August 21, 2021 • 42 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
If you thought four hours a day, minutes a week
was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of the
old republic a sole fashion of fairness. He treats crackheads
in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich pill
poppers in the penthouse, to clearing house of hot takes.
Break Free for Something Special Hour with Ben Maller starts
(00:25):
right now in the air everywhere as we loviate the
weekend away and we welcome you into the Mallard Podcast
studio deep in the north Woods eight days a week
as we try to overcompensate for my absence this week
(00:47):
from the show, my post for a few a few
nights here, and of course four hours a night clearly
not enough. And the great thing about the podcast is
you can listen to it overnight if you want, or
when the sun is up. You can actually listen when
the sun is up. And I know from when people download,
we actually have a lot of people that listened during
(01:08):
the day and so we do appreciate that. Joined yet
again by a man west of the four oh five,
David gascong Man, I I really got to give myself one.
(01:31):
I continue to book good guests. I should start getting
paid for this ship. Wow. Wow, Wow, you know it's funny.
I I had done a Q and A session with
one of your couple of your your listeners a few
days ago, and they had asked that question about booking guests,
and I said, you know, I like booking guests that
(01:53):
Ben doesn't know or doesn't like, doesn't come in contact with,
because it gives you. It gives you, like a little
bit more work to write. It's like to do a
little bit more research and to do a little bit
more recon and iways think it's fun. But like these guys,
certain people like that you've come across and introduced me to,
and like vice versa. I just think those people are
(02:13):
so fascinating because we're always stuck in this you know,
spectrum of sports and full disclosure, we've done the podcast
long enough that we pretty much run out of people
that there's very few people left that we haven't had
on like I think they like petros. People have said
we should get petro Son, and I would love to
get petro Son, but when we record the podcast, he's working,
(02:36):
so we can't get petro Son. Now, maybe we can
do something in another time. And we're talking about doing
some stuff differently down the line, so that will open
up the possibility of that and so we'll see. But
you know, yeah, I don't. I don't know a lot
of people I do. Radio radio is a small circle.
(02:57):
There's not a lot of people in it. And of
the people in it, there's only a few that I
get along with. So, um, you know, it's not a
lot to work with you. There's not a lot that
we can do. And so if you have any suggestions,
we always say, hey, the email, the inbox is always
open if you have somebody you'd like to have on.
We've had recommendation with people from Denver, were like, we
could get the voice of the Broncos on. We haven't
(03:18):
done that. Uh we we attempted to get the voice
in the Minnesota Vikings on right and then he had Yeah,
we tried a couple of times and that didn't work out.
Paul Allen, the voice of the Vikings, Dave Logan and
Denver that's right, maybe get them on because of scheduling issues. Um,
(03:38):
but yeah, I mean, so I don't. I don't. Obviously,
Andrew was fun to talk to. I like, I have
an interest in cooking. He's a professional he's on television.
I think it's interesting how someone ends up on television
and we're kind of in the same ballpark age wise,
so we have our our perspective on life. I think
it's pretty similar. Uh yeah, yeah. I although I don't
(04:00):
like sea food, I do like pizza. I love pizza.
Uh And Julia Child. I got to use my favorite
Julia Child quote, and I didn't think I would ever
get to use that, and so I'm glad that I did.
I found a way to use a Julia Child quote,
which I think I've only used once in my life.
But it's one of the great quotes about anything. You
can have drama, even a pancake if if done properly.
(04:21):
I'm paraphrasing the quote from from Julia Child. So I
didn't ask you. I'd ask Andrew this, but I should
have asked you gun to your head pancake waffle or
French toast pancake? Oh wow, pancake, alright, pancake. You I
don't know frive French toast, but I don't know. Arnie.
(04:42):
Arnie every year for Christmas sending his gift packages for
you know, for all the staff. The Vermont Maple syrup
man I've gotten I haven't got one. I've known Andrew
longer than you, not Andrew, I've known Arnie longer. Yeah,
I haven't known I've known Andrew at all. Actually I
just met him yesterday, so but yeah, I don't know. Yeah,
(05:04):
I mean, pancakes a good call, especially because you can pacakes,
you can stack them, you can put different so you know,
obviously one of those things you can put different syrups
or whatever, strawberry or the traditional maple syrup or anything
like that. But a well made pancake. And I don't
I don't need breakfast, so I don't need a lot.
As you know, that is one of the great scams.
(05:26):
I should have brought this up with Andrew h And
you know, the whole breakfast is the most important meal
that you've heard that right, That is one of the
great marketing slogans of all time. John Kellogg, the guy
behind Kellogg's you know cereal company, That was his catchphrase
(05:47):
to try to sell cereal breakfast Cereal. Nobody in the
when they breakfast cereals started, nobody bought it. Nobody wanted it.
They didn't need it, they didn't want it. Most people
ate breakfast it was just leftovers from dinner the night
before if they ate anything, and a lot of people
didn't even eat breakfast, they just skipped it. And he
(06:07):
they came up with that marketing slogan breakfast is the
most important meal of the day. They flooded all the newspapers,
all the radio stations, and and the rest is history.
All these years later, we're talking about probably radio started
in the nineteen twenties, so probably seventy eight years at least,
(06:32):
I would say maybe longer than that. Damn crazy, It's amazing.
I I do like the fact that Andrew said, I
don't know if you do it at all, but I
love eating breakfast for dinner. Yeah, I don't do too much.
My wife loves breakfast, so that would be a compromise.
I do. I do like similar to him. I do
like the breakfast foods. I am a fan of breakfast foods.
(06:55):
I just I usually I'm fasting, so I can't eat breakfast,
and I I pretty much just eat lunch. I've I've
settled into a lunch I'm a lunch guy. I don't
really eat dinner. On the weekends, I'll eat because otherwise
I'll get killed with the family. I gotta eat, you know,
lunch and dinner. But that's about it. Oh, we gotta
go to Tustin. Man, I'm gonna let's do it. Let's
(07:16):
do it. Let's just get a big old pie. Those
those pineapples, Uh, I don't know if they're go on
my pizza. But the other pizza look delicious, they look
they look solid. That's a good looking pie. That is
a So that's that's food porn. That is food point.
All right, So we have moving man Mallard. Now, as
I referenced, I was away from my post this past
week for three long, painful days. I would like to
(07:39):
thank the staff at Fox Sports Radio for filling in.
Mr Plank did a fine job sitting in for me there.
Not not easy, not easy. The Mallard Militia, as you know,
a rather rambunctious group, the Mallard Militia. And typically when
I'm away it is is open season, open season. But
(08:02):
Chris Plank did a great job, as I understand, and
did a wonderful holding of the fort. So we thank
him for that. But as being away from the bully pulpit,
the reason and you know I moved, but I'll give
you some details. So the schedule worked out where my
wife was off from work, um at the police stations
(08:23):
and one operator. And so, no, you don't get a
lot of time off. You have to you know, you
do get a lot of time off, but when you're
supposed to work, you after work as well. Yeah, but
most jobs and um, so she she said, we gotta move.
This is it, you know, for for a couple of reasons.
And so dragged me away to help help move. And
we ski at schedaddle out of the halfway house to
(08:45):
the the new Mallard mansion. And even though it's not
completely done, it's not completely done, but logistically we had
to do it. And so it's still an active construction
zone right now. Right across the room I'm in the
I'm in the studio here, but just across the other
side of the wall there are a group of hard
working people who are sweating their asses off, covered in dust.
(09:08):
They got the studio done, but the rest of the
house is really not done, and it won't be done
for a couple more days. I've actually been staying in
a hotel the last couple of nights while they finish up.
But the studio has done so I'm here and I'm
breathing in all the dust, which is great, and they
really recommend that they recommend eating breathing in a lot
of dust. But but anyway, so we it was a
(09:29):
paint in and it took I have much respect from
moving man Matt from Boston who hates you gascon uh
and and several other p ones who have reached out
to me over the years that are moving, you know, professionals.
My god, what a what a pain in the ass.
I mean, it is a crap ton of physical labor, obviously,
(09:50):
and you gotta take everything apart to fit it through doors,
and it's just a nightmare. And then you lose. I
I took some stuff apart from my student yoke because
I moved that over, and I lost a whole bunch
of screws that I needed. So then I'm going to
home depot trying to match the screws, you know, and
then they don't have the exact ones, so you gotta
get it kind of close. And several U haul trips loading, unloading.
(10:16):
And the amazing about this is I'm not even done. Like,
as I said, the house where I'm moving to is
the studios done it'll be done in a couple of days.
But then I have to move everything back from the
storage that it's in and put it, you know, where
it needs to be, and all that stuff for the
final final move. So I have several probably months, because
(10:37):
I can only do it on the weekends of sojourns.
Renting a truck and then moving it and and all
of that and all that. You know, something uh that
I was not anticipating taking is long. But the good
news is this will be the final move. This will
be my my final resting place. I don't imagine I will.
