April 2, 2025 • 26 mins
Michael Monks discusses LA County's decision to cut hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars allocated to homelessness agencies. During a challenging period in his life, a man forms a friendship with squirrels.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
A M six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on
demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Today, of course Liberation Day.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
President Trump is expected to unveil some new tariffs today,
but at this point still keeping everybody guessing in terms
of what it is going to look like. He will
unveil these measures today, flanked by members of the Cabinet
in the Rose Garden at about one o'clock hour time,
which is significantly comes after the stock markets close. He
(00:29):
says that they the tariffs will stop America from being
ripped off and will deliver a new golden age of
US industry.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Joe Biden's former White House chief of staff, rolling on
the former president.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I mean this is just hurtful.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I mean, you hire someone as your chief of staff
and you would hope that in the waning years of
your sinality is that the right word, nanility whatever, that
would all be secret. You know that somebody wouldn't air
that all out in the form of a book. But
that's what happened. We'll get into those details coming up.
But Michael Monks is here and I don't want to
(01:04):
waste any more of his time. I've already wasted enough.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I got an hour and a half with him.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
Really, No, I'm just saying that was an offline chat
with Oh.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
I got excited. I was like, we've got Michael till I'm.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Happy to hang out. I mean they're paying me either way.
That's also a good point.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
And you talk too much about pee if I'm being honest,
though I don't know.
Speaker 6 (01:24):
Oh, I thought we've only brought it up twice. Well,
I brought it up a couple like I said, you
did take questions last week. You asked about how hot
is it? And I said, well, it's probably ninety eight
point six.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I didn't ask that just out of the blue. It
was within a conversation about something topical, right, And you
said that the pea was warm, and I thought it
is And then I said, well, is that why it
feels warm when you pee when you get out of
a swimming pool? And you said, why are you feeling
your pee?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Yeah, you've never known.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Do you guys want to be alone?
Speaker 7 (02:01):
No?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
No, okay, it's better let me try this. There's company.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
If you've ever been in downtown Los Angeles, you know
that it occasionally smells like urine because the volumes.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Upon was peppered. Occupy remember that protest that swept the country.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Oh yeah, it was like fifteen years ago.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Yeah, oh you just said data we're the age.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah we are, that's true. But anyway, so we're both old.
Yes we are both very old. But I remember covering that,
and they're just being gallon milk containers of urine, just
willy nilly hanging out right out there.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Let me tell you this. Say what you will about
the politics of that. To be able to pee into
a gallon jug, it's it's not easy.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
You've been on the road and you had to figure
something out. It's not easy. And I've I've been successful
and I've been unsuccessful.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Not easy. You have like you have the equipment to.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
You're talking about, like you want to go likely you
want to insert Well, you have to penetrate the milk carton.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Wow, you you should be You are to language that,
I will say, as you own this one.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
I don't see how it would be difficult for a
man to pee into a milk carton, Like, how is
that different?
Speaker 5 (03:12):
You have to keep the stream very steady, do you
know those fair those county fair games with the water guns. Right,
you have to keep it straight like that, and if
you're in a moving vehicle, there's no margin for error.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Your head yours about to explode. She's just closing her
eyes and picturing it. And that's not a safe place
to be. Speaking of downtown Urine, yes, you was trying.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
To transition up and made it worse, and I'm sorry you.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
You mentioned that the homelessness problem in downtown La is
no giant surprise, and the county has finally decided I
mean you no, We're moving on right. The county made
a big decision yesterday in terms of setting up their
own agency to deal with homelessness. I'm going to tell you,
(04:00):
if you love homelessness in La County, yesterday was the
biggest day of your life.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
I mean, if you love getting rid of it or
you love it.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
Was a huge day for homeless news in Los Angeles.
We spent a lot of time talking about the homeless
department at the County, but it was also the first
day of the new sales tax that goes into effect
to fund more homeless programure. Meanwhile, at the City Hall,
while this homeless Department. Vote was happening at the county Council.
Members said no to Karen Bass for a significant amount
(04:29):
of money for her inside Safe program.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Well because it's not being audited correctly.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
As we reported last week, that judge basically raked her
over the coals and said, you're not even accounting for
the millions of dollars that voters have already approved for
you to spend on eradicating this problem. You're not telling
us how you're spending it. Nothing has changed. What the
hell are you doing?
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Essentially, bingo, And so I think yesterday, April first, twenty
twenty five will be significant in the history of whatever
course correction we think we might be on in dealing
with homelessness. The biggest thing, of course, in audition to
the tax is this homeless department. That is a very
big deal. We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars,
a new department that could have a budget of about
a billion dollars as soon as it's set up on
(05:11):
January first next year.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I want to talk about who's involved with that, because
there have been too many people involved in about can
you hang on another segment?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Are we going to talk about milk jugs.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
We are not going to talk about urine or aiming
or genitals.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
I always feel like I have to go to confession
after segments with you guys. Probably safe that way, that's
probably not a bet.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
That's funny. I was just talking to one of my girlfriends.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Her daughter has reconciliation today at school, and my girlfriend
was saying.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It's like this, that a Catholic thing.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Yeah, it's a Catholic thing.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
It's a step before communion where you go and you
basically go to confession at like nine.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Years old or so little.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
It's terrifying to confess and you're thinking of stuff like
I hit my brother the other day. I mean it
was a little you're lying to confess this sin.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Well, can't you then confess at the end like everything
I just told you.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Well, what you should say to the priest is I'm
nine and you're ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
I'm sure that would go over very well. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I will screw up in life and make bad decisions,
but right now I'm pretty clean.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Sir, our own reconciliation.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
When we come back.
