions or
comments because we're winding up the show five six six
nine zero. As we wind up the show, I want
to get back to the conversation about New Year's resolutions.

Speaker 5 (01:34:21):
We started the whole show talking about that.

Speaker 4 (01:34:24):
We talked about the fact that only about fifty percent
of Americans actually make New Year's resolutions, only about ten
percent keep them. And you know, we talked about some
of the keys to keep your resolutions, and some of
them are very practical, you know, be specific. Make it manageable.
Don't just sam to lose one hundred pounds, although a
Rod did that very adimraally kept it off for two

(01:34:45):
years because he had a very big why We're going.

Speaker 5 (01:34:47):
To get to that in a moment. But make it manageable.
What are you going to do to do that?

Speaker 4 (01:34:51):
Are you gonna Are you gonna eat you know, smaller
mills go day by day, break it down to bite
sized chunks. Are you gonna work out? Don't just Sam
to work out? Every single day for an hour. Make
it something that you're able to do. Have accountability. Consider
doing fun things as well, and then take immediate and
massive action. If you want to start email, you know what,

(01:35:12):
if you're waiting till January first. On January first, get
rid of all of the leftovers. Yes, I'm speaking to
myself as I'm saying this, that are staring you in
the face. Sign up for a gym, put a little
skin in the game.

Speaker 5 (01:35:26):
Do something like that for yourself.

Speaker 4 (01:35:27):
From perfection, focus instead on making advancements. And the biggest
thing we were talking about is find out.

Speaker 5 (01:35:34):
Your big why.

Speaker 4 (01:35:37):
Why do you want to make that change? I think
that's really the key to all of it. The guests
that we had on the show today, Kevin Sorbo talked
about his big why.

Speaker 5 (01:35:47):
What was his big why?

Speaker 4 (01:35:49):
Well, when he was filming Hercules and it was the
number one show in the world watched around the world
at the time in his early thirties, he suddenly had
three strokes and he had to fight his way back.
From that moment on, he really came to the understanding
that God had spared his life and he had a

(01:36:10):
purpose and he's turned it around and doing all of
these projects based on his dearly held convictions and belief.
Then we had Riley Gains and her big why came
out of a simple injustice.

Speaker 5 (01:36:22):
She was a world class athlete.

Speaker 4 (01:36:24):
And by the way, for the texture who earlier said
that this issue of protecting women's sports is a small thing,
tell that to someone like a Riley Gaines or any
young woman who spends countless hours training only to tie
was someone who's a biological male, and be told the
trophies being given to the other person simply because a

(01:36:47):
statement need to be made.

Speaker 5 (01:36:49):
That was it all starred for her. There her big
why to not be silent about things that matter.

Speaker 4 (01:36:55):
To speak the truth to protect future generations of girls
and women. You know, I talked about my big why,
and if you've heard me speak, you know I had
a privilege to talk to so many of you around
this great state. You know, my big why came out
of when I grew up here on Lowry Air Force Base.
Then I found myself traveling with youth for christ International

(01:37:18):
faith is the center of my life as well. And
when we went to the Soviet Union, it was a
day that the coup happened and I saw the palpable
absence of freedom. I never thought I was going to
see that beginning to roade in our own country. And
what I did was simultaneous to the same time I
became a mom, and all came together for me that

(01:37:41):
everything I wanted to do from that point on was
to help preserve this union based on this one beautiful idea.
America is not a location. It is in a way,
but more than that, it's an idea.

Speaker 5 (01:37:54):
What's that idea?

Speaker 4 (01:37:56):
That every single human being is created with intrinsic value.
Therefore individual liberty and therefore their rights are not given
my government. But by God, government can't take him away.
And government has only one job protect the rights and
safety of its citizens. That's the thing that I want

(01:38:17):
to preserve.

Speaker 5 (01:38:17):
That's my big why. Now, well, how does that inform
what I do every day after that?

Speaker 4 (01:38:21):
Well, you know this year, Yeah, I need to get
a little bit better health because I got the STAMA
to keep fighting on that front. What's your big why?

Speaker 1 (01:38:30):
Is it?

Speaker 4 (01:38:31):
Wanting to be there for your kids and your grandkids.
Love that A Rod shared that earlier. That was a
great story of his big why and why he's kept
his resolution or his goal whatever, you.

Speaker 5 (01:38:42):
Want to call it, what's your big why?

Speaker 3 (01:38:45):
You know?