(11:00):
I will die either in this house or while living
in this house. So that's exciting. I don't have to
move again, so I'm excited about that. And the house
is gonna look great. And my wife designed like all
I did was request the flooring. That's all I did.
I said, I want a certain kind of flooring. Everything
else that was like pretty much here. So if it's good,
I'll give her credit. If it's bad, she'll blame me
(11:21):
for not having more of a say in the but
she know she did a wonderful job and it's gonna
look wonderful. I know you've seen some photos there gascon
of some of this stuff that's done, which is not
completely completely done, but almost done. And be sure to
catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show week days
at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports
(11:41):
Radio and the I Heart Radio app. It looks great.
I saw a giant bowl occupying the living room, so
that was that was nice. Um as a giant size bathtub. Um,
that's the Mallard tub. That is the Mallard tub. It is.
It looks old school, it looks awesome. The bathroom looks fantastic. Yeah.
The bathroom is like it looks like the bellagio in here.
(12:04):
It's yeah, because you get the little bench yeah yeah
yeah yeah. Well we figured no because this the place
I needed complete complete, like gutting a fit. Yeah, talk
to bottom. Yeah yeah. So like we can put ever
we want, Like why don't we go big? You know,
it doesn't cost that much more once you once you
the hard part. The demo is expensive and then obviously
(12:25):
the materials, but you can make it whatever you want.
It doesn't cost that much more. I think kitchens and
bathrooms you have to nail, and I think your wife
nailed him. I think uh, Liven's in the kitchen yet,
but the bathroom, like the tile, the color, it looks great. Um,
she looks good. Um My wife's really really good. She
a lot of HUTV, a lot of reading stuff online
(12:47):
and like what her tastes are, and and she tried
to compromise because I have more. I'm pretty benign with
this stuff, you know what I mean, Like I just
can't like whatever. I just like I don't need it
popping and all that stuff. But yeahs you we wanted
stuff that's gonna last for a while, so hopefully this will.
You know. Sometimes you you paint something and you haven't
look a certain way, and you get tired of it
(13:09):
after a while. Yeah. I try to avoid that as
much as part. I mean, it's like it's like the
old cliche of buying real estate right on, like in Malibu,
and you have this amazing window looking out of the
Pacific Ocean, and then you look at it for like
the first week or the first month, and then after
a while you forget about it. You don't even look,
you know, used to get used to it. It says
like you might as well live on the wrong side
(13:30):
of the tracks looking at skid row because you're not
gonna look at that, and you're not gonna look you know,
you just it's not part of your routine. It's just not. Um.
I think you guys did a great job. And I
applaud her for opening up her Instagram comments section. I
was giving her shit about it, and she said that
I was not the only person that was grieving over
the fact that she had closed the door on comments.
(13:53):
So that's in my position is different. You know, my
my wife's loves to give updates, and I'm I'm more of, hey,
you know, this is our you know, my private life.
You know, I don't need this out there. But I
think she has a couple of Instagram pages, so I
think it was on her personal one that she she
set this stuff out. I think. I don't I don't know,
but I've not been very good at the Instagram game.
(14:16):
I just don't have I'm not a booty model. I'm
not good at it, and I need to do better.
I did post some photos the other day of me moving.
Yeah that's about it, and uh yeah, so uh the
house will be done in a you know, a week
or ten days, and then we gotta move everything and
and then some of the stuff won't actually be here
for months somebody because of the delay. Everything is delayed.
(14:39):
I guess because of COVID. I don't know, but the
production line delays some of the stuff that we got.
We're looking at, well it's August right now, we're looking
at October. October. That's actually good news because most of
the stuff that you get in October will be in
such good condition it will be perfect for me to
(15:00):
break in during the Christmas party. Just a beautiful, beautiful
way to uh end there you go. Yeah, you'll have
to to come over there, and I'm sure you'll complain
about how far it is from where you live. No, No,
that's actually worth the drive. Yeah you'll complain. You know.
It's a secret location deep in the north Woods. And
(15:21):
that would be would you live in the north Woods?
Would you live? I do? I do the studios in
the north Woods? It is, But I mean like, would
you live like Lake Arrowhead, let's say, or Big Bear?
Would you ever considering living there? Um? Yeah, And now
I can do. Because of the studio set up, I
could work anywhere, so I'm open, you know, getty up.
(15:43):
My my wife is more tied down than I am
at this point because I never imagined working in radio
that this would be the setup. I always thought, well,
it's only like Rush Limbaugh and uh, you know Steve
Harvey and Art Bell could do their show from their
home studio. Now there, I'll never be able to do that.
And then because of the it's one of the benefits
(16:03):
of COVID we have we have full the full time
hosts that have remote access. We have hosts that work
once a week that I have access, we have anchors
that have access. It seems like everybody has access to
work remotely, except for like someone like myself. Yeah, I
knew that was coming, you know, like driving to work
paying five and a half dollars and gallon for gasoline
(16:24):
and then you can thank your your governor, Gavin Listen.
I have I have voted a high, high, high dark
circle on that. Yes, recall, It'll be great. And of
course most of my friends are like, why are you
gonna recall him? What has he done? All right? Yeah,
well I my favorite part of that is the positioning
(16:45):
of the recall, like these are extremists, this is these
are hardcore people that are these are Trump people? No, Huan,
that was called I believe the people. These are people
that overtook the White House, you know, And I'm like, real, uh,
because California is mostly liberal, a lot of liberal people
(17:06):
that think this guy's a boob. So oh, we'll see
what happens. I'm glack. Should I endorse it? I don't
know if I'm allowed to endorse. Am I allowed to
endorse anybody? Somebody? As far as the pool of candidates,
Larry Elder, Yes, Larry Elder's the guy, radio guy, well spoken.
I think I think he would be a fine temporary
(17:26):
governor for the state of California. I hope that Larry
Elder ends up if we do succeed in getting rid
of this stiff, this turd, Gavin Newsome. I'd love to
see Larry Elder in there. I think he'd do a
great job. You have to give up his radio show though, right,
he can't do the radio show'd be nice of you could, right,
That'd be they'd be kind of wild awesome. Yeah, three
(17:47):
or four hour and syndicated Larry Elder show as the
governor of California. Oh my gosh, could you imagine that'd
be wild? I'm glad you brought him up. And I
want to ask you, I need your your your personal
and probably your fessional opinion on this because they overlap
in a couple of different things. You annually do a
nice little thing for a couple of cities where you
(18:08):
dress up as Santa Claus. Yes, and you do it
obviously for the kids. If if there was ever a time,
because you're volunteering your time and your day to do
this for the kids, But if there was ever a
time where the centers that you do it for the
fire departments, that you can do it for they said, Hey,
we're triggered by you looking like this or doing this
(18:30):
as Santa Claus. We need you to change, and you
don't want to. Um, would you just tell them to
kick rocks? Or would you change for the fact that
you're volunteering and you're offering your services for the kids. Well,
it depends, like if I was flicking off the kids
as I was address no, Like if it was just
something that it was your personal choice, like the way
(18:50):
you dressed, the way you talk to them, um, the
way you looked, just something like that, like which, uh, yeah,
I mean, I don't know even it's ridiculous. I'm not
gonna do it. I'm not getting paid for it. It's
just I like doing. It's fun, all right, Why do
you so? Last week we talked about someone we were
(19:10):
celebrating or I was celebrating my one year anniversary on
the National Suicide Prevention Line, and UM, I don't know
if many people know this, but the State of New
York followed State of California's leader vice versa on this.
We're Gavin Newsom mandated that everyone in the health industry
(19:31):
UM Health Services has to be there. They're mandated to
be vaccinated. So that means employees, wage earner's staff, board members, volunteers,
everybody has to be vaccinated. And so the cut off
date on that is September thirty this year. And our center,
(19:52):
the National Suicide Prevention Center, sent out a mass email
to all of us and said, hey, you guys need
to be vaccinated by this date or at least have
your first shot. And prior to that, we need everybody
to actually get COVID test dating once a week that staff, employees,
and volunteers. Bend the kicker on this as they even
(20:12):
wanted remote employees and staff and volunteers to also do this.
So their logic was, well, it's mandated by the Health
Department or health, the health industry, and the governor. That
means you all have to do this because we consider
everyone to be interacting with individuals. Well, we interact with
people on phone calls. That's it. Like, we're not case managers,
(20:34):
were not meeting with people, were not doctors, physicians and
that stuff. And they basically said, hey, you either do
this or you're going to be forced to resign. And
a couple of days ago, after my one year anniversary,
I sent a pretty detailed and scathing email and I said, Hey,
you guys have an email that says you're either vaccinated
(20:56):
or you're not. But you guys haven't addressed including the
medical director or this agency, individuals that have out of bodies,
Like where does that come into play? And I said,
you're doing this under the advisement or recommendation of a
governor that staring down the barrel of a recall. What
happens if he gets recalled and we have a new
governor and he doesn't mandate, in fact, he retracts that
(21:18):
mandate of vaccines. So it was a long, long email,
but the gist of it was I just said I'm
not gonna lose agency over my body because of what
other individuals I think I should and shouldn't do. So
you can either accept that. You can either be comfortable
with me working from home and doing what I want
(21:39):
to do, or I can I can say goodbye. I
did training, I did role pall role call, role play
calling on the phones I did I took a TV shot, um,
I did a background. I did all this stuff remotely,
and now all of a sudden, they're like, well, in
case you come into the studio or into work, and
I'm like, well, I'm not so I've already been given access.
