September 15, 2025 • 44 mins
It is a privilege to welcome filmmakers Dave Rosenberg and Susan Gornell to the Jake’s Take with Jacob Elyachar Podcast.
Dave and Susan are the filmmakers behind Bridging the Gap. The documentary shows Dave (a Los Angeles liberal Democrat) and Susan (an Iowa Conservative Republican) set off on a trek across the country with the intention of bridging the gap between the two parties. At a time when families, friends, and colleagues across the country are being torn apart based on political persuasion and ideology, Dave Rosenberg and Susan Gorrell see this crisis as an opportunity to come together and recognize that we’re more alike than we are different. We also explore the role of social media and the general media in exacerbating the divide between Democrats and Republicans. In addition, Dave and Susan explore their friendship despite their differing political opinions, and how that can serve as an example for other Americans struggling with partisan antipathy. Throughout the documentary, Dave and Susan traveled across the United States of America with a film crew. From June 23 to July 15, the production team went to Los Angeles, Phoenix, Santa Fe, Denver, Kansas City, Nashville, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City.
Dave Rosenberg and Susan Gorrell spread their message across various media outlets across the country. They appeared on The Jeff Kennedy Show, Making Sound with Jann Klose, and Straight Talk Live with Dr. Marissa (the “Asian Oprah”).
On this episode of The Jake’s Take with Jacob Elyachar Podcast, Dave Rosenberg and Susan Gorrell shared the Bridging the Gap film’s origin story, the obstacles that the film crew overcame during the production process, and the interview subjects that stood out to them.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jake-s-take-with-jacob-elyachar--4112003/support.
Dave and Susan are the filmmakers behind Bridging the Gap. The documentary shows Dave (a Los Angeles liberal Democrat) and Susan (an Iowa Conservative Republican) set off on a trek across the country with the intention of bridging the gap between the two parties. At a time when families, friends, and colleagues across the country are being torn apart based on political persuasion and ideology, Dave Rosenberg and Susan Gorrell see this crisis as an opportunity to come together and recognize that we’re more alike than we are different. We also explore the role of social media and the general media in exacerbating the divide between Democrats and Republicans. In addition, Dave and Susan explore their friendship despite their differing political opinions, and how that can serve as an example for other Americans struggling with partisan antipathy. Throughout the documentary, Dave and Susan traveled across the United States of America with a film crew. From June 23 to July 15, the production team went to Los Angeles, Phoenix, Santa Fe, Denver, Kansas City, Nashville, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City.
Dave Rosenberg and Susan Gorrell spread their message across various media outlets across the country. They appeared on The Jeff Kennedy Show, Making Sound with Jann Klose, and Straight Talk Live with Dr. Marissa (the “Asian Oprah”).
On this episode of The Jake’s Take with Jacob Elyachar Podcast, Dave Rosenberg and Susan Gorrell shared the Bridging the Gap film’s origin story, the obstacles that the film crew overcame during the production process, and the interview subjects that stood out to them.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jake-s-take-with-jacob-elyachar--4112003/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hello, and welcome back to the lates edition of the
j Podcast. I'm your host, Jacob As, the chief contector
and writer of Jakes six dot com, a pop culture
entertainment news website. You're watching us on YouTube, please give
us the thumbs up and please subscribe to my YouTube channel.
If you're listening to all us on our audio platforms,
please give us the five star rating. Download this episode
(00:43):
and more episodes. After this show, I'm going to welcome
our latest seven guests. They are, I mean, the first
guest is David Rosenberg. He's an actor who's worked with
the likes of Rod Howard and Olypia Dukakis, who's this
also stand up comedian and teacher.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
My next guest is Susan Grel.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
She's the president and producer of oak Mille Entertainment and
her family has been in the entertainment industry for.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Over for a total of fifty years.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Together, they are the respected director and producer of Bridging
the Gap movie the building Bridges of Hopes through talks
with dozens of Americans across country.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Dave and Susan, Welcome to the podcast. You welcome, Jacob. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
First of all, thank you guys. So much for connecting
taking time on your schedule today. I really appreciate it,
and I want to give a very special shout out
to our mutual friend b Kimmel, who it connected us.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
She's amazing, is the.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Best, absolutely she We love you be so I enjoy
I hope you and Coco and David are.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Enjoying the summer. Yes, alrighty guys, now that we got
that out.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Of the way, I would love to know how you guys
met Steak.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Okay, So we made a movie together in twenty nineteen
called The Reunion. It was about confronting basically confronting my childhood.
Bully is a movie that I was trying to get
made for about fifteen years, based on my experiences growing up.
Before we were Before we made the movie, I was
driving across country and the director said, you should check
(02:13):
out the Julian Deibuke Film Festival, which is Susan's film
festival at Iowa. It's a fantastic, burgeoning, growing film festival.