Speaker 7 (06:17):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty to.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Talk about just that issue, this idea of the millions
of taxpayer moneies that will not now be going to LASA,
the La Homeless Services Authority, but instead will be pushed
at least the county version of it, will be pushed
through a county new bureaucracy that's going to be set up.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
It's it.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Don't call it a bureaucracy, sorry, Aunty Horrifat Supervisor Wharrivath
will disagree with your characterization there that this is but well,
she's wrong, But that's fine.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I get some members of the La City Council who
said the same thing. This can be interesting to watch
she is. She has caused some fights with some people.
I mean, and I think for a good cause to
change the way the status quo is.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
That was her remark. The status quo is not acceptable
any longer. And this comes after those two terrible audits,
one last year one just last month that showed a
lot of misaccounting. Again no allegations officially of fraud or
any criminal activity, but just basic accounting problems for a
significant sum of money, billions of dollars, Like where did
this money go, how was it used? What were the
(07:25):
expectations from the third party providers.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And what's better.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I mean, as a taxpayer who wants to see our
money go somewhere, what's better the idea that someone knew
where it was and then took it, or someone who
has no flip and clue where the money's disappearing to.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
And I think with the government, if somebody steals, eventually
we catch up to them, and there is a paper
trail that has to be followed a little more closely
than a quasi government agency like the LA Homeless Services Authority.
Wish will be in some very strange space this time
next year, because we're talking one hundreds of millions of dollars.
The county typically gives to LASA that it will no
(08:04):
longer give as of July next year, and that is
because they're going to keep it in house and they
will be doing a lot of these homeless services themselves.
Now there will be familiar faces, a lot of people
who currently work for LASA will work for the new.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Department because well, that's where the money is. Our money
will be.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
So Lindsay Horrbat, the supervisor, said, you know, we're not
doing this as any type of criticism of the workers
sort of the rank and file employees. We know how
hard you're working out there, and I read that as
you're going to have an opportunity in this new county department.
Five members of the La City Council showed up at
the supervisors meeting yesterday begging to keep the relationship together,
(08:44):
and we're pretty much shot down. They only got there
one minute to speak and that was it.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Listen, you've had an opportunity now, with the time that
you've been here in La to talk about or to
hear these conversations, whether it's at the city level, county level,
maybe some even state people that get involved. Is the
is the feeling, let's take those five city council members
as an example, is the feeling that they just need
(09:09):
a tiny bit more money to get over the top
and reverse this trend of homelessness that's growing in southern California.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Did ye Did they.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Think it's money or did they have self awareness and
realize it is just eferry with all the bureaucracy and
the too many people having us say in what should
be done.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
Councilwoman Nythia Rahman, who chairs the city Council's Homeless Committee,
spoke at the supervisor's meeting yesterday kind of rudely. Actually,
she wouldn't stop talking when they told her her minute
was up, and she kind of demanded three minutes and
kept plowing through her remarks ninety five minutes later. Yeah,
it was a long conversation with that. It's a woman,
and she basically said, you know, we are making progress.
(09:52):
Lass has been very forthcoming with data that she's been requesting,
and she says that data has been very useful at
the city level in this relationship. We're starting to see
the numbers trickle down a little bit. Whereas Supervisor Horrorvath
and four out of five members of the supervisors say, look,
we have to do something significant right now because of
(10:14):
just we need more oversight on these billions of dollars.
There's no time to waste. The city will be on
its own in a lot of ways. I mean, they
don't spend as much on LASA as the county does,
but if it's just LA and LASA, it will be
curious how they're able to stand up on their own.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
The fact that there's not a protocol in place for
accounting of money that the voters hand over to you
at a level like Los Angeles is insane to me.
I mean we've all did student government. You remember taking in,
you know, seventy six dollars for the school dance or whatever,
(10:51):
and how to spend that on bunting and markers and
poster board, you know, I mean, like everything was itemized.
The fact that that's not done with the billions of
dollars that we have okayed for the city to spend
to eradicate homelessness, where they're just like we don't know them.
In fact, let's hire audit firms to come in and
tell us that we haven't kept track of This is insane.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
If I order a supply, a generic supply for the
job I do here on the company account, I'm getting
an email about it, you know, like I have to
put in receipts. You have to know exactly what it is.
And this is a company that is far larger than
LASA is now to have something as significant as two billion,
two point three billion dollars with questions lingering about. And
(11:33):
the worst part of that isn't just how much money
we're spending and seeing very slow results, if any, depending
on who you ask, it's that there are third party
providers out there that are getting this money, and there
were no expectations set. So if you got a check
to say, I, with this money, my organization is going
to put ten people into temporary housing, and then we're
(11:54):
going to put them into school, and then after this
much time, they're going to be back in the workforce.
Though that's a set of expectations, the accounting the audits
found that in many many cases those expectations, we didn't
even know what we were supposed to get for these things.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
God I also want to point out, because I saw
this this morning, that this is not necessarily a streamlining
of the homelessness mechanism that exists in local government. Because
they're talking about seven hundred county workers, seven hundred that
will be transferred to this new agency by the beginning
of the year, and then hundreds of the employees from
(12:31):
LASA will also be as part of this thing. So
you're talking well over one thousand and maybe fifteen hundred
employees as part of this plan. That to me seems
like it's you're just repeating the same mistakes of making
something that's too large. It's going to have a budget
when it starts of about a billion dollars and that's
(12:52):
similar to what LASA has now in terms of scope,
budget and number of players that are involved. But that's
how significant the homeless population is in LA is what
you would hear from these elected officials, these governing boards
is that we got seventy five thousand people living homeless
in Los Angeles County. More than half of those people
live in LA City proper, this requires a massive response,
(13:16):
and we got to get a better handle on the money.