(22:02):
I was good for eighteen months to work there, a
year to work there, and uh, you know, it's like
one of those text messages, right like if when you're
in a relationship, someone tends to send you a big text,
like emotionally like throwing all these things out there, and
you just respond with a K. That was kind of
what it was. I said this long ass email to
the medical director, to the HR representative, and to my supervisor,
and they sent like a three three line, you know,
(22:24):
sentence that said, sorry, we require all this, Yeah, an listen,
I don't. I don't believe people should be uh forced
to get a vaccination if they don't want to. People
get upset when I say that we said this, but
oh you shouldn't say that and all this stuff. But
I think it's up to you if you want to
do it or you don't want to do it. But
(22:44):
common sense is not coming. I think that that is
really the lesson. Common sense is not common and people
have whatever their motivation is, um, they do not they
do not want to take a position on the you know,
that is away from the group think, right. The group
think is everyone needs to get vaccinated and and uh
(23:07):
and all that. And that's why I was asking. I think,
I think me each you have to decide for yourself
what you want to do and and whether it's worth it,
or you have to weigh what you know and what
you don't know because we don't know a lot, and
then you have to be the enlightened young grasshopper and
make the decision. Right. Well, that's what I was asking
because I'm curious in your stance because you've had the
matter militia attack attack certain people. William Shatton is one
(23:31):
of them. Uh, They've gone after after writers and reporters
in Arizona and in Texas. Um, do you think I
should be vocal about something like this? Uh, well, if
you're planning on leaving anyway, left, I left, you're not.
You're not, so you're done, you're not. I turned in
my stuff a couple of days ago. I just it
(23:53):
was quick, like the email was sent out on Tuesday night.
I had a shift Wednesday morning, and as soon as
I logged on or my shift, everything was was canceled out.
I had no credentials everything. They did it for you,
They got rid of you. What happened? Okay, well, yeah,
I basically said I wasn't gonna do it, so they
cut me off. And so they they must have endless
(24:14):
amount of people that want to do that. Then, right,
there's not as shorts of people that want to do
Oh there is a short but they still got rid
of you, even though again, just to recap as as
I understand the story that you told me, you don't
actually go anywhere around people. No, you do it remotely,
but they still are demanding that you get the vaccine
even though you do it from your house. Right, And
(24:35):
I have to get tested and I have to get
tested once a week. While I work from home until
that September thirty cut off date. Yeah, so I have
to go pay to get tested. I have to go
drive to get paid to pay to go get tested. Yeah.
I thought it was free to get tested, right, And
there's a lot of places you can get it from. Yeah,
I can get it for free, but they wanted specific centers.
(24:56):
Oh really Yeah, So I mean I might have to
pay and then they re imburse me. Now is there
a chance you can go work somewhere else or is
it all they're all the same dogma? Well, I don't know.
But here in the state of California, it's mandated for
everybody in the health industry, so doctors, physicians, p A
s um, clinical workers, like everybody. I have a friend
(25:19):
that works in pharmacy, she had to get it um.
I have a friend who is in a caretaker she
has to get it UM. But I was reading and
I think there's like seventy nurses that threatened to quit
Anne you center up in Northern California on the vaccine mandate.
So you know, I mean, for as much as we
are in a crisis right now, this will amplify the crisis.
(25:41):
If you have people in this industry that say I
don't or I can't get it. At this point, do
you know, are you alone wolf on this? Though? Now
I found out I found it through the grape vine,
emails and phone calls that I was not the only
guy in this fight. But I am one a few
people that has a platform I guess that can be
(26:04):
vocal about it. I just don't know if there's a
win and all that, because you see it what's happening
with kids, you see what's happening in other states. Obviously
the medical industry in New York you can't get into
places without having a vaccine card um. But nobody is
talking about natural immunity, which is just beyond me because well,
the thing that frustrates me is is the uh, you know,
(26:27):
big big pharma as uh figured out like they'll be
booster shot. They found they can make this, you know,
billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars.
They're gonna make money on top of money on the right,
the booster shots every year that fiser is gonna put
out and all that. So it's not it's not just
like get the vaccine then you're good. It's no, no, no,
(26:51):
every year, you gotta come back and get a every
two years or whatever, you're gonna get a shot. So yeah,
I mean, and that's my whole thing. In that email,
I said, Hey, if the state's mandating you to have
everyone vaccinated, does that mean that you will mandate everyone
to take the necessary precautions uh to either avoid, treat,
or recover from COVID Because that includes working out, exercising,
(27:14):
eating well, cooking, lowering your stress, getting more sleep, and
and working on your own mental health. Are you gonna
mandate that or you're gonna be proactive about it? And
that was my final shot across the bow. And they
probably don't like that either, but it's true, right, like
you realize you're outnumbered, though you're you're you're tremendously out well,
I'm only outnumbered because people have actually gotten the vaccine,
(27:36):
like Californians have gotten the vaccine. So I'm outnumbered in
that sense. But I do think there's plenty of people
that either regret getting the vaccine or question the effectiveness
of it, considering the fact that, yeah, you need booster
shots now, and some of these, some of these have
adverse effects to people well, and a lot of not
(27:58):
a lot, but if a percentage of the those people
got the vaccine because they were told, you don't have
to wear a mask anymore, you don't have the social distance.
And then within a month they're like, fuck you, you
gotta you gotta do all that. So the Hollywood Bowl
and the Greek Theater here in Los Angeles, so requiring
people to wear vaccines outside where you may wear masks not.
(28:19):
I don't think you can va vaccine mask. If you could,
that would be something. How could you wear a vaccine
that look, I don't know. You can wear a tattoo
on your shoulder right. Well, it's like the people on
social media that have the circle their photo I got vaccinated,
which is like almost as annoying as the people on
social media say he him or you know, see her. Uh.
That's when you know you've reached a douche bag. When
(28:41):
I see that kind of stuff, I just rolled my
eyes and they really were at that point there come on.
But yeah, I don't know. I feel bad, you know,
because I did that out of a couple of reasons.
One was like, we got killed with the sports industry,
and I was motivated to help other people out and
I just feel awful that people are losing AID because
(29:04):
these people are trying to put a gun to do.
I do have a story for you, So I uh,
the RAMS training Camp. I I just love to go
to RAMS training camp when I was a kid. And
I had the opportunity to go to RAMS training Camp
this year, but there were so many hoops you had
to jump through. You had had of the vaccine, you
had to get tested even after the vaccine, and so
(29:25):
all these and as I'm not worth it. I don't
want to deal with the bullshit, and so I didn't
even go out. And I would have loved it. It It
would have been wonderful. I liked the RAMS. I could
have gone and had access and and all that, but
they they sent an email. I was like, really, there's
like seven such a pain in the ass. It's like
to me, it's not worth it to spend an hour
and a half watching football players, you know, run around,
(29:47):
which would have been fun. But I like, you know,
I'm not I'm not dealing with that crap and uh,
and so I haven't. I have not. But it's up
to you if you want to release the hounds. The
Malle Militia very good at annoying, very good. They're like mosquitoes.
They just getting your business. They bite you, they'll sting you. Yeah,
it's weird. I don't know. I obviously everyone's got their
(30:08):
own choices and uh, you know, this thing continues to
evolve anyway, taking shape. So it's weird because there's people
that think that just because you don't want to do something,
you're anti that right, like you know, all of a sudden,
if I'm against something around, Yeah, what do you say? Now?
What do you say? Guess there are people that listen
to this that think, hey, this guy's a nut job.
(30:31):
What's wrong with you? What do you say to people?
They love the vaccine and think that everyone needs to
get it and if you don't get it, guessing you're
a bad person. Who want to say to that guy,
But I'm not an anti vaxter and I think everyone
should take it if they need to get it. Like
you said, you're some of your family have got parents
have recommended. Uh, aunts and uncles have recommended. I have
a couple of friends that are diabetics. I recommended they
(30:53):
get it. Um, and you know my situation. I got
it my my brother. Um, I you is my brother
is a guinea pig, and I figured he has the
same DNA as I. Plus I got you know, my
wife and my family, the first side of the family.