Because we were looking for a producer at that time,
we were interested in somebody, and so I got to
talk to Susan a little bit about you know, do
you think this is the right person, and you know,
just a little bit about producing. And I had never
(02:35):
made a movie, a feature film like that before. So
we just had a great conversation at the hotel where
her festival happens in the restaurant. And then after that,
once I got to New York and I was working
with my two partners, we asked Susan to kind of
help us get started. So she helped us with a
pitch deck and some other kind of just starter things,
(02:56):
and then working together, we just really enjoyed working with her.
So we asked her, would you know, would you stay on?
And so she became a producer for I mean years
problem Yeah, yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It was great.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
And then when Dave called me about this, ideas had
some other great ideas along the way and I just
hasn't worked out for me. And then when he asked
about this, I'm like, oh, I really it's a great idea.
I think you know, I'd love to all help produce that.
And he said, yeah, but I really want you to
be like the other character in it. I'm like, oh,
I don't do camera. I camera makes you five pounds,
(03:27):
you know, it makes you ten pounds fatter, And I
don't need ten more pounds. Yeah, so so it took
a little convincing. I'm like, and even doing it, I felt, really,
it's just not in my comfort zone. So I'm behind
the camera for a reason. But I enjoyed it and
it was really nice that he asked, and I'm glad
he did.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
And she was great one hearing to you for getting
outside a comfort level. I have the instance is where
I hated to get outside my comfort level, but I
did it. But like I think we all have to
get outside our comfort level all the time.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I will say this is probably the first time I
said this to you.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
I'm probably as uncomfortable producing and being behind the scenes
as you are in front of the camera.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
To see so you guys how perfectly compliment each other.
It's perfect. Yeah, so let's never do that again.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Yeah, all right, all right.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
I love I when I was heard of, when THEO
heard about this idea, I thought this was a brilliant idea.
But I would love for a film, but I would documentary,
but I would love if you could please share Virginia
Gaps origin stories to my audience.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
With my audience, Well, it's so interesting because you know
my film The Reunion took about fifteen years to get made.
I started when I was twenty seven and ran into
my childhood bully, and then we made it when I
was forty two. This was the opposite. This happened within
a couple of months. I like, I have a bunch
of ideas and scripts and I'm writing and such, and
you know, and God's just like this one, you know,
(04:55):
and I go, Okay, well, then we'll do this one.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
So a few months ago I reached out Susan. We
had had a conversation.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I'm not sure if it was before or after we
decided to do the movie. I think it was before
where the election had just happened. You know, I'm not
a big fan of Trump, but I'm trying to, you know,
learn more and such. And I reached out to Susan.
I said, you know, I have a question for you.
You don't have to answer it. I'm not going to
talk at all. I'm just gonna listen. In fact, i'll
mute my line. And I said, why do you support
(05:23):
this person? And Susan talked to me for about twenty
twenty five minutes. And although I didn't necessarily agree with everything,
and still I'm not a fan, it made sense to me,
help to enlighten me in terms of what people in
the middle of the country may be thinking. And it
was a totally different perspective and point of view than
I was hearing in Los Angeles, and that I was
(05:43):
seeing through the algorithms that come to the liberals and
algorithms that come et cetera, and so forth.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
And then, you know, for the last couple of years.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
I've just been really upset about what's happening in the country,
particularly with the divide and family is being torn apart.
Our colleagues not talking to each other, friends not talking
to each other, and I just thought, this is ridiculous,
you know, And so as an artist, what can I do?
Speaker 5 (06:08):
And it was really the.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Most obvious idea in the world. It just took some
balls to do it. I hope I can say balls.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
You can't.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Assume that I asked her, And to be honest with you,
I was really surprised that she kind of just said, yeah,
it's a great idea. And I said, well, if you're
if you're willing to do this, then let's let's set
some timelines and let's start spending money, because that's how
you make a movie.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Yeah, And I think to what Dave is saying, and
it's true. I like the idea because I'm not a
real vocal political political person. I don't feel like politics
to find your character. It's really your character is defined
by you as a person. So I really don't care
how you vote. That's to me is a very private thing,
and I don't let my my choices reflect like what
(06:55):
I as far as like even like with the film festival,
you know, things always done, I don't. You know, if
you have a really good product and you're shot well
and your acting's great, you may have a story that
maybe I don't necessarily agree with, but that doesn't matter.
It's not about what I agree with. It's about what
I see in the product and along as well as
my other team. So that's always really really important to me,
(07:16):
and I just but I told them myself, I really
like this. I did because I just feel like there's
more of us that just want to get along and
enjoy each other's company than fighting and arguing. Like the
way that social media says that we are.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And the thing is that's what I've discovered along the way,
is because we're all in our different we're all in
our different turnstiles, and like when the thing is when
people pass away, and it's just like it's just awful,
and like you're gonna have a lot of people are
gonna have. It's gonna take something so awful, it's so
tragic to get out of their confort zones and realize
about the people that they miss. Because the thing is
(07:52):
when they get to six year, when it gets a four,
like and when it gets when my generation gets a
forty and sixty and after losing some people the way along,
some loved ones of God forbade along the way, they're
going to have to realize they have to make peace
because once we live live our planet, that's it.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
I remember what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
I remember is Shaquille O'Neill after Kobe died saying, you know, God,
I wish I would have I wish I would have
gone back and up with him. All this stuff was
ego and it was nonsense and this was my little brother,
and I would I think Shaq even cried like on TV.