So you could give each person on the street. It
wouldn't ever work this way, but you could give them
a check for fifteen thousand dollars apiece and have spend
less money than what they're.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Talking about all the bad decisions you could mane.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
No, I know that.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I know that's why that's not an option.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
But I'll just tell you as an observer, as somebody
who lives in you know, I live skidrow adjacent basically
in the Fashion district, And I say.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Listen, if you need a place to stay, you can
always ask. I mean, it's do you live in a
nicer neighborhood than I do? Well, there's less urine. I
wouldn't say there's no urine, but.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
There's less I'll just say this because I know we
got a run, but I will say that you hear
a lot about the cost of housing and how people
are just a rent payment away from being on the streets.
It's just not the type of homeless person that you see, right,
So if you gave them fifteen thousand dollars, I mean,
so it's going to be more than keeping track of
the money. We need to hear more about the strategy
and how you're going to deal with these drug addicted,
psychotic folks who are down in the city.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
You have to treat the addiction.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Excellent point.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
You have to make them want to treat their dick.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
It's so complicated and it's definitely not solvable by money.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Unfortunately, always a.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Pleasure, you know, unless you're you're done with me? Are
we done? Because I think I'm in trouble because of
you all. Now I got to go.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
You're not into trouble. If you're in trouble, we're five.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
We'll write you a note. She'll write your note.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Yeah, that'll get you. Have a note in one hand.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Thank you as all you guys. Yous.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Gary.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
During this commercial break, great.
Speaker 7 (14:46):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
What are they?
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Are you going to ruin it for me? Should I
look it up independently? Are you going to pooh pooh it?
Are you gonna miss the milk gallon jug here?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Okay? They even named the other one.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
The dead one? Yeah, oh that's morbid.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
The names of the Egltza again, children, Yes, I think
they had something like forty five thousand people choose to
vote or something like that. Okay, they'll officially be known
as Sonny and Gizmo.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
The one that didn't make it through the snowstorm they
named Misty.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Why they Misty for me?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Oh my god, that's.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Have you seen the pictures of them lately? They're are
like you said, they're as big as chickens. Now, these
egltz not Misty. They have really awkwardly large feet. Yeah,
they're not pretty. They are not a pretty creature.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Sometimes what adolescence, you know, it can be weird. Yeah,
it can be very weird. You're all limbs and it's
just a situation. But naming the dead one is weird.
I guess they started the contest before the thing died.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
I don't know. I was thinking about you wanting to
not be called Gary.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I didn't say I never Well there was a time,
right I was six, Yeah, and you wanted to be
called the fawns.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
No, just fons Fonsie.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Okay, you just got very particular and demonstrative.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I was very clear with my parents that that's the
name I preferred, and they didn't do anything, uh to
give into that. They never once referred to me as Fhonsie.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
And I was thinking when I was thinking about this,
because in my book there is a character named Gary,
and they do a whole thing about his name being Gary.
If I went through this whole thought process, this thought exercise,
should I call you Phonsie from time to time?
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Like would that be a nice thing as a friend
to do?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
No? If I was six, yes, I would have greatly
appreciated that.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Now, okay, so id just like my my thought, what
I landed on is I'll just pepper it in from
time to time I called this you know, Oh that
was funny fons or Fonzie. Excuse me, yeah, oh that
was funny Fonzie and just kind of slide it in.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Can I tell you something about that. I found out
about names today. Yeah, the Social Security Administration for some
reason has a group or has an arm of its
agency that keeps track of names, right, And they because
we've talked about Gary being not a very popular name.
(17:35):
So in the year nineteen ninety five, they said there
was about sixteen hundred boys in America named Gary.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Sixteen hundred.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Wow, that's not money.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
In nineteen ninety five, they were about forty seven hundred
girls named Shannon born. These are the babies that are
born in these names, forty seven hundred to sixteen hundred.
You clearly by three times, three times fool. That changed
in the year two thousand and seven, where there were
more Gary's than there were Shannon's, And as of right
(18:12):
now it's gone way way down for both names. But
they said that this is crazy to me. In the
year twenty twenty three, there were only ninety six girl
babies named Shannon. Wow, and there were two hundred boy
babies named Gary.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
I might as well be Beatrice.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
You might as well a dolorous Ruth, Ruth or something like.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
That, something of that nature.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
My god, you don't get a lot of ash.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Yes, I had no idea my name was so antiquated.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I didn't either call me esther lean into that age girl.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Beatrice kind of felt good. Lean into that age old girl.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I didn't say old girl.
Speaker 8 (18:53):
That's what I heard, It's not what I said. I
have some info on the eglet. So Jinny Harmon, who
does traffic for us, is like Amy King. She's obsessed,
I mean ridiculously obsessed.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
She says.
Speaker 8 (19:07):
The one that was named Misty is after a volunteer
who has passed away.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
With Oh, oh my god, that got worse.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah, Jesus, thanks for bringing us down.
Speaker 8 (19:20):
Oh I'm sorry, but you know, I just you know,
I'm passing along.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
One dead Misty wasn't enough. We got to have two.
Good Lord, all right, let's live in this up.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I've got squirrel stuff.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Oh yeah, we actually do have squirrels.