You know, we hang out on the weekends. You're gonna
get excited. So I but I waited until my brother
had had it, and then I waited a couple of
(31:15):
months until after. I didn't get it until not that
long ago because I wanted to make sure he was
all right. And um, and you know, he's got other
medical conditions other than that I don't have. But he's
he's doing fine and so. Uh. But if I was
single and not, you know, and not in the situation,
I probably would not have gotten it. But uh, you know,
(31:36):
because of my situation, I got it, and I've been
fine and nothing's It was painful for a day and
I felt a little weird for like a few hours,
but other than that, nothing really happened. And who knows,
you know, you don't know down the line. And but
the way I look at it, um, I'll be in
the majority of the people or whatever that so we'll
all die at the same time. We all hold the
(31:56):
hands while we die. Well, well, at least at least
I know where get to bury you in your brand
new remodeled house. Yes, yeah, in the backyard if you want,
you can bury me back there. I think I have
five G power. Now you can use me as a
cell phone receptacle. I'm growing an extra I I have
a tail. But other than that, it's all good. It's
(32:19):
all good. What could possibly go wrong? Oh my gosh.
I have a couple of friends that are autoimmune, and
when they asked me what I thought about, I said,
you gotta get the vaccine, Like I feel like you
are in that that group where you badly need it,
and um, yeah, I mean elderly, of course. I mean
we had the The thing that is frustrating is like
you still can get it to me? To me a vaccine,
(32:42):
is you get it? You like if you have the
polio vaccine, I don't think you get polio. And maybe
I'm wrong with that and maybe somebody can correct me,
but you don't get But this now there's well, it's
not as bad. And there's always those outliers where people
make the media where people get have the vaccine, get it,
get COVID and still and they say that's within the
margin of error or whatever. And so you know, I
(33:04):
don't know that people know what they're talking about, but
you know, you gotta roll with it, guess sometimes I
gotta roll with I'm rolling with you, guest. But I
give you credit for standing standing up for your principles
in a world where that's looked down upon. Yeah, you
have to just follow the group think. And if you
don't follow the group think, you're a heathen, which is
just weird, right because if you put I mean, because
(33:27):
we have people like in our industry radio and television,
and some of them are in fantastic shape, some of
them are okay, and some of them are just got awful.
But are you trying to tell me someone that's pushing
like three bills or four hundred, that's on radio or
TV and sits down every day and gets a vaccine
that's healthier than me, Like fuck no, Like well, no, no,
(33:48):
of course not. But they cheat people like bio hazards. Right,
If you're not vaccinated, you're walking biohazard. Yeah. Yeah, I
don't I don't care. I mean, to me, you should
aside if you don't want to do it, you just
have to deal with the consequences of something happens. Right,
but but at the same time, it doesn't guarantee the
vaccine doesn't get it to you're not gonna get it
and have consequence. Yeah, so I wanted your opinion on
(34:11):
that publicly because yeah, it's interesting and uh, you know,
and being a lot the argument the Devil's Advocate arguments, well,
these are these are private A lot of these are
private businesses, although you said, is that through the state
of California, Well, it's a nonprofit, so I don't know
like where they are. I guess the National Center is
(34:32):
here in Los Angeles, but they're across the country, Like aren'
they gonna They're gonna like have military guys have to
get it and all that, and they're talking about that. Yeah,
so it's and the argument has always been like in
the private sector, you can have you can require so
and so, and they you know, they'll they'll say that
(34:52):
you have kids going to school, you have you have
to get vaccinated for certain things, and so that's just
part of the deal. And you know that going in
and right, and I get that, But counter argument, you
are so are comparing vaccines that have been in the
game for a long period of time to something that
has just been put out into the market, you know.
It just I don't think it's apples to orange. I
(35:13):
don't think it's apples to apples. I think it's apples
to oranges. I really do. And and well we'll fight
out if they royally screwed up. And a lot of
people are you know, you know that. But I hope
the thing we have to look forward to down the line,
you know, we can look forward to that years people.
You know, it's like people smoke cigarette. Doctor used to
(35:34):
recommend smoke cigarettes, you know, and then eventually, as my
dad used to tell me all the time when I
was thinking about, you know, should you smoke, should not smoke,
He's like, well, you know, it's the doctors used to
say to smoke. And then you know, they didn't realize
you get lung cancer, and they didn't put that there
was no connection, no correlation. For a while, I didn't
want to mention briefly here before we get to get
(35:55):
out of here. The the Mallard Studio, which I'm very
excited about. It is the even though this is actually
airing the Friday podcast and now this is Saturday podcast
aired after the radio show, this is actually the maiden voyage.
This is the maiden voyage from the new studio and
new and improved audio quality. By the way, uh deep
here in the north Woods, off the grid from the
(36:16):
rest of the world, embedded with a microphone in hand,
ready to go. The studio is It's like a two
for one. So I'm on the radio side of the
studio right now. The I had my own podcast set up.
I'm still getting some equipment for that putting that together.
I did dust out the wallet. I would like to
(36:37):
thank the great Jake Warner. Was on Jake Warner's podcast,
Stay Awake with Jake, my guy, my engineer Fox Sports
Radio back in the day, and he's now doing his
own thing. He's got a popular podcast, the Big Brother
Jake Podcast, and we were talking old radio stories and
Jake I connected and he said, wait a minute, that
sounds that sounds terrible. It sounds that sounds bad. And
(36:58):
I said, well, I'm on my computer. It sounds fine.
He says, no, it doesn't. That sounds He's a professional engineer.
And I was like, uh, and so I said, well,
you gotta help me, Jake. He said, yeah, Jake guided
me to see the light. He's the o. G the
old gangster engineer for the Clippers, my my favorite NBA team,
the l A. King's my favorite hockey team. And he
used to be the traveling audio engineer for the Los
(37:19):
Angeles Dodgers for years. And Jake knows how to make
you sound good. Jake will make you sound good. He's
a pros pro and so he we were talking back
and forth. He actually came over to the halfway house
and looked at the equipment that I had, and he's
the only one, literally, the only one that was in there.
Nobody else. I didn't have anybody else in my friend
(37:42):
circle that came in there because I was so embarrassed
because there was boxes everywhere and like there was a
mattress on the on the floor. It was a disaster. Uh.
And he came in and he told me what to
get and so that should be up and running within
about ten days or so. So it'll give us a
little more freedom and it will sound better. So I'm
(38:02):
excited about this is gonna be this a big chapter here, Gascon.
And you were actually part of it. I can't get
into the reasons why, but you were the motivation for it.
So if it hadn't been for you and your you
know your situation, I would not have done this. Oh
my gosh. So do you want to give you a
little little, little added bonus to this? All right, so
(38:23):
some of your dreams, no pun intended, might come true. Um,
the league that I'm calling European football for right now,
that production company reached out to me a couple of
days ago, and uh, they are in partnership with another
production company in Europe and they want me to do
(38:45):
play by play for a champions hockey league. It's an
international league with like twenty six teams involved. Pluck usually
drops around six or seven o'clock Pacific, which means they'll
have to be up early. So am so so your
dream of potentially recording these things at different times like
(39:07):
after your show might actually, unfortunately have to come into reality.
I'm not really happy abou any of that. Well, I'm
very happy about that. I'm very happy. Uh. As you know,
I'm a creature of habits, and because of your situation
about my my habits are changing and and so if
(39:30):
it can be more ben friendly, that would that would
be great? Employ would that be one? You haven't posted
any pictures of your studio yet, have you No, No,
I want to wait till it's the podcast stuff is up.
But I'm excited about it. It's it's pretty cool. This
is this is gonna be great. It's gonna be wonderful.
(39:51):
And then I went out and it sounds sounds better.
This week, I spent some bucks on a new voice processor.
My voice processor had been dying a slow, painful death,
and I finally put that out to pastor and this
one is good to go. So I'm very excited about that.
And uh, and also I've been dealing with a massive
(40:13):
spider bite, by the way, that's been that's been going
on here, guests. I write, the spider loves the meat
right below my knee on the back of my my
leg there, they just right below the knee there, and
it's my whole right leg was like infected. And I
(40:35):
then read that spiders love piles of clothes, like for them,
that's porn, that's yes, they love to hide and live
and piles of clothes. Well, the place I was living
had nothing but piles of clothes because everything was kind
of in transit, right, so we didn't really put anything
away because we're not gonna stay there and we're only
there for a couple of months, and so it was
(40:58):
like a playground for the spiders and it was a
freaking nightmare. Um. Anyway, so it is finally healed. And
I did read online though, that a home remedy for
spider bites garlic. Yeah, that you can just rub garlic
on the spider bite, which adds to the mystical powers
(41:20):
of the ancient formula, the original medicine garlic. You can
put some witch hazel on it too. Yeah, I'm sure
I could rub a lot of stuff on anyway. Alright,
so we'll put the baby to ba. Get a big
mail bag. A lot of people fired up here, Mallard
militia on malamlicia, crime on the mail bag. We look
(41:40):
forward to that, and uh, we'll catch you then, have
a wonderful rest of your Saturday, and we'll see you
on the other side on a on a Sunday. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show
weekdays at two am Eastern eleven p m Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart to Your While
If you thought four hours a day, minutes a week
was enough, think again. He's the last remnants of the
old republic a sole fashion of fairness. He treats crackheads
in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich pill
poppers in the penthouse, to clearing house of hot takes.