So you're absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Yeah, yeah I don't And I'm not like even with me,
and I don't think people should carry grudges and hatred
and angry when you carry that and that affects you personally,
and then it just makes you more depressive. And so
I'm like, you know, you don't have to necessarily forget
things that happened to you along the way, but you
can learn to forgive. And I think forgiveness as well.
And people, you know, get so hooked up in this
(08:50):
political divide that they just caused so much hatred and
and I my biggest thing on the whole trip was
I think social media plays a huge part of that.
You know, you can say whenever you want on social
media and hate each other, and you know it's okay
because you're, you know, protected by the Internet, whereas if
you were face to face with people, you probably would
(09:10):
never say the things that you do on on social media.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And also, I think people have realized and I admit
that I have done this as well, especially since with
my with my stuff going on, with a lot of
with a lot of stuff going on with since Optomber
seventh and everything, I admit that I've gone I've caught
out a lot of people. And at the same time,
I'm like, Okay, is this going to come out back?
And bite me or also with the thing is with
impulse with like trying to calm my impulses down, because
(09:35):
the thing is I'm an uncle of a nephew and
two nieces and a lot of mentioned. I have friends
that I'm an honor uncle too, and I'm like, I
have to go back and say why is up? Have
them explaining why is uncle Jacob act display? If they
see us number one and number two? How am I
going to ask God forbid I find my dream job
with somewhere I want to work? How am I going
(09:57):
to explain that? And they say, why are you out
like this? I didn't have a long time. I have
to think very hard and clear why why I did?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
On social media?
Speaker 4 (10:06):
That's right, you do, and it's always there. It doesn't
go away. People think you can remove it.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
It doesn't. That's it's there forever. So that's true. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So I want to get back to back to the
film about the organization because I'm very fascinating because you
guys mentioned a quick timeline of like going to it,
like it was like month by month. So how do
you guys organ how did you and your teams organize
this film?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, it's right, No, I mean I will.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Dave had a lot of people sent out mass emails
to across the US of his connections to see if
you can get some people that would want to be interviewed.
We worked very closely with Braver Angels organization. They're amazing.
They're across the US as well, so they were able
to bring some Republicans and Democrats and independence for us.
And then we sat down and kind of mapped out,
(10:58):
like Dave had some very specific places he really wanted
to hit, and then based on people he knew or
maybe it was we also wanted to include that this
involved the crew of seeing things and experiencing things across
the US. And then I had some connections so throughout
that we were able to create this map of Okay,
here's the towns, and then I worked out travel and
(11:19):
where we go. Because Dave was on the creative, I
was more the logistic of, you know, and then saying
to him, no, that's not going to work, Dave, than
him not being happy as a director, that's.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Not going to work. That'll work. I'm like, you can't
drive thirty hours.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
So you know, the realistic of you know, making his
dream and his visions come true, but also the realistic
part of Okay, we're going to try to cram all
this in and do these things. So we had agreed interviews,
we had been Dave can add to it. But we
had wonderful fun things that we did along the way
as well. It was really important Dave really wanted to
be in this kind of the center of America, which
(11:56):
would be like the Brown Dubuke, Iowa and go to
the field of dreams. We get we got to play football, yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
That was fun.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
And then we did Donalds in my hometown, so and
fourth of July. There so a lot of really cool
things that we did along the way, and we.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
You know, we really wanted to keep it light. Me
and Susan, I think our friendship survives on humor, you know,
and uh, you know, we wanted this very heavy topic
and we we had a lot of fun making fun
of the seriousness of it. Particularly Susan's brother came along.
He's a maga self described where's the hat and all that,
(12:37):
and you know, I was really nervous, you know, before
he came.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
You know, we had met once and got along, but
there was some.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Stuff there and and then the r V that he
was driving, showed up late, and I was getting very
nervous about that problems and had some issues and but
we ended up getting along great and and we kind
of stan in the film. We ended up like just
kind of being these two little kids. I got to
play and really kind of just sort of poke fun
at the seriousness of it and go, guys, what are
(13:05):
we what are we doing here? You know? In fact,
there was there was one interview in Iowa that got
very heated with the highest Republican in the Iowa land
and he came in pretty worked up with a very
specific agenda and he felt I was being biased, and
he and I got into it and it got ugly.
He actually was going to introduce Trump right after Wow.
(13:28):
So but it was interesting sort of juxtaposing that which
got very heated, which is what we're seeing across the
country with me and Philip like playing with dolls, playing
with like Obama and Trump baba. We just kind of
like it was just kind of like, really, do we
need to be doing this when we could be doing this?