Speaker 7 (19:40):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from kf
I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Actor Val Kilmer died at the age of sixty five. Hey,
good morning, guys.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
Uh sad about Val Kilmer, But man, wasn't he is
Doc Holiday one of the best freaking roles.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Ever done in that movie ever? Oh man, it's the best.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
It is absolute have been gun doing nothing but a
skinny long longer they had.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
What an ugly thing to say for friends?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Or ugliness? Does this mean we're not friends anymore? If
I thought you were my friend, I just don't think
I couldn't bear it, don't think.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I mean, he played that so well it was kind
of laughable. Some of his other roles and what seemed
to be wasted talent, although it was never wasted. I mean,
he was brilliant as Iceman. I just my god.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
He was in The Jackal Is that the right the
movie that I'm thinking of where he played.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
There's been so many Jackals.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
I know.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
It was the day of it.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
But God and Tombstone holds up. I watch it like
once a year. It's a great, great movie.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
There's one where he played a agent who was undercover
all the time. It was very good as well. But yeah,
Bell come er dead at the age of sixty five.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Squirrels.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Squirrels kid named Derek Downey when he was a little boys,
grade school teacher gave him the class hermit Crab at
the end of the school year because he spent so
much time mesmerized by the hermit crab.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
What's the shelf life of a hermit crab. How long
they last?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Idea, Yeah, they could probably think pretty bad though. When
he's older, he moves here to La to pursue acting
start making comedy sketches online. But he said it was
his friendship with the neighborhood squirrels that resonated with his
audience online and skyrocketed him to an overnight sensation.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
He's thirty three.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
He is the self proclaimed squirrel whisperer. He shares his
daily interactions with a cast of squirrels. Squirrels, by the way,
are very interactive. I've got a squirrel. I've got a
couple of squirrels that live nearby me and try to
interact all the time, all the time. Are you they're social?
(22:04):
I know you don't like this one. There's one down
here that's near the entrance.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I just find them to.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Be a little presumptuous, like they think we're just going
to be best friends and hang out all the time,
and they can just you know, they're kind of like
cats in that way where they're going to do what
they want to do and you're damned, you be damned.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Squirrels are like that. Yeah, you know, anyway, He's.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Named his squirrel friends hood Rat, Raymond, Consuela, Raggedy Rufus,
tore up, Terry, nibble it. But it all started with
Richard and Maxine, who are the most popular and make
the most appearances on his social media pages, to which
I say, it's it's It's probably tricky to keep squirrels separated.
(22:47):
It's like having a set of twins at home. You know,
like which ones which and I guess. If they're your twins,
you can tell the difference. If they're your squirrels, you
can tell the difference.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Generally, there's often size differences between the males and female.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
That's true, like the dead eaglet and the other ones.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yes, there's that misty.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
He actually wrote a book, a self published children's book
called Hand and Paul Maxine's Tale of Compassion. He just
released it just about a year ago, story based on
the time that he unknowingly rescued Maxine's babies when a
landscaper had cut down his neighbor's tree. He said it
was very intentional on how Maxine and I looked in
the book and showing that it's okay to show compassion
(23:29):
to animals. I wanted to give my audience something tangible
that they could actually hold aside from viewing content online.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
He built a house for his squirrels.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I love that. That's a good little project.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Yeah, well, I've told you about maybe building a barn
for what.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
What are you going to build a barn for? You
should build a barn for?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Again, for what? What am I going to build a barn?
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Would be cool to have a barn in the backyard. No,
you could build a little one for the squirrels.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
That I could do. Yeah, there's a little corner of
the yard where we took a tree out that. Yeah,
looking for some looking for some love in some way,
Maybe maybe there is a squirrel barn in my future.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
You get yourself down to the depot, maybe get a
little red paint. Maybe you paint that that barn red
a white trim.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Were you really going out on a limb there with
the creative choices? Well, you want it to look classic, right,
I wanted to make it look like it's a from
something in Yellowstone. Yeah, he says. They the squirrels all
impacted my life in a way that I didn't expect.
They brought me joy and allowed my childlike creativity to
(24:39):
just expand. That first video brought me out of the
dark space that I was in and gave me hope
to move through it.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
You know what, good for him?
Speaker 1 (24:46):
If squirrels cured your depression, then I'll then go for it.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
I don't know if they cured it, but they made
it go away.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
He sets up the house, he feeds some nuts and things.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
I would assume, right, but what happens if this guy
is my thing is not to feed wild animals because
then they stop feeding themselves, right well, I although I don't,
I don't adhere to that when it comes to feeding birds.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
I led with the story about the hermit crab, and
I would ask that same question about squirrels.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
What's what's the what's the shelf life on a squirrel?
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Because I feel like, let's find out that's going to
be one of those things that could plunge him back
into a dark space.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
If oh, they live a long time twelve years in
the wild though never money years in captivity.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Never mind, that's that's like a normal pet.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Well that squirrel downstairs was there for years.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not worried. In Good for him,
he's going to have friends for a Lord.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
So they get comfortable. That's the thing. It's like a cat.
They get comfortable, like we're going to be here a while.
We're going to live how we want to live.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
We will do our swamp watch stories. We come back.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Also the big one with Justin Warsham coming up at
the bottom of next hour at eleven thirty. Your kid
is somebody who's not allowed to date. What kind of
responsibility do you have to tell their parents that they're
seeing your kid?
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Do you have to tell them?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Do you?
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Yes, you've been listening to The Gary and Shannon Show.