Break Free for Something Special Hour with Ben Maller starts
(00:25):
right now in the air everywhere as we loviate the
weekend away and we welcome you into the Mallard Podcast
studio deep in the north Woods eight days a week
as we try to overcompensate for my absence this week
(00:47):
from the show, my post for a few a few
nights here, and of course four hours a night clearly
not enough. And the great thing about the podcast is
you can listen to it overnight if you want, or
when the sun is up. You can actually listen when
the sun is up. And I know from when people download,
we actually have a lot of people that listened during
(01:08):
the day and so we do appreciate that. Joined yet
again by a man west of the four oh five,
David gascong Man, I I really got to give myself one.
(01:31):
I continue to book good guests. I should start getting
paid for this ship. Wow. Wow, Wow, you know it's funny.
I I had done a Q and A session with
one of your couple of your your listeners a few
days ago, and they had asked that question about booking guests,
and I said, you know, I like booking guests that
(01:53):
Ben doesn't know or doesn't like, doesn't come in contact with,
because it gives you. It gives you, like a little
bit more work to write. It's like to do a
little bit more research and to do a little bit
more recon and iways think it's fun. But like these guys,
certain people like that you've come across and introduced me to,
and like vice versa. I just think those people are
(02:13):
so fascinating because we're always stuck in this you know,
spectrum of sports and full disclosure, we've done the podcast
long enough that we pretty much run out of people
that there's very few people left that we haven't had
on like I think they like petros. People have said
we should get petro Son, and I would love to
get petro Son, but when we record the podcast, he's working,
(02:36):
so we can't get petro Son. Now, maybe we can
do something in another time. And we're talking about doing
some stuff differently down the line, so that will open
up the possibility of that and so we'll see. But
you know, yeah, I don't. I don't know a lot
of people I do. Radio radio is a small circle.
(02:57):
There's not a lot of people in it. And of
the people in it, there's only a few that I
get along with. So, um, you know, it's not a
lot to work with you. There's not a lot that
we can do. And so if you have any suggestions,
we always say, hey, the email, the inbox is always
open if you have somebody you'd like to have on.
We've had recommendation with people from Denver, were like, we
could get the voice of the Broncos on. We haven't
(03:18):
done that. Uh we we attempted to get the voice
in the Minnesota Vikings on right and then he had Yeah,
we tried a couple of times and that didn't work out.
Paul Allen, the voice of the Vikings, Dave Logan and
Denver that's right, maybe get them on because of scheduling issues. Um,
(03:38):
but yeah, I mean, so I don't. I don't. Obviously,
Andrew was fun to talk to. I like, I have
an interest in cooking. He's a professional he's on television.
I think it's interesting how someone ends up on television
and we're kind of in the same ballpark age wise,
so we have our our perspective on life. I think
it's pretty similar. Uh yeah, yeah. I although I don't
(04:00):
like sea food, I do like pizza. I love pizza.
Uh And Julia Child. I got to use my favorite
Julia Child quote, and I didn't think I would ever
get to use that, and so I'm glad that I did.
I found a way to use a Julia Child quote,
which I think I've only used once in my life.
But it's one of the great quotes about anything. You
can have drama, even a pancake if if done properly.
(04:21):
I'm paraphrasing the quote from from Julia Child. So I
didn't ask you. I'd ask Andrew this, but I should
have asked you gun to your head pancake waffle or
French toast pancake? Oh wow, pancake, alright, pancake. You I
don't know frive French toast, but I don't know. Arnie.
(04:42):
Arnie every year for Christmas sending his gift packages for
you know, for all the staff. The Vermont Maple syrup
man I've gotten I haven't got one. I've known Andrew
longer than you, not Andrew, I've known Arnie longer. Yeah,
I haven't known I've known Andrew at all. Actually I
just met him yesterday, so but yeah, I don't know. Yeah,
(05:04):
I mean, pancakes a good call, especially because you can pacakes,
you can stack them, you can put different so you know,
obviously one of those things you can put different syrups
or whatever, strawberry or the traditional maple syrup or anything
like that. But a well made pancake. And I don't
I don't need breakfast, so I don't need a lot.
As you know, that is one of the great scams.
(05:26):
I should have brought this up with Andrew h And
you know, the whole breakfast is the most important meal
that you've heard that right, That is one of the
great marketing slogans of all time. John Kellogg, the guy
behind Kellogg's you know cereal company, That was his catchphrase
(05:47):
to try to sell cereal breakfast Cereal. Nobody in the
when they breakfast cereals started, nobody bought it. Nobody wanted it.
They didn't need it, they didn't want it. Most people
ate breakfast it was just leftovers from dinner the night
before if they ate anything, and a lot of people
didn't even eat breakfast, they just skipped it. And he
(06:07):
they came up with that marketing slogan breakfast is the
most important meal of the day. They flooded all the newspapers,
all the radio stations, and and the rest is history.
All these years later, we're talking about probably radio started
in the nineteen twenties, so probably seventy eight years at least,
(06:32):
I would say maybe longer than that. Damn crazy, It's amazing.
I I do like the fact that Andrew said, I
don't know if you do it at all, but I
love eating breakfast for dinner. Yeah, I don't do too much.
My wife loves breakfast, so that would be a compromise.
I do. I do like similar to him. I do
like the breakfast foods. I am a fan of breakfast foods.
(06:55):
I just I usually I'm fasting, so I can't eat breakfast,
and I I pretty much just eat lunch. I've I've
settled into a lunch I'm a lunch guy. I don't
really eat dinner. On the weekends, I'll eat because otherwise
I'll get killed with the family. I gotta eat, you know,
lunch and dinner. But that's about it. Oh, we gotta
go to Tustin. Man, I'm gonna let's do it. Let's
(07:16):
do it. Let's just get a big old pie. Those
those pineapples, Uh, I don't know if they're go on
my pizza. But the other pizza look delicious, they look
they look solid. That's a good looking pie. That is
a So that's that's food porn. That is food point.
All right, So we have moving man Mallard. Now, as
I referenced, I was away from my post this past
week for three long, painful days. I would like to
(07:39):
thank the staff at Fox Sports Radio for filling in.
Mr Plank did a fine job sitting in for me there.
Not not easy, not easy. The Mallard Militia, as you know,
a rather rambunctious group, the Mallard Militia. And typically when
I'm away it is is open season, open season. But
(08:02):
Chris Plank did a great job, as I understand, and
did a wonderful holding of the fort. So we thank
him for that. But as being away from the bully pulpit,
the reason and you know I moved, but I'll give
you some details. So the schedule worked out where my
wife was off from work, um at the police stations
(08:23):
and one operator. And so, no, you don't get a
lot of time off. You have to you know, you
do get a lot of time off, but when you're
supposed to work, you after work as well. Yeah, but
most jobs and um, so she she said, we gotta move.
This is it, you know, for for a couple of reasons.
And so dragged me away to help help move. And
we ski at schedaddle out of the halfway house to
(08:45):
the the new Mallard mansion. And even though it's not
completely done, it's not completely done, but logistically we had
to do it. And so it's still an active construction
zone right now. Right across the room I'm in the
I'm in the studio here, but just across the other
side of the wall there are a group of hard
working people who are sweating their asses off, covered in dust.
(09:08):
They got the studio done, but the rest of the
house is really not done, and it won't be done
for a couple more days. I've actually been staying in
a hotel the last couple of nights while they finish up.
But the studio has done so I'm here and I'm
breathing in all the dust, which is great, and they
really recommend that they recommend eating breathing in a lot
of dust. But but anyway, so we it was a
(09:29):
paint in and it took I have much respect from
moving man Matt from Boston who hates you gascon uh
and and several other p ones who have reached out
to me over the years that are moving, you know, professionals.
My god, what a what a pain in the ass.
I mean, it is a crap ton of physical labor, obviously,
(09:50):
and you gotta take everything apart to fit it through doors,
and it's just a nightmare. And then you lose. I
I took some stuff apart from my student yoke because
I moved that over, and I lost a whole bunch
of screws that I needed. So then I'm going to
home depot trying to match the screws, you know, and
then they don't have the exact ones, so you gotta
get it kind of close. And several U haul trips loading, unloading.
(10:16):
And the amazing about this is I'm not even done. Like,
as I said, the house where I'm moving to is
the studios done it'll be done in a couple of days.
But then I have to move everything back from the
storage that it's in and put it, you know, where
it needs to be, and all that stuff for the
final final move. So I have several probably months, because
(10:37):
I can only do it on the weekends of sojourns.
Renting a truck and then moving it and and all
of that and all that. You know, something uh that
I was not anticipating taking is long. But the good
news is this will be the final move. This will
be my my final resting place. I don't imagine I will.