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:49):
And the thing is that why I'm so happy that
you did, because I want to talk about the stops
you when of course, I went to Los Angeles in
New York City and watch news. It's the three big
epicenters of financial tics and entertainment.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
But along the way you also include stops.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
In the Grand Canyon, Denver, Saint Louis, Nashville, and Iowa.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So why did he chose those cities?
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Ha ha, Well.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
This is fun. So I have a little bit of OCD,
and I'm i'm and I'm an artist, and I really
wanted to create a yin yang, so that was a
part that was part of it. I told Susan I
want to kind of have like a wave, like a
yin yang like this, and we have a you'll see
on our website. So that that was part of it.
And then Susan and I kind of went through and
(14:36):
we're like, okay, where can we Where can we go?
Within that? Where do you want to go? What's a
good place to go? We wanted to balance out the
you know, Republicans and Democrats. We didn't want to have
a huge, you know, imbalance there. So that was that
was kind of the just And then like Susan lives
in Iowa, I live in Los Angeles, Philip lives in
Susan's brother lives in North my cousin lives in Denver,
(14:58):
So there was a lot of reasons to hit certain places.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
And the thing that I'm what I'm what I'm admirer
by is like you guys were not you do guys
made sure to tackle all the areas of the country
of the forty in continental the United States. And the
thing that because the thing is I feel like overlooked
because yes, it feels like the East Coast and the
West coast to the tow husband Westerners, and I'm proud
I'm coming from Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas
(15:25):
City in the Kansas City area that we get overlooked
sometimes because of all because these are we're not either
A we're in the middle of the country.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
B know what we be.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
We don't have a center of power or gravitational forces
where we're bringing people and and see a lot of
a lot of people underestimate us. And I say, never
underestimate the Midwesterners. Because the thing is, I got and
I'm gonna be honest. The reason why I moved I
moved to New York City over Los Angeles because I
rather have the honesty of the New Yorkers to my
(15:58):
face than people who smiling behind my back in La
while try to who say, my friends, but they are
plotting to stab.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
Me into that.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, well yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
It speaks to kind of one of the things that
I think we learned that so much is about perspective
and point of view, and when we start talking to
each other, we realize we're thinking a lot of the
same things. Like me and Philip. Philip was really nervous
driving the RV. I was really nervous. I was like, Oh,
he's this big, maga bully guy in the today and
you know, and it was like, no, he was feeling
the same way. And he and I had both the
bully and you bring up you know, feeling like ignored
(16:29):
in the in the Midwest. I mean, you know in
Los Angeles right now, my school is down by where
Ice is having a field day. So, I mean, you
can only imagine what people in Los Angeles are feeling.
They're feeling attacked, They're feeling that they have to hide,
they have to hide away in their houses, they have
to go and get their birth certificates because they may
get picked up. So and they may look at the
(16:50):
Midwest and go, oh, that's Trump country and Trump's in power.
So I think when we started talking to each other
and realize, man, we're all going through it. We're all
feeling fear. We're all fearing fear of the other, and
we're not the other. We just have different points of
view and perspectives. And it's really very similar to racism.
What is racism. It's it's ignorance of not knowing the other,
(17:13):
and once you get to know each other, that.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Stuff starts to go away. And part of it, you're right,
is geographic.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
On the on the on the ends or tend to
be pretty liberal and in the middle to be pretty conservative.
So maybe everybody needs to get it in an RV
and start driving through the country.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
I just don't do it in seventeen days, all right,
or in.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
The summer or in the summer.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, I think my friend's over at NTV with the
Real World and who are Real World alumni and rold
Rules alumni and can definitely can talk about like living
in an R and B and everything.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
So well, I think, you know, this movie is kind
of a new genre. It's reality TV meets political documentary, which.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Is awesome, which is awesome, and I want to talk
to you guys about the challenges that you guys fit
you in your production team space throughout this filming process.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
And how are you able to overcome those obstacles. Oh, well,
one major obstacle it was really hot.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I mean we're traveling in the middle of summer.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
It happened to be heat wave all the way cross.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
And you know, you're in a thirty five foot RV
with eight people and you're you know, in the morning
would be nice and cool, and we get in there,
but by the later in the afternoon, the generator and
the acs can't keep up with the amount of heat
and it would get hot. So you're dealing with the
heat and it's like oh, and you know you're on
windy roads and you're going up the mountains and you
just want to get off. So I think it was
(18:42):
learning to balance that by like, I'm used to riding
an RV. We did a lot of camping when I
was a kid. And but you know, you've got like
Dave and I think Nika and I think I'm not
sure Armand's ever been in RV, never own RV, so
they you know, they're not expecting. One of the challenges
I think was funny was I was initially telling you
(19:03):
about you know, I probably should have been more clear
about it. Don't bring a lot of baggage, Bring like
one bag. I mean you're an RV. There's not that
much room, and they're like coming with three or four
bags and.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Stuff like what like we're not. Yeah, I mean, you've.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Got this giant we call it the pizza bag. It's huge.