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
A M six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on
demand on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Today, of course Liberation Day.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
President Trump is expected to unveil some new tariffs today,
but at this point still keeping everybody guessing in terms
of what it is going to look like. He will
unveil these measures today, flanked by members of the Cabinet
in the Rose Garden at about one o'clock hour time,
which is significantly comes after the stock markets close. He
(00:29):
says that they the tariffs will stop America from being
ripped off and will deliver a new golden age of
US industry.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Joe Biden's former White House chief of staff, rolling on
the former president.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I mean this is just hurtful.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I mean, you hire someone as your chief of staff
and you would hope that in the waning years of
your sinality is that the right word, nanility whatever, that
would all be secret. You know that somebody wouldn't air
that all out in the form of a book. But
that's what happened. We'll get into those details coming up.
But Michael Monks is here and I don't want to
(01:04):
waste any more of his time. I've already wasted enough.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I got an hour and a half with him.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
Really, No, I'm just saying that was an offline chat
with Oh.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
I got excited. I was like, we've got Michael till I'm.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Happy to hang out. I mean they're paying me either way.
That's also a good point.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
And you talk too much about pee if I'm being honest,
though I don't know.
Speaker 6 (01:24):
Oh, I thought we've only brought it up twice. Well,
I brought it up a couple like I said, you
did take questions last week. You asked about how hot
is it? And I said, well, it's probably ninety eight
point six.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I didn't ask that just out of the blue. It
was within a conversation about something topical, right, And you
said that the pea was warm, and I thought it
is And then I said, well, is that why it
feels warm when you pee when you get out of
a swimming pool? And you said, why are you feeling
your pee?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Yeah, you've never known.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Do you guys want to be alone?
Speaker 7 (02:01):
No?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
No, okay, it's better let me try this. There's company.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
If you've ever been in downtown Los Angeles, you know
that it occasionally smells like urine because the volumes.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Upon was peppered. Occupy remember that protest that swept the country.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Oh yeah, it was like fifteen years ago.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Yeah, oh you just said data we're the age.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah we are, that's true. But anyway, so we're both old.
Yes we are both very old. But I remember covering that,
and they're just being gallon milk containers of urine, just
willy nilly hanging out right out there.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Let me tell you this. Say what you will about
the politics of that. To be able to pee into
a gallon jug, it's it's not easy.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
You've been on the road and you had to figure
something out. It's not easy. And I've I've been successful
and I've been unsuccessful.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Not easy. You have like you have the equipment to.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
You're talking about, like you want to go likely you
want to insert Well, you have to penetrate the milk carton.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Wow, you you should be You are to language that,
I will say, as you own this one.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
I don't see how it would be difficult for a
man to pee into a milk carton, Like, how is
that different?
Speaker 5 (03:12):
You have to keep the stream very steady, do you
know those fair those county fair games with the water guns. Right,
you have to keep it straight like that, and if
you're in a moving vehicle, there's no margin for error.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Your head yours about to explode. She's just closing her
eyes and picturing it. And that's not a safe place
to be. Speaking of downtown Urine, yes, you was trying.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
To transition up and made it worse, and I'm sorry you.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
You mentioned that the homelessness problem in downtown La is
no giant surprise, and the county has finally decided I
mean you no, We're moving on right. The county made
a big decision yesterday in terms of setting up their
own agency to deal with homelessness. I'm going to tell you,
(04:00):
if you love homelessness in La County, yesterday was the
biggest day of your life.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
I mean, if you love getting rid of it or
you love it.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
Was a huge day for homeless news in Los Angeles.
We spent a lot of time talking about the homeless
department at the County, but it was also the first
day of the new sales tax that goes into effect
to fund more homeless programure. Meanwhile, at the City Hall,
while this homeless Department. Vote was happening at the county Council.
Members said no to Karen Bass for a significant amount
(04:29):
of money for her inside Safe program.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Well because it's not being audited correctly.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
As we reported last week, that judge basically raked her
over the coals and said, you're not even accounting for
the millions of dollars that voters have already approved for
you to spend on eradicating this problem. You're not telling
us how you're spending it. Nothing has changed. What the
hell are you doing?
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Essentially, bingo, And so I think yesterday, April first, twenty
twenty five will be significant in the history of whatever
course correction we think we might be on in dealing
with homelessness. The biggest thing, of course, in audition to
the tax is this homeless department. That is a very
big deal. We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars,
a new department that could have a budget of about
a billion dollars as soon as it's set up on
(05:11):
January first next year.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I want to talk about who's involved with that, because
there have been too many people involved in about can
you hang on another segment?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Are we going to talk about milk jugs.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
We are not going to talk about urine or aiming
or genitals.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
I always feel like I have to go to confession
after segments with you guys. Probably safe that way, that's
probably not a bet.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
That's funny. I was just talking to one of my girlfriends.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Her daughter has reconciliation today at school, and my girlfriend
was saying.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It's like this, that a Catholic thing.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Yeah, it's a Catholic thing.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
It's a step before communion where you go and you
basically go to confession at like nine.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Years old or so little.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
It's terrifying to confess and you're thinking of stuff like
I hit my brother the other day. I mean it
was a little you're lying to confess this sin.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Well, can't you then confess at the end like everything
I just told you.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Well, what you should say to the priest is I'm
nine and you're ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
I'm sure that would go over very well. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I will screw up in life and make bad decisions,
but right now I'm pretty clean.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Sir, our own reconciliation.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
When we come back.