(11:00):
I will die either in this house or while living
in this house. So that's exciting. I don't have to
move again, so I'm excited about that. And the house
is gonna look great. And my wife designed like all
I did was request the flooring. That's all I did.
I said, I want a certain kind of flooring. Everything
else that was like pretty much here. So if it's good,
I'll give her credit. If it's bad, she'll blame me
(11:21):
for not having more of a say in the but
she know she did a wonderful job and it's gonna
look wonderful. I know you've seen some photos there gascon
of some of this stuff that's done, which is not
completely completely done, but almost done. And be sure to
catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show week days
at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports
(11:41):
Radio and the I Heart Radio app. It looks great.
I saw a giant bowl occupying the living room, so
that was that was nice. Um as a giant size bathtub. Um,
that's the Mallard tub. That is the Mallard tub. It is.
It looks old school, it looks awesome. The bathroom looks fantastic. Yeah.
The bathroom is like it looks like the bellagio in here.
(12:04):
It's yeah, because you get the little bench yeah yeah
yeah yeah. Well we figured no because this the place
I needed complete complete, like gutting a fit. Yeah, talk
to bottom. Yeah yeah. So like we can put ever
we want, Like why don't we go big? You know,
it doesn't cost that much more once you once you
the hard part. The demo is expensive and then obviously
(12:25):
the materials, but you can make it whatever you want.
It doesn't cost that much more. I think kitchens and
bathrooms you have to nail, and I think your wife
nailed him. I think uh, Liven's in the kitchen yet,
but the bathroom, like the tile, the color, it looks great. Um,
she looks good. Um My wife's really really good. She
a lot of HUTV, a lot of reading stuff online
(12:47):
and like what her tastes are, and and she tried
to compromise because I have more. I'm pretty benign with
this stuff, you know what I mean, Like I just
can't like whatever. I just like I don't need it
popping and all that stuff. But yeahs you we wanted
stuff that's gonna last for a while, so hopefully this will.
You know. Sometimes you you paint something and you haven't
look a certain way, and you get tired of it
(13:09):
after a while. Yeah. I try to avoid that as
much as part. I mean, it's like it's like the
old cliche of buying real estate right on, like in Malibu,
and you have this amazing window looking out of the
Pacific Ocean, and then you look at it for like
the first week or the first month, and then after
a while you forget about it. You don't even look,
you know, used to get used to it. It says
like you might as well live on the wrong side
(13:30):
of the tracks looking at skid row because you're not
gonna look at that, and you're not gonna look you know,
you just it's not part of your routine. It's just not. Um.
I think you guys did a great job. And I
applaud her for opening up her Instagram comments section. I
was giving her shit about it, and she said that
I was not the only person that was grieving over
the fact that she had closed the door on comments.
(13:53):
So that's in my position is different. You know, my
my wife's loves to give updates, and I'm I'm more of, hey,
you know, this is our you know, my private life.
You know, I don't need this out there. But I
think she has a couple of Instagram pages, so I
think it was on her personal one that she she
set this stuff out. I think. I don't I don't know,
but I've not been very good at the Instagram game.
(14:16):
I just don't have I'm not a booty model. I'm
not good at it, and I need to do better.
I did post some photos the other day of me moving.
Yeah that's about it, and uh yeah, so uh the
house will be done in a you know, a week
or ten days, and then we gotta move everything and
and then some of the stuff won't actually be here
for months somebody because of the delay. Everything is delayed.
(14:39):
I guess because of COVID. I don't know, but the
production line delays some of the stuff that we got.
We're looking at, well it's August right now, we're looking
at October. October. That's actually good news because most of
the stuff that you get in October will be in
such good condition it will be perfect for me to
(15:00):
break in during the Christmas party. Just a beautiful, beautiful
way to uh end there you go. Yeah, you'll have
to to come over there, and I'm sure you'll complain
about how far it is from where you live. No, No,
that's actually worth the drive. Yeah you'll complain. You know.
It's a secret location deep in the north Woods. And
(15:21):
that would be would you live in the north Woods?
Would you live? I do? I do the studios in
the north Woods? It is, But I mean like, would
you live like Lake Arrowhead, let's say, or Big Bear?
Would you ever considering living there? Um? Yeah, And now
I can do. Because of the studio set up, I
could work anywhere, so I'm open, you know, getty up.
(15:43):
My my wife is more tied down than I am
at this point because I never imagined working in radio
that this would be the setup. I always thought, well,
it's only like Rush Limbaugh and uh, you know Steve
Harvey and Art Bell could do their show from their
home studio. Now there, I'll never be able to do that.
And then because of the it's one of the benefits
(16:03):
of COVID we have we have full the full time
hosts that have remote access. We have hosts that work
once a week that I have access, we have anchors
that have access. It seems like everybody has access to
work remotely, except for like someone like myself. Yeah, I
knew that was coming, you know, like driving to work
paying five and a half dollars and gallon for gasoline
(16:24):
and then you can thank your your governor, Gavin Listen.
I have I have voted a high, high, high dark
circle on that. Yes, recall, It'll be great. And of
course most of my friends are like, why are you
gonna recall him? What has he done? All right? Yeah,
well I my favorite part of that is the positioning
(16:45):
of the recall, like these are extremists, this is these
are hardcore people that are these are Trump people? No, Huan,
that was called I believe the people. These are people
that overtook the White House, you know, And I'm like, real, uh,
because California is mostly liberal, a lot of liberal people
(17:06):
that think this guy's a boob. So oh, we'll see
what happens. I'm glack. Should I endorse it? I don't
know if I'm allowed to endorse. Am I allowed to
endorse anybody? Somebody? As far as the pool of candidates,
Larry Elder, Yes, Larry Elder's the guy, radio guy, well spoken.
I think I think he would be a fine temporary
(17:26):
governor for the state of California. I hope that Larry
Elder ends up if we do succeed in getting rid
of this stiff, this turd, Gavin Newsome. I'd love to
see Larry Elder in there. I think he'd do a
great job. You have to give up his radio show though, right,
he can't do the radio show'd be nice of you could, right,
That'd be they'd be kind of wild awesome. Yeah, three
(17:47):
or four hour and syndicated Larry Elder show as the
governor of California. Oh my gosh, could you imagine that'd
be wild? I'm glad you brought him up. And I
want to ask you, I need your your your personal
and probably your fessional opinion on this because they overlap
in a couple of different things. You annually do a
nice little thing for a couple of cities where you
(18:08):
dress up as Santa Claus. Yes, and you do it
obviously for the kids. If if there was ever a time,
because you're volunteering your time and your day to do
this for the kids, But if there was ever a
time where the centers that you do it for the
fire departments, that you can do it for they said, Hey,
we're triggered by you looking like this or doing this
(18:30):
as Santa Claus. We need you to change, and you
don't want to. Um, would you just tell them to
kick rocks? Or would you change for the fact that
you're volunteering and you're offering your services for the kids. Well,
it depends, like if I was flicking off the kids
as I was address no, Like if it was just
something that it was your personal choice, like the way
(18:50):
you dressed, the way you talk to them, um, the
way you looked, just something like that, like which, uh, yeah,
I mean, I don't know even it's ridiculous. I'm not
gonna do it. I'm not getting paid for it. It's
just I like doing. It's fun, all right, Why do
you so? Last week we talked about someone we were
(19:10):
celebrating or I was celebrating my one year anniversary on
the National Suicide Prevention Line, and UM, I don't know
if many people know this, but the State of New
York followed State of California's leader vice versa on this.
We're Gavin Newsom mandated that everyone in the health industry
(19:31):
UM Health Services has to be there. They're mandated to
be vaccinated. So that means employees, wage earner's staff, board members, volunteers,
everybody has to be vaccinated. And so the cut off
date on that is September thirty this year. And our center,
(19:52):
the National Suicide Prevention Center, sent out a mass email
to all of us and said, hey, you guys need
to be vaccinated by this date or at least have
your first shot. And prior to that, we need everybody
to actually get COVID test dating once a week that staff, employees,
and volunteers. Bend the kicker on this as they even
(20:12):
wanted remote employees and staff and volunteers to also do this.
So their logic was, well, it's mandated by the Health
Department or health, the health industry, and the governor. That
means you all have to do this because we consider
everyone to be interacting with individuals. Well, we interact with
people on phone calls. That's it. Like, we're not case managers,
(20:34):
were not meeting with people, were not doctors, physicians and
that stuff. And they basically said, hey, you either do
this or you're going to be forced to resign. And
a couple of days ago, after my one year anniversary,
I sent a pretty detailed and scathing email and I said, Hey,
you guys have an email that says you're either vaccinated
(20:56):
or you're not. But you guys haven't addressed including the
medical director or this agency, individuals that have out of bodies,
Like where does that come into play? And I said,
you're doing this under the advisement or recommendation of a
governor that staring down the barrel of a recall. What
happens if he gets recalled and we have a new
governor and he doesn't mandate, in fact, he retracts that
(21:18):
mandate of vaccines. So it was a long, long email,
but the gist of it was I just said I'm
not gonna lose agency over my body because of what
other individuals I think I should and shouldn't do. So
you can either accept that. You can either be comfortable
with me working from home and doing what I want
(21:39):
to do, or I can I can say goodbye. I
did training, I did role pall role call, role play
calling on the phones I did I took a TV shot, um,
I did a background. I did all this stuff remotely,
and now all of a sudden, they're like, well, in
case you come into the studio or into work, and
I'm like, well, I'm not so I've already been given access.