It looks like it could carry like a hundred pizzas.
And he's got all the merchandise and teachers.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
We had the bobble heads in there, we had the
hats in there.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Come on, what this thing?
Speaker 4 (19:38):
So everybody's like every time you're like, oh, that aren't
pizza bag, you pick it up and move it. And
so I you know, those were to me. We're challenging
and personality wise, I mean on a hole. Honestly, you're
gonna have things are gonna come up. We did get
we got along, we had issues, would walk through them,
but then it goes back to that thing, like I
feel you move on from that. You know, we have arguments,
(20:00):
we have things come up. You're going to but you
can't carry that anger and that hatred. You just learned
from it. And move on from it. That's always important
to me.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
But they may say different version.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
No, I think you know, look, Susan and I met
this morning. We had a meeting and we went.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
Through a lot. I mean, you know, we went through.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Susan and I love each other and we you know,
we we talk, you know, once in a while if
we're not doing a movie together, and we're doing a
movie together, we're talking once a week on zoom. But
we've never lived together.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I can't even live with my husband, so.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
I can't live with anybody. I live alone. I've lived
alone for thirty five years.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
So we you know, we're both very sensitive people, and
I think we're kind of mirrors of each other, and I.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Think God kind of set that up. So there was
there was some there was some.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Fights, you know, and it was hard and it was painful,
I think for both of us. But seeing her today
and seeing that we're both we're rested, we're both coming
back to ourselves. I look back and I go, that
wasn't me, that Susan. That was like that was our trauma,
Like that was when that was us really triggered and
(21:06):
the circumstances were such that it was it was very challenging.
We were doing one of the hardest things I think
that that you can do in and on r V
eight people the heat, trying to bring the country together.
I mean, it was it was really challenging. So you know,
all of my ship came up. You know, I remember
(21:27):
saying to the crew in the beginning, my hardest job
is not going to be interviewing, and it's not going
to be directing.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
It's going to be trying to make sure you guys
don't hate me.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
By the end that I'm very sensitive and things bother me.
And it was really hard. But you know what, we
we made what I think it's going to be a
great movie, and I hope that the relationships can survive
and heal.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Absolutely. I want to talk.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I want to talk about the interviewees and the processing,
like where you make I love learn about the stuff
that you ask them, like, for example, was it like
a spec how was it organized? Was it like okay?
One question would be like a liberal question. The other
one of the favorite conservative questions were like where they
all sprinkled around?
Speaker 3 (22:14):
They had for the first half or first sixty or
seventy percent of the trip, they all had the same questions.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
So it's the first question was.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
How did you attain your political affiliation? So I wanted
them to start with what's the background story, what's their
origin story?
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Right?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Was it their parents were Republicans, so they became Republicans,
Or their parents were Republicans so they became Democrats and
they rebelled, or there was a particular president that they loved,
or there was an event that happened in the world
or their life, so that both people can kind of
see again perspective stories. So we don't start with the
question of what do you think of Trump? You know,
that's like wanting you pour some explosives, you know into
(22:52):
the mix, like what do you.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Think of the squad? That power is another thing as
well of what the squad? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Oh okay, okay, gotcha. See you guys are getting different news.
I've never heard that before. So yeah, so then it
was questions like, you know, what do you fear? What
is your greatest fear about the other side? What are
some stereotypes about your side?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Right?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
And then towards the end there was like we did
a fun thing of like a word association. So I
would say, like Nancy Pelosi and they would say criminal
or like lovely and you say Trump and they go horrible,
the greatest, you know. So that was kind of fun.
And then we had them take five minutes to work
(23:42):
together to try to come up with an action that
they could take, whether they would take it or not.
But going through that five minute process of can they
actually come up with a simple action? And I think
that gave us a sense of maybe what we're seeing
in Washington, how challenging it is to actually just come
up with a simple solution. Because I'll tell you, I
(24:03):
teach middle school, and it sounded like an easy prompt
to me. It wasn't because they started talking and theorizing
and I want.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
To go, wait, wait, stop.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
The prompt is you guys get to come up with
one simple action that you guys are going to take.