Speaker 4 (01:38:45):
I was watching this weekend with our family the new
movie out, Gladiator two. I will try not to give
anything away in the telling of this story, but Denzel
Washington does amazing job in it, and it's a very
different role than you frequently see him in. And he
basically said that, you know, his character ends the way

(01:39:08):
his character should. I won't tell you what happens, but
he says that that was basically sewing and reaping.

Speaker 5 (01:39:14):
How does that tie in with all of this? Recently
he became.

Speaker 4 (01:39:20):
A minister, and he said that his faith was a
central part of his life and that this was something
he always wanted to do.

Speaker 5 (01:39:28):
And you see it in his roles.

Speaker 4 (01:39:29):
Because I think it's interesting that even when he did
the movie Training Day, one of his best acting roles,
his character Despicable ends up being really getting his just
rewards at the end, let's just put it that way.
And the producers were actually arguing with him that he
should let his character live, and he said, no, he

(01:39:49):
believes it's time that we see sewing and reaping the
way that it really is. That's something that Denzel Washington,
you know, is carrying into the new year, I also
found that when I was going going through all this
long list of the top news items of the year,
and boy, they comment to categories. I needed to finish
my one category, which was the sci Fi category, because

(01:40:12):
we had things like SpaceX the first walk in space.
We had SpaceX once again capturing a satellite on its.

Speaker 5 (01:40:21):
Landing pad, showing that could be done. We had all
of the.

Speaker 4 (01:40:25):
Exploding chargers that happened in one time in a mission
impossible style action taken by Israel against Hesblood terrorists.

Speaker 5 (01:40:38):
And the final one, the final.

Speaker 4 (01:40:40):
Big event out of the year that I think, you know,
kind of had that sci.

Speaker 5 (01:40:43):
Fi category was the drones all over.

Speaker 4 (01:40:48):
The eastern side of the United States of America.

Speaker 5 (01:40:51):
Pretty trippy when you think about it.

Speaker 4 (01:40:53):
December leventh, dozens of mysterious drones have been appearing over
the skies of New Jersey, Pennsylvania. And those are the
sci fi headlines of the week. We're talking about what
was the number one headline of the week. I think
it's a compilation, it's the election itself, but here's the
one that I wanted to share because really, at the

(01:41:13):
end of the day, why I believe in the Constitution
comes down to the fact that I really do want
the best for other people. I really think that when
we look into this new year, here's my hope and
my wish for the new year. Now, this is a
resolution I hope for our country, other than cutting the

(01:41:33):
spending in DC, which.

Speaker 5 (01:41:34):
I think is really really needed. You know, we all
look at our finances.

Speaker 4 (01:41:37):
It's time for Congress to look at their finances, to
actually pass a budget, balance it and stop spending so
much of our money. But here's my new year's wish
for us as a country, and it ties in with
something that I thought was interesting December.

Speaker 5 (01:41:52):
First, the headline, and this is from the Wall Street Journal.

Speaker 4 (01:41:56):
One of the top headlines of the year is that
there was a twenty two percent jump and Bible sells
this year.

Speaker 5 (01:42:03):
Now, I have to tell you I read the Bible
every day.

Speaker 4 (01:42:06):
I think is one of the best books ever written.
Wherever you are, pick it up, take a read. I
think you're gonna find some great inspiration in there. Twenty
two percent jump and a lot of it had to
do with anxiety. My wish for this year is this
that we begin to look at our neighbors as just
that our neighbors, not a political opponent, not our enemy,

(01:42:30):
because at the end of the day, the Constitution is
so that we can live our lives freely and not
have to agree with one another. That's my wish for
twenty twenty five, that we can begin to heal this country.
One of my favorite quotes, but one of my favorite
presidents is Abraham Lincoln, And in his final inaugural address,

(01:42:51):
right before he was assassinated, at a time of great
division in our country, what did he say in his
second inaugural address, with us towards none, with charity towards all,
with firmness and the right as God gives us to
see the right. I hope we go to the new
year with malice towards none. Then we can begin to

(01:43:12):
have conversations where we don't agree, begin to come in
reason together, and I think, pull this great country back
from the precipice.

Speaker 5 (01:43:19):
Thank you for letting me share my new.

Speaker 4 (01:43:21):
Year's wishes with you. I wish you a truly, truly
happy new year, and I pray it as a blessed
one for you and your family. God bless you, and
may God bless America. Deborah Flora, sitting in from Mandy Connell,