(22:02):
I was good for eighteen months to work there, a
year to work there, and uh, you know, it's like
one of those text messages, right like if when you're
in a relationship, someone tends to send you a big text,
like emotionally like throwing all these things out there, and
you just respond with a K. That was kind of
what it was. I said this long ass email to
the medical director, to the HR representative, and to my supervisor,
and they sent like a three three line, you know,
(22:24):
sentence that said, sorry, we require all this, Yeah, an listen,
I don't. I don't believe people should be uh forced
to get a vaccination if they don't want to. People
get upset when I say that we said this, but
oh you shouldn't say that and all this stuff. But
I think it's up to you if you want to
do it or you don't want to do it. But
(22:44):
common sense is not coming. I think that that is
really the lesson. Common sense is not common and people
have whatever their motivation is, um, they do not they
do not want to take a position on the you know,
that is away from the group think, right. The group
think is everyone needs to get vaccinated and and uh
(23:07):
and all that. And that's why I was asking. I think,
I think me each you have to decide for yourself
what you want to do and and whether it's worth it,
or you have to weigh what you know and what
you don't know because we don't know a lot, and
then you have to be the enlightened young grasshopper and
make the decision. Right. Well, that's what I was asking
because I'm curious in your stance because you've had the
matter militia attack attack certain people. William Shatton is one
(23:31):
of them. Uh, They've gone after after writers and reporters
in Arizona and in Texas. Um, do you think I
should be vocal about something like this? Uh, well, if
you're planning on leaving anyway, left, I left, you're not.
You're not, so you're done, you're not. I turned in
my stuff a couple of days ago. I just it
(23:53):
was quick, like the email was sent out on Tuesday night.
I had a shift Wednesday morning, and as soon as
I logged on or my shift, everything was was canceled out.
I had no credentials everything. They did it for you,
They got rid of you. What happened? Okay, well, yeah,
I basically said I wasn't gonna do it, so they
cut me off. And so they they must have endless
(24:14):
amount of people that want to do that. Then, right,
there's not as shorts of people that want to do
Oh there is a short but they still got rid
of you, even though again, just to recap as as
I understand the story that you told me, you don't
actually go anywhere around people. No, you do it remotely,
but they still are demanding that you get the vaccine
even though you do it from your house. Right, And
(24:35):
I have to get tested and I have to get
tested once a week. While I work from home until
that September thirty cut off date. Yeah, so I have
to go pay to get tested. I have to go
drive to get paid to pay to go get tested. Yeah.
I thought it was free to get tested, right, And
there's a lot of places you can get it from. Yeah,
I can get it for free, but they wanted specific centers.
(24:56):
Oh really Yeah, So I mean I might have to
pay and then they re imburse me. Now is there
a chance you can go work somewhere else or is
it all they're all the same dogma? Well, I don't know.
But here in the state of California, it's mandated for
everybody in the health industry, so doctors, physicians, p A
s um, clinical workers, like everybody. I have a friend
(25:19):
that works in pharmacy, she had to get it um.
I have a friend who is in a caretaker she
has to get it UM. But I was reading and
I think there's like seventy nurses that threatened to quit
Anne you center up in Northern California on the vaccine mandate.
So you know, I mean, for as much as we
are in a crisis right now, this will amplify the crisis.
(25:41):
If you have people in this industry that say I
don't or I can't get it. At this point, do
you know, are you alone wolf on this? Though? Now
I found out I found it through the grape vine,
emails and phone calls that I was not the only
guy in this fight. But I am one a few
people that has a platform I guess that can be
(26:04):
vocal about it. I just don't know if there's a
win and all that, because you see it what's happening
with kids, you see what's happening in other states. Obviously
the medical industry in New York you can't get into
places without having a vaccine card um. But nobody is
talking about natural immunity, which is just beyond me because well,
the thing that frustrates me is is the uh, you know,
(26:27):
big big pharma as uh figured out like they'll be
booster shot. They found they can make this, you know,
billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars.
They're gonna make money on top of money on the right,
the booster shots every year that fiser is gonna put
out and all that. So it's not it's not just
like get the vaccine then you're good. It's no, no, no,
(26:51):
every year, you gotta come back and get a every
two years or whatever, you're gonna get a shot. So yeah,
I mean, and that's my whole thing. In that email,
I said, Hey, if the state's mandating you to have
everyone vaccinated, does that mean that you will mandate everyone
to take the necessary precautions uh to either avoid, treat,
or recover from COVID Because that includes working out, exercising,
(27:14):
eating well, cooking, lowering your stress, getting more sleep, and
and working on your own mental health. Are you gonna
mandate that or you're gonna be proactive about it? And
that was my final shot across the bow. And they
probably don't like that either, but it's true, right, like
you realize you're outnumbered, though you're you're you're tremendously out well,
I'm only outnumbered because people have actually gotten the vaccine,
(27:36):
like Californians have gotten the vaccine. So I'm outnumbered in
that sense. But I do think there's plenty of people
that either regret getting the vaccine or question the effectiveness
of it, considering the fact that, yeah, you need booster
shots now, and some of these, some of these have
adverse effects to people well, and a lot of not
(27:58):
a lot, but if a percentage of the those people
got the vaccine because they were told, you don't have
to wear a mask anymore, you don't have the social distance.
And then within a month they're like, fuck you, you
gotta you gotta do all that. So the Hollywood Bowl
and the Greek Theater here in Los Angeles, so requiring
people to wear vaccines outside where you may wear masks not.
(28:19):
I don't think you can va vaccine mask. If you could,
that would be something. How could you wear a vaccine
that look, I don't know. You can wear a tattoo
on your shoulder right. Well, it's like the people on
social media that have the circle their photo I got vaccinated,
which is like almost as annoying as the people on
social media say he him or you know, see her. Uh.
That's when you know you've reached a douche bag. When
(28:41):
I see that kind of stuff, I just rolled my
eyes and they really were at that point there come on.
But yeah, I don't know. I feel bad, you know,
because I did that out of a couple of reasons.
One was like, we got killed with the sports industry,
and I was motivated to help other people out and
I just feel awful that people are losing AID because
(29:04):
these people are trying to put a gun to do.
I do have a story for you, So I uh,
the RAMS training Camp. I I just love to go
to RAMS training camp when I was a kid. And
I had the opportunity to go to RAMS training Camp
this year, but there were so many hoops you had
to jump through. You had had of the vaccine, you
had to get tested even after the vaccine, and so
(29:25):
all these and as I'm not worth it. I don't
want to deal with the bullshit, and so I didn't
even go out. And I would have loved it. It It
would have been wonderful. I liked the RAMS. I could
have gone and had access and and all that, but
they they sent an email. I was like, really, there's
like seven such a pain in the ass. It's like
to me, it's not worth it to spend an hour
and a half watching football players, you know, run around,
(29:47):
which would have been fun. But I like, you know,
I'm not I'm not dealing with that crap and uh,
and so I haven't. I have not. But it's up
to you if you want to release the hounds. The
Malle Militia very good at annoying, very good. They're like mosquitoes.
They just getting your business. They bite you, they'll sting you. Yeah,
it's weird. I don't know. I obviously everyone's got their
(30:08):
own choices and uh, you know, this thing continues to
evolve anyway, taking shape. So it's weird because there's people
that think that just because you don't want to do something,
you're anti that right, like you know, all of a sudden,
if I'm against something around, Yeah, what do you say? Now?
What do you say? Guess there are people that listen
to this that think, hey, this guy's a nut job.
(30:31):
What's wrong with you? What do you say to people?
They love the vaccine and think that everyone needs to
get it and if you don't get it, guessing you're
a bad person. Who want to say to that guy,
But I'm not an anti vaxter and I think everyone
should take it if they need to get it. Like
you said, you're some of your family have got parents
have recommended. Uh, aunts and uncles have recommended. I have
a couple of friends that are diabetics. I recommended they
(30:53):
get it. Um, and you know my situation. I got
it my my brother. Um, I you is my brother
is a guinea pig, and I figured he has the
same DNA as I. Plus I got you know, my
wife and my family, the first side of the family.