So that was that was interesting.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And I will say Dave did a very good job
with the interviews. He did most of them.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
He tried to pull me in for some I'm like, God,
I'm terrible at it, but he did.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
He did do a very good job with that.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Every now and then, you know, I would kind of
the only time I really stepped in is if I
felt like the conversation maybe Dave was, you know, because
the Democrat would maybe bond more of the Democrat, or
you know, the Democrats said something against Trump or against
the president, and he would lean and I would, Okay,
we have to remember that we it's not about It's
really not about who's present, because fifty percent didn't like
(24:56):
the last president, you know. So it's about two political
or three political parts, parties of people coming together and
not judging each other by your political affiliation, and you know,
and Daved's like, yeah, you're right, You're right, I mean,
and the same thing with me. We just had to
make sure we stayed remained in the middle. We didn't
favor any side. This was about, again, not about the
president or any president. It's about political parties and why
(25:20):
people choose a political party. And a lot of people
I think found like, okay, here are my policies. If
you give me, I may be registered Republican, but if
you give me a Democrat that does these policies and
my Republican doesn't, I'm going to vote Democrat. So I
think we found a lot of that as well, and
that was good. So but it did a very good
job with the interviews and on a whole most everybody
(25:42):
was really good, and.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
It's getting people talking again, you know, getting people communicating
again and realizing we're not the boogeyman.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
The other side is not the book. We just have
different opinions.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
And I think social media, which is absolutely wonderful, and
chat GVTA. I mean, these are just amazing things. But
we may not be communicating as well as we did
twenty five or thirty years ago because we're all on
our phones and we're texting and all. We have to
learn how to communicate again. We have to learn how
to listen and not immediately trying to win a conversation.
(26:15):
Conversations are not meant to be won or lost. They're
meant to learn. We're meant to learn from each other.
And we've become this debating society that doesn't really know
how to debate, except for great debaters that are on TV,
like you know, it's Stephen Stephen A. Smith on first Take.
But you know, I think I think a big thing
(26:36):
that I got from this is listen, Listen, Come from listening,
don't be furious, be curious. Something I heard.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Recently that is a really good tack I can be
curious not furious, which is like there are some stuff
issues and I have a hotter time with and it's
like basically saying.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yeah, yeah, how much how much can you listen with
without having to jump in and defend yourself.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
And it's hard too, because I admit, and when I
talked to val Davide early in an earlier episode this year,
I admit that sometimes actions like that can like well
speak out and like when Missus Rachel posted something, I
spoke out about that, When when Imagine Dragons posted something
about that, I spoke out about that. When Joseph Ablin
was talked about Michael Rabbitport's inclusion on A Trader's cast
(27:26):
and people calling him out because he was he was Jewish,
I called out about that as well. So I call
people out when I see it fit like, yeah, of course,
there's like times I'm like, I have to be cared
to keep my knees for the actions in check, but
at the same time you have to you have to
speak out, but at the same time be us more
speece simple.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
Yeah, and I think there's such respect.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
I think there's something also to waiting until you're in
a better like, I need to wait until I'm calm
before I respond. And I learned that from being a
middle school teacher. Like in my second or thirty year,
I'm like, what I'm doing is not working. So if
I'm in fight or flight, my only job is to
get out of fight or flight unless there's a tiger
coming after me that I need to get out of
the way of. I don't have to react. I can
(28:11):
respond when I'm ready, because when I react, it's generally
going to be negative, toxic, destructive. Right, So we also, yes,
we want to speak up and speak out, but I
think we also want to ask ourselves what's our intention
behind it? Is it just to to compete? Are we
trying to win something? Or what is the intention? Is
(28:32):
the intention to come together? I think that's important because
when we're in fight or flight, we're not always thinking
about what our intention actually is. We're come from a
place of I feel threatened, I need to fight back,
where everybody.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Wants to win.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
You want to win, you want to change other person,
and it's not your job to change the other person,
and it's not their job to change you. And I
find when you know when I'm with somebody who's in
a complete that do get in political talks and they're
talking about stuff, but maybe I don't agree with my comments,
just you know that. You know that's interesting. I said,
it's not necessarily I agree with everything you're saying, but
I absolutely understand your feelings on it. And I think
(29:07):
it's just changing your opinion or how you react to
those people make a big difference to anybody. And that
that's even just in political talk. I think that's in conversations.
You don't have to win the conversation. You just have
to find a way to be okay and make that
person feel like you're really listening and you understand, and
then just carry on from it.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Absolutely, absolutely, I want to go into the interviewees. You
do you guys have any interviewees that sad that to you?
And why today stand out amongst people you interviewed?
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Okay, okay, Well, we had a fascinating situation. It wasn't
even an interview with a dinner. We had it with
a bunch of my friends. It was going to be
all dudes and then we had to balance it out.
So there were some women involved, including Susan. It was
in La It was one of the last things I
think we did in LA. It was fascinating because I
(30:01):
told you about the Iowa guy. Well we also had
a liberal who came in guns of Blazing with I
know him. I love this guy. His name is Jerry.
I can say his name. He's gonna be in the movie.
But he came in cowboy hat, just ready to go.
And I assume he had been watching some CNN, MSNBC,
et cetera, and so forth. He was ready to make
(30:21):
his points. But he walked into the wrong dinner because
we were not there to debate. We're there to bring
people together. So it became this really fascinating dynamic where
Jerry was going and going and going, and Susan was
kind of coming back, not at him, but to him
in a certain way of like being curious but also
(30:44):
standing up for herself. You know, there's one point, Jerry
was you were talking about something with medicaid or something
like that, and they had and I don't even care
what it's about her who is right, It didn't matter,
but Susan brought up, you know, my dad is dying.