Speaker 7 (06:17):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty to.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Talk about just that issue, this idea of the millions
of taxpayer moneies that will not now be going to LASA,
the La Homeless Services Authority, but instead will be pushed
at least the county version of it, will be pushed
through a county new bureaucracy that's going to be set up.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
It's it.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Don't call it a bureaucracy, sorry, Aunty Horrifat Supervisor Wharrivath
will disagree with your characterization there that this is but well,
she's wrong, But that's fine.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
I get some members of the La City Council who
said the same thing. This can be interesting to watch
she is. She has caused some fights with some people.
I mean, and I think for a good cause to
change the way the status quo is.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
That was her remark. The status quo is not acceptable
any longer. And this comes after those two terrible audits,
one last year one just last month that showed a
lot of misaccounting. Again no allegations officially of fraud or
any criminal activity, but just basic accounting problems for a
significant sum of money, billions of dollars, Like where did
this money go, how was it used? What were the
(07:25):
expectations from the third party providers.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And what's better.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I mean, as a taxpayer who wants to see our
money go somewhere, what's better the idea that someone knew
where it was and then took it, or someone who
has no flip and clue where the money's disappearing to.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
That's right.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
And I think with the government, if somebody steals, eventually
we catch up to them, and there is a paper
trail that has to be followed a little more closely
than a quasi government agency like the LA Homeless Services Authority.
Wish will be in some very strange space this time
next year, because we're talking one hundreds of millions of dollars.
The county typically gives to LASA that it will no
(08:04):
longer give as of July next year, and that is
because they're going to keep it in house and they
will be doing a lot of these homeless services themselves.
Now there will be familiar faces, a lot of people
who currently work for LASA will work for the new.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Department because well, that's where the money is. Our money
will be.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
So Lindsay Horrbat, the supervisor, said, you know, we're not
doing this as any type of criticism of the workers
sort of the rank and file employees. We know how
hard you're working out there, and I read that as
you're going to have an opportunity in this new county department.
Five members of the La City Council showed up at
the supervisors meeting yesterday begging to keep the relationship together,
(08:44):
and we're pretty much shot down. They only got there
one minute to speak and that was it.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Listen, you've had an opportunity now, with the time that
you've been here in La to talk about or to
hear these conversations, whether it's at the city level, county level,
maybe some even state people that get involved. Is the
is the feeling, let's take those five city council members
as an example, is the feeling that they just need
(09:09):
a tiny bit more money to get over the top
and reverse this trend of homelessness that's growing in southern California.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Did ye Did they.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Think it's money or did they have self awareness and
realize it is just eferry with all the bureaucracy and
the too many people having us say in what should
be done.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
Councilwoman Nythia Rahman, who chairs the city Council's Homeless Committee,
spoke at the supervisor's meeting yesterday kind of rudely. Actually,
she wouldn't stop talking when they told her her minute
was up, and she kind of demanded three minutes and
kept plowing through her remarks ninety five minutes later. Yeah,
it was a long conversation with that. It's a woman,
and she basically said, you know, we are making progress.
(09:52):
Lass has been very forthcoming with data that she's been requesting,
and she says that data has been very useful at
the city level in this relationship. We're starting to see
the numbers trickle down a little bit. Whereas Supervisor Horrorvath
and four out of five members of the supervisors say, look,
we have to do something significant right now because of
(10:14):
just we need more oversight on these billions of dollars.
There's no time to waste. The city will be on
its own in a lot of ways. I mean, they
don't spend as much on LASA as the county does,
but if it's just LA and LASA, it will be
curious how they're able to stand up on their own.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
The fact that there's not a protocol in place for
accounting of money that the voters hand over to you
at a level like Los Angeles is insane to me.
I mean we've all did student government. You remember taking in,
you know, seventy six dollars for the school dance or whatever,
(10:51):
and how to spend that on bunting and markers and
poster board, you know, I mean, like everything was itemized.
The fact that that's not done with the billions of
dollars that we have okayed for the city to spend
to eradicate homelessness, where they're just like we don't know them.
In fact, let's hire audit firms to come in and
tell us that we haven't kept track of This is insane.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
If I order a supply, a generic supply for the
job I do here on the company account, I'm getting
an email about it, you know, like I have to
put in receipts. You have to know exactly what it is.
And this is a company that is far larger than
LASA is now to have something as significant as two billion,
two point three billion dollars with questions lingering about. And
(11:33):
the worst part of that isn't just how much money
we're spending and seeing very slow results, if any, depending
on who you ask, it's that there are third party
providers out there that are getting this money, and there
were no expectations set. So if you got a check
to say, I, with this money, my organization is going
to put ten people into temporary housing, and then we're
(11:54):
going to put them into school, and then after this
much time, they're going to be back in the workforce.
Though that's a set of expectations, the accounting the audits
found that in many many cases those expectations, we didn't
even know what we were supposed to get for these things.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
God I also want to point out, because I saw
this this morning, that this is not necessarily a streamlining
of the homelessness mechanism that exists in local government. Because
they're talking about seven hundred county workers, seven hundred that
will be transferred to this new agency by the beginning
of the year, and then hundreds of the employees from
(12:31):
LASA will also be as part of this thing. So
you're talking well over one thousand and maybe fifteen hundred
employees as part of this plan. That to me seems
like it's you're just repeating the same mistakes of making
something that's too large. It's going to have a budget
when it starts of about a billion dollars and that's
(12:52):
similar to what LASA has now in terms of scope,
budget and number of players that are involved. But that's
how significant the homeless population is in LA is what
you would hear from these elected officials, these governing boards
is that we got seventy five thousand people living homeless
in Los Angeles County. More than half of those people
live in LA City proper, this requires a massive response,
(13:16):
and we got to get a better handle on the money.