You know, we hang out on the weekends. You're gonna
get excited. So I but I waited until my brother
had had it, and then I waited a couple of
(31:15):
months until after. I didn't get it until not that
long ago because I wanted to make sure he was
all right. And um, and you know, he's got other
medical conditions other than that I don't have. But he's
he's doing fine and so. Uh. But if I was
single and not, you know, and not in the situation,
I probably would not have gotten it. But uh, you know,
(31:36):
because of my situation, I got it, and I've been
fine and nothing's It was painful for a day and
I felt a little weird for like a few hours,
but other than that, nothing really happened. And who knows,
you know, you don't know down the line. And but
the way I look at it, um, I'll be in
the majority of the people or whatever that so we'll
all die at the same time. We all hold the
(31:56):
hands while we die. Well, well, at least at least
I know where get to bury you in your brand
new remodeled house. Yes, yeah, in the backyard if you want,
you can bury me back there. I think I have
five G power. Now you can use me as a
cell phone receptacle. I'm growing an extra I I have
a tail. But other than that, it's all good. It's
(32:19):
all good. What could possibly go wrong? Oh my gosh.
I have a couple of friends that are autoimmune, and
when they asked me what I thought about, I said,
you gotta get the vaccine, Like I feel like you
are in that that group where you badly need it,
and um, yeah, I mean elderly, of course. I mean
we had the The thing that is frustrating is like
you still can get it to me? To me a vaccine,
(32:42):
is you get it? You like if you have the
polio vaccine, I don't think you get polio. And maybe
I'm wrong with that and maybe somebody can correct me,
but you don't get But this now there's well, it's
not as bad. And there's always those outliers where people
make the media where people get have the vaccine, get it,
get COVID and still and they say that's within the
margin of error or whatever. And so you know, I
(33:04):
don't know that people know what they're talking about, but
you know, you gotta roll with it, guess sometimes I
gotta roll with I'm rolling with you, guest. But I
give you credit for standing standing up for your principles
in a world where that's looked down upon. Yeah, you
have to just follow the group think. And if you
don't follow the group think, you're a heathen, which is
just weird, right because if you put I mean, because
(33:27):
we have people like in our industry radio and television,
and some of them are in fantastic shape, some of
them are okay, and some of them are just got awful.
But are you trying to tell me someone that's pushing
like three bills or four hundred, that's on radio or
TV and sits down every day and gets a vaccine
that's healthier than me, Like fuck no, Like well, no, no,
(33:48):
of course not. But they cheat people like bio hazards. Right,
If you're not vaccinated, you're walking biohazard. Yeah. Yeah, I
don't I don't care. I mean, to me, you should
aside if you don't want to do it, you just
have to deal with the consequences of something happens. Right,
but but at the same time, it doesn't guarantee the
vaccine doesn't get it to you're not gonna get it
and have consequence. Yeah, so I wanted your opinion on
(34:11):
that publicly because yeah, it's interesting and uh, you know,
and being a lot the argument the Devil's Advocate arguments, well,
these are these are private A lot of these are
private businesses, although you said, is that through the state
of California, Well, it's a nonprofit, so I don't know
like where they are. I guess the National Center is
(34:32):
here in Los Angeles, but they're across the country, Like aren'
they gonna They're gonna like have military guys have to
get it and all that, and they're talking about that. Yeah,
so it's and the argument has always been like in
the private sector, you can have you can require so
and so, and they you know, they'll they'll say that
(34:52):
you have kids going to school, you have you have
to get vaccinated for certain things, and so that's just
part of the deal. And you know that going in
and right, and I get that, But counter argument, you
are so are comparing vaccines that have been in the
game for a long period of time to something that
has just been put out into the market, you know.
It just I don't think it's apples to orange. I
(35:13):
don't think it's apples to apples. I think it's apples
to oranges. I really do. And and well we'll fight
out if they royally screwed up. And a lot of
people are you know, you know that. But I hope
the thing we have to look forward to down the line,
you know, we can look forward to that years people.
You know, it's like people smoke cigarette. Doctor used to
(35:34):
recommend smoke cigarettes, you know, and then eventually, as my
dad used to tell me all the time when I
was thinking about, you know, should you smoke, should not smoke,
He's like, well, you know, it's the doctors used to
say to smoke. And then you know, they didn't realize
you get lung cancer, and they didn't put that there
was no connection, no correlation. For a while, I didn't
want to mention briefly here before we get to get
(35:55):
out of here. The the Mallard Studio, which I'm very
excited about. It is the even though this is actually
airing the Friday podcast and now this is Saturday podcast
aired after the radio show, this is actually the maiden voyage.
This is the maiden voyage from the new studio and
new and improved audio quality. By the way, uh deep
here in the north Woods, off the grid from the
(36:16):
rest of the world, embedded with a microphone in hand,
ready to go. The studio is It's like a two
for one. So I'm on the radio side of the
studio right now. The I had my own podcast set up.
I'm still getting some equipment for that putting that together.
I did dust out the wallet. I would like to
(36:37):
thank the great Jake Warner. Was on Jake Warner's podcast,
Stay Awake with Jake, my guy, my engineer Fox Sports
Radio back in the day, and he's now doing his
own thing. He's got a popular podcast, the Big Brother
Jake Podcast, and we were talking old radio stories and
Jake I connected and he said, wait a minute, that
sounds that sounds terrible. It sounds that sounds bad. And
(36:58):
I said, well, I'm on my computer. It sounds fine.
He says, no, it doesn't. That sounds He's a professional engineer.
And I was like, uh, and so I said, well,
you gotta help me, Jake. He said, yeah, Jake guided
me to see the light. He's the o. G the
old gangster engineer for the Clippers, my my favorite NBA team,
the l A. King's my favorite hockey team. And he
used to be the traveling audio engineer for the Los
(37:19):
Angeles Dodgers for years. And Jake knows how to make
you sound good. Jake will make you sound good. He's
a pros pro and so he we were talking back
and forth. He actually came over to the halfway house
and looked at the equipment that I had, and he's
the only one, literally, the only one that was in there.
Nobody else. I didn't have anybody else in my friend
(37:42):
circle that came in there because I was so embarrassed
because there was boxes everywhere and like there was a
mattress on the on the floor. It was a disaster. Uh.
And he came in and he told me what to
get and so that should be up and running within
about ten days or so. So it'll give us a
little more freedom and it will sound better. So I'm
(38:02):
excited about this is gonna be this a big chapter here, Gascon.
And you were actually part of it. I can't get
into the reasons why, but you were the motivation for it.
So if it hadn't been for you and your you
know your situation, I would not have done this. Oh
my gosh. So do you want to give you a
little little, little added bonus to this? All right, so
(38:23):
some of your dreams, no pun intended, might come true. Um,
the league that I'm calling European football for right now,
that production company reached out to me a couple of
days ago, and uh, they are in partnership with another
production company in Europe and they want me to do
(38:45):
play by play for a champions hockey league. It's an
international league with like twenty six teams involved. Pluck usually
drops around six or seven o'clock Pacific, which means they'll
have to be up early. So am so so your
dream of potentially recording these things at different times like
(39:07):
after your show might actually, unfortunately have to come into reality.
I'm not really happy abou any of that. Well, I'm
very happy about that. I'm very happy. Uh. As you know,
I'm a creature of habits, and because of your situation
about my my habits are changing and and so if
(39:30):
it can be more ben friendly, that would that would
be great? Employ would that be one? You haven't posted
any pictures of your studio yet, have you No, No,
I want to wait till it's the podcast stuff is up.
But I'm excited about it. It's it's pretty cool. This
is this is gonna be great. It's gonna be wonderful.
(39:51):
And then I went out and it sounds sounds better.
This week, I spent some bucks on a new voice processor.
My voice processor had been dying a slow, painful death,
and I finally put that out to pastor and this
one is good to go. So I'm very excited about that.
And uh, and also I've been dealing with a massive
(40:13):
spider bite, by the way, that's been that's been going
on here, guests. I write, the spider loves the meat
right below my knee on the back of my my
leg there, they just right below the knee there, and
it's my whole right leg was like infected. And I
(40:35):
then read that spiders love piles of clothes, like for them,
that's porn, that's yes, they love to hide and live
and piles of clothes. Well, the place I was living
had nothing but piles of clothes because everything was kind
of in transit, right, so we didn't really put anything
away because we're not gonna stay there and we're only
there for a couple of months, and so it was
(40:58):
like a playground for the spiders and it was a
freaking nightmare. Um. Anyway, so it is finally healed. And
I did read online though, that a home remedy for
spider bites garlic. Yeah, that you can just rub garlic
on the spider bite, which adds to the mystical powers
(41:20):
of the ancient formula, the original medicine garlic. You can
put some witch hazel on it too. Yeah, I'm sure
I could rub a lot of stuff on anyway. Alright,
so we'll put the baby to ba. Get a big
mail bag. A lot of people fired up here, Mallard
militia on malamlicia, crime on the mail bag. We look
(41:40):
forward to that, and uh, we'll catch you then, have
a wonderful rest of your Saturday, and we'll see you
on the other side on a on a Sunday. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show
weekdays at two am Eastern eleven p m Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart to Your While
Host
Ben Maller
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