My dad is dying of cancer.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Right, Yeah, well sorry about that, but blah blah.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
And I said, Jerry, stop, you're on my side, you know,
like politically, but stop. Did you hear what she just said?
She just said her father's dying. And you went back
to like yelling and debating no, no, no, no, And
so it was interesting. And then Susan's grandson was there,
who I knew when he was in on the reunion
(31:23):
and is now a young man seventeen, and we watched him.
Speaker 5 (31:26):
Up and he took on Jerry and he said, Jerry,
let me ask you something.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
And without any attitude, he said, you know, I hear
that you're, you know, watching these particular news shows, but
are you watching anything on the other side? And Jerry said, well,
and he said no, no, no, but are you watching
any of the other It was just a fascinating conversation.
And to Jerry's credit, and I love to hear, Susan's
one of you on this as well. To Jerry's credit,
he stayed, he's stuck around and he did shift a bit.
(31:53):
I mean, by the end we were hugging me. He
and I walked out together. So I just that's the
one that sticks out out for me.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
I think for Jerry, I think he came in and
I and I understand exactly what he's saying. He's like,
he told us, what do you he told Dave, what
do you expect when you bring Republicans and Democrats and
you tell we're going to come in and have a
political conversation. He said, well, of course, I'm going to
come thinking this is a battle. So he came in
thinking that, and I understand probably where he might have
(32:22):
thought that, but not realizing that the questions that were
going to happen in the conversation was not to create
a battle. It was to create conversation and talk about differences.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
And yeah, it was about I.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Think Jerry was saying they were taking so security away,
and I said no, And I kind of said, well
why would they? Why would my dad vote for somebody
who was taking so security because he's dying from cancer
and it's all he has to give to my mom.
And Jerry kind of after he made his comment then
he kind of stepped back, and but I understood Jerry's anger.
He's definitely there's there's extremes on either end. We have that,
(32:56):
but I wouldn't even consider Jerry a bad extreme because
he wasn't violent in any way. He was just very
passionate and making a point, and the same thing with
the guy. And I wasn't violent. They're just very passionate
and trying to get their opinion across. And I understand that.
And you can't like with Jerry. I'm not going to
have a full out argument. I don't need to win
(33:16):
my conversation with Jerry. But I did want to listen,
and actually he.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Is a very nice guy.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
I mean, he got up, he's a big guy, and
Paul and you know, I gave him a hug and
I actually enjoyed his conversation. He does great things. He
goes out and helps people and works the land. I mean,
those are beautiful things. He just sees things a little
different than the rest of us and that's okay. And
so that doesn't make me hate him, just makes me
want to understanding more. And I would probably visit Jerry
(33:44):
when I go out to California. We will not talk
about politics, but he's a fun guy.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I'd go out to.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
I mean, I would to have no problem hanging out.
And Jerry did say that. He said, if you brought
us together and didn't tell me there was a political thing,
he said, we would all come to dinner and just
have great conversation then so you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
All right, so that was Jerry's credit.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
All right, first and foremost season, I want to say
my thoughts with you and your family.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Oh, thank you, thank you. Yeah, it's and we you know,
I will say real quick. One good thing that did
happen with the RV breaking down my dad. Because my
brother had twenty four hours to get the r V
to us, my dad from Iowa to he can on
even make it to uh New Mexico. My dad got
to come down with him and spend the first half
of the trip with us. And my dad loved camping
(34:35):
and he's bone answer terminal, so it was difficult for him,
but he did that. And I told Dave, if anything,
no matter what happens with this, you've got video of
us and enjoying my dad. And I said that that
is something we'll always remember and thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
So well, what's amazing about that is why I we
were talking before the movie about like what's going to
happen if he gets sick or what have you. Yeah,
we're going to finish this film.
Speaker 5 (34:59):
But it turned out to be the opposite.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
He came, he came with us half the trip and
he's just an amazing man, just an amazing human being, strong, kind, loving.
Speaker 6 (35:10):
It's an amazing, amazing man. Thanks, And I hope you
include him in some of the feathers because I would
love to. I think that my audience and what would
it would appreciate and I think other audiences as well
would appreciate as well. Because the thing is there's like
a powerful like that is like almost powerful, that is
extremely powerful and could be like an important part of this,
(35:32):
like say of you guys talking about you know, stuff
along the way and then like like bucking in and
it's like, I'm glad, I'm glad you guys have that time.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
He'll laughing, He'll definitely be in there. It's it's a storyline.
I'm laughing because there was a moment where we left.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
We left her.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
There's a lot of funny stuff in this parents they
were standing outside kind of like it was like a
Norman Rockwell photo and we're.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
So just so just to give it back. You and Daalson.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
They live in Dawson. That's where we celebrated Fourth of July.
So they we end up you come back and see
my dad in Dawson at fourth of July.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
So go ahead, Dave.
Speaker 4 (36:11):
Sorry, I just wanted to get gun.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
As we're leading in the r V, Susan's mom and
dad are standing there like a Norman Rockwell painting, and
he's holding a sign which I gave to him that
says does not play well with liberals.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
It was funny. We're just all waving out the window.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
I just said, that's there's a photos from that there,
because I think I would bring a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
That would make a lot of people in the Midwest.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (36:42):
Yeah, So I mean, and you know, to Dave's credit,
who came in a you know, more democratic liberal, he
really enjoyed and he wasn't sure how he was going
to get along with everybody and was concerned and he
really did well.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
And and again it shows it's all about humor and
fun and kindness. You don't, you know, other than the
fact that we're doing this documentary and politics. It wasn't
our friendship and everything is in about politics. It's about friendship,
and I think those are things that people have got
to come back to and remember your family, your friends,
who cares who they vote for. Don't talk about it,
(37:22):
talk about things that do matter.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
And I agree, And that's the thing is, like, I
was just talking to my friend Kaig, who I've known
since we were in six points over our quarter of
a century, and the thing is, it's like I keep
up about my friendships. Is like I have friendships in
my life that have ranged from eight months all the
way to twenty five years and with my land laws and.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Made possibly thirty.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
But the thing is you hold on to them no
matter what happens, because I've learned the best from my
folks who have friendships that have gone to their fifties year,
fifty years of friendship up to forty years of French.
You hold on tight to them. Yeah, and you may.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
Not even know how they vote. It was never a conversation,
had nothing to do. I mean, years and years and
years ago, nobody cared. It's just become this thing and
we need to get back to not worrying about that.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Well, what you say, Jacob really strikes me because I
have seven or eight friends that I've lost over the years,
good friends that maybe I can get back, and maybe
I can, But when you balance out the balance sheet
of the good and how much you love them with
the other things that are mostly ego again ego, You're right,
it is. It's worth having those people that you love
(38:37):
in your life.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
So.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
One of the questions I want to ask before we
wrap up our conversation.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Is why will Bridge Bridging a Gap be an essential
film to watch? I?
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Well, first of all, I think it'll be fun, I
hope so. I think there'll be humor, human human connection.
It's not going to be a typical documentary. And now
I'm not in the editing, but I'm assuming from my
conversations with Dave and then our editor, it will be. Yes,
it's about bridging the gap. It's about you know, political dying,
divide coming together. But it's not a bunch of talking heads.
(39:11):
It's a journey of a crew that was also mixed
to political and all the people we met and the
things we did, there's fun stuff. All of this was
just about going across how can we all get along
and just have fun? And then interviewing and hearing from
people as well that really from east coast to west
coast all feel the same. Would you agree, Dave?
Speaker 3 (39:34):
I think it's exposing a lie, now, exposing a lie
that's out there that we all hate. Each other, and
we also be afraid of each other. And this narrative
that we're seeing on social media, it's not true. I
mean there's some of it, but again we're seeing the extremes,
and Susan and I realized as we went across, your
(39:54):
extremes were five percent. We interviewed one hundred people and
maybe a few of them came in with a extreme,
you know energy. I think it's an important movie. I
think it's a fun movie. I think we had a
lot of fun with it. I think it is political
documentary on it on its own is very interesting with
what we're tackling of trying to bring people together, try
(40:15):
to understand each other. But then you also have the
journey of the crew, which was Democrat and Republican with
me and Susan, you're gonna see, you know, we had
our ups and downs, and it was kind of a
metaphor in a lot of ways for what's going on
with the country. So, you know, we had a podcast
with doctor Marissa recently called The Asian Oprah, and she said,
I think it's the most important movie coming out right now,
(40:38):
and you know, my ego goes yeah, But I also
do think it's important and I think if it starts
some conversations with people, go join braver Angels Braveranngels dot org.
It's in your neighborhood. It's an opportunity to start talking
with people and coming together.
Speaker 5 (40:54):
Don't be alone in your silos.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Stop driving yourself crazy, you know, go out with your friends,
go bowl, go to the park, talk to each other.
It's enough of being isolated. We got to come back together.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
One one hundred percent agree with this and I'm looking
forward to seeing this documentary and the final question I.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Have for you guys, are you ready? Yes?
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Where can my audience find out more information about Bridging
this Gap? And where can connect with you guys on
social media?
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Go ahead, Susan, you're great. You did great at this
last time.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
No.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Well, first of all, Dave's under the names is Bridging
the gapmovie dot com. Definitely go to our website on
there has all of our social media handles. You know,
we're terrible social media. I'm terrible social media by TikTok
and Facebook and Instagram.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
We'll have some.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
We have a YouTube channel. Go to those things to see. Also,
we have a petition on our website. It's just say,
people sign. We're trying to get seventeen and seventy six.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Find that Fame Declaration of Unity is busy independence.
Speaker 5 (41:54):
Yeah thing, Let's come together.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
And sign and you can get some HAPs like Dave
or some T shirts, some merchandise if you like, but
definitely follow Bridging the Gap movie dot com. Right now