So you could give each person on the street. It
wouldn't ever work this way, but you could give them
a check for fifteen thousand dollars apiece and have spend
less money than what they're.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Talking about all the bad decisions you could mane.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
No, I know that.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I know that's why that's not an option.
Speaker 5 (13:34):
But I'll just tell you as an observer, as somebody
who lives in you know, I live skidrow adjacent basically
in the Fashion district, And I say.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Listen, if you need a place to stay, you can
always ask. I mean, it's do you live in a
nicer neighborhood than I do? Well, there's less urine. I
wouldn't say there's no urine, but.
Speaker 5 (13:48):
There's less I'll just say this because I know we
got a run, but I will say that you hear
a lot about the cost of housing and how people
are just a rent payment away from being on the streets.
It's just not the type of homeless person that you see, right,
So if you gave them fifteen thousand dollars, I mean,
so it's going to be more than keeping track of
the money. We need to hear more about the strategy
and how you're going to deal with these drug addicted,
psychotic folks who are down in the city.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
You have to treat the addiction.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Excellent point.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
You have to make them want to treat their dick.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
It's so complicated and it's definitely not solvable by money.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
Unfortunately, always a.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Pleasure, you know, unless you're you're done with me? Are
we done? Because I think I'm in trouble because of
you all. Now I got to go.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
You're not into trouble. If you're in trouble, we're five.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
We'll write you a note. She'll write your note.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Yeah, that'll get you. Have a note in one hand.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Thank you as all you guys. Yous.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Gary.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
During this commercial break, great.
Speaker 7 (14:46):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
What are they?
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Are you going to ruin it for me? Should I
look it up independently? Are you going to pooh pooh it?
Are you gonna miss the milk gallon jug here?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Okay? They even named the other one.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
The dead one? Yeah, oh that's morbid.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
The names of the Egltza again, children, Yes, I think
they had something like forty five thousand people choose to
vote or something like that. Okay, they'll officially be known
as Sonny and Gizmo.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
The one that didn't make it through the snowstorm they
named Misty.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Why they Misty for me?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Oh my god, that's.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Have you seen the pictures of them lately? They're are
like you said, they're as big as chickens. Now, these
egltz not Misty. They have really awkwardly large feet. Yeah,
they're not pretty. They are not a pretty creature.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Sometimes what adolescence, you know, it can be weird. Yeah,
it can be very weird. You're all limbs and it's
just a situation. But naming the dead one is weird.
I guess they started the contest before the thing died.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
I don't know. I was thinking about you wanting to
not be called Gary.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
I didn't say I never Well there was a time,
right I was six, Yeah, and you wanted to be
called the fawns.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
No, just fons Fonsie.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Okay, you just got very particular and demonstrative.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I was very clear with my parents that that's the
name I preferred, and they didn't do anything, uh to
give into that. They never once referred to me as Fhonsie.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
And I was thinking when I was thinking about this,
because in my book there is a character named Gary,
and they do a whole thing about his name being Gary.
If I went through this whole thought process, this thought exercise,
should I call you Phonsie from time to time?
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Like would that be a nice thing as a friend
to do?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
No? If I was six, yes, I would have greatly
appreciated that.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Now, okay, so id just like my my thought, what
I landed on is I'll just pepper it in from
time to time I called this you know, Oh that
was funny fons or Fonzie. Excuse me, yeah, oh that
was funny Fonzie and just kind of slide it in.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Can I tell you something about that. I found out
about names today. Yeah, the Social Security Administration for some
reason has a group or has an arm of its
agency that keeps track of names, right, And they because
we've talked about Gary being not a very popular name.
(17:35):
So in the year nineteen ninety five, they said there
was about sixteen hundred boys in America named Gary.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Sixteen hundred.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Wow, that's not money.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
In nineteen ninety five, they were about forty seven hundred
girls named Shannon born. These are the babies that are
born in these names, forty seven hundred to sixteen hundred.
You clearly by three times, three times fool. That changed
in the year two thousand and seven, where there were
more Gary's than there were Shannon's, And as of right
(18:12):
now it's gone way way down for both names. But
they said that this is crazy to me. In the
year twenty twenty three, there were only ninety six girl
babies named Shannon. Wow, and there were two hundred boy
babies named Gary.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
I might as well be Beatrice.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
You might as well a dolorous Ruth, Ruth or something like.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
That, something of that nature.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
My god, you don't get a lot of ash.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Yes, I had no idea my name was so antiquated.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I didn't either call me esther lean into that age girl.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Beatrice kind of felt good. Lean into that age old girl.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I didn't say old girl.
Speaker 8 (18:53):
That's what I heard, It's not what I said. I
have some info on the eglet. So Jinny Harmon, who
does traffic for us, is like Amy King. She's obsessed,
I mean ridiculously obsessed.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
She says.
Speaker 8 (19:07):
The one that was named Misty is after a volunteer
who has passed away.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
With Oh, oh my god, that got worse.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah, Jesus, thanks for bringing us down.
Speaker 8 (19:20):
Oh I'm sorry, but you know, I just you know,
I'm passing along.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
One dead Misty wasn't enough. We got to have two.
Good Lord, all right, let's live in this up.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
I've got squirrel stuff.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Oh yeah, we actually do have squirrels.
Speaker 7 (19:40):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from kf
I am six forty.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Actor Val Kilmer died at the age of sixty five. Hey,
good morning, guys.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
Uh sad about Val Kilmer, But man, wasn't he is
Doc Holiday one of the best freaking roles.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Ever done in that movie ever? Oh man, it's the best.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
It is absolute have been gun doing nothing but a
skinny long longer they had.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
What an ugly thing to say for friends?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Or ugliness? Does this mean we're not friends anymore? If
I thought you were my friend, I just don't think
I couldn't bear it, don't think.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I mean, he played that so well it was kind
of laughable. Some of his other roles and what seemed
to be wasted talent, although it was never wasted. I mean,
he was brilliant as Iceman. I just my god.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
He was in The Jackal Is that the right the
movie that I'm thinking of where he played.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
There's been so many Jackals.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
I know.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
It was the day of it.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
But God and Tombstone holds up. I watch it like
once a year. It's a great, great movie.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
There's one where he played a agent who was undercover
all the time. It was very good as well. But yeah,
Bell come er dead at the age of sixty five.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Squirrels.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Squirrels kid named Derek Downey when he was a little boys,
grade school teacher gave him the class hermit Crab at
the end of the school year because he spent so
much time mesmerized by the hermit crab.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
What's the shelf life of a hermit crab. How long
they last?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Idea, Yeah, they could probably think pretty bad though. When
he's older, he moves here to La to pursue acting
start making comedy sketches online. But he said it was
his friendship with the neighborhood squirrels that resonated with his
audience online and skyrocketed him to an overnight sensation.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
He's thirty three.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
He is the self proclaimed squirrel whisperer. He shares his
daily interactions with a cast of squirrels. Squirrels, by the way,
are very interactive. I've got a squirrel. I've got a
couple of squirrels that live nearby me and try to
interact all the time, all the time. Are you they're social?
(22:04):
I know you don't like this one. There's one down
here that's near the entrance.
Speaker 4 (22:08):
I just find them to.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Be a little presumptuous, like they think we're just going
to be best friends and hang out all the time,
and they can just you know, they're kind of like
cats in that way where they're going to do what
they want to do and you're damned, you be damned.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Squirrels are like that. Yeah, you know, anyway, He's.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Named his squirrel friends hood Rat, Raymond, Consuela, Raggedy Rufus,
tore up, Terry, nibble it. But it all started with
Richard and Maxine, who are the most popular and make
the most appearances on his social media pages, to which
I say, it's it's It's probably tricky to keep squirrels separated.
(22:47):
It's like having a set of twins at home. You know,
like which ones which and I guess. If they're your twins,
you can tell the difference. If they're your squirrels, you
can tell the difference.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Generally, there's often size differences between the males and female.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
That's true, like the dead eaglet and the other ones.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yes, there's that misty.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
He actually wrote a book, a self published children's book
called Hand and Paul Maxine's Tale of Compassion. He just
released it just about a year ago, story based on
the time that he unknowingly rescued Maxine's babies when a
landscaper had cut down his neighbor's tree. He said it
was very intentional on how Maxine and I looked in
the book and showing that it's okay to show compassion
(23:29):
to animals. I wanted to give my audience something tangible
that they could actually hold aside from viewing content online.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
He built a house for his squirrels.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I love that. That's a good little project.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Yeah, well, I've told you about maybe building a barn
for what.
Speaker 4 (23:45):
What are you going to build a barn for? You
should build a barn for?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Again, for what? What am I going to build a barn?
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Would be cool to have a barn in the backyard. No,
you could build a little one for the squirrels.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
That I could do. Yeah, there's a little corner of
the yard where we took a tree out that. Yeah,
looking for some looking for some love in some way,
Maybe maybe there is a squirrel barn in my future.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
You get yourself down to the depot, maybe get a
little red paint. Maybe you paint that that barn red
a white trim.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Were you really going out on a limb there with
the creative choices? Well, you want it to look classic, right,
I wanted to make it look like it's a from
something in Yellowstone. Yeah, he says. They the squirrels all
impacted my life in a way that I didn't expect.
They brought me joy and allowed my childlike creativity to
(24:39):
just expand. That first video brought me out of the
dark space that I was in and gave me hope
to move through it.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
You know what, good for him?
Speaker 1 (24:46):
If squirrels cured your depression, then I'll then go for it.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
I don't know if they cured it, but they made
it go away.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
He sets up the house, he feeds some nuts and things.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
I would assume, right, but what happens if this guy
is my thing is not to feed wild animals because
then they stop feeding themselves, right well, I although I don't,
I don't adhere to that when it comes to feeding birds.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
I led with the story about the hermit crab, and
I would ask that same question about squirrels.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
What's what's the what's the shelf life on a squirrel?
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Because I feel like, let's find out that's going to
be one of those things that could plunge him back
into a dark space.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
If oh, they live a long time twelve years in
the wild though never money years in captivity.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Never mind, that's that's like a normal pet.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Well that squirrel downstairs was there for years.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not worried. In Good for him,
he's going to have friends for a Lord.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
So they get comfortable. That's the thing. It's like a cat.
They get comfortable, like we're going to be here a while.
We're going to live how we want to live.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
We will do our swamp watch stories. We come back.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Also the big one with Justin Warsham coming up at
the bottom of next hour at eleven thirty. Your kid
is somebody who's not allowed to date. What kind of
responsibility do you have to tell their parents that they're
seeing your kid?
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Do you have to tell them?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Do you?
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Yes, you've been listening to The Gary and Shannon Show.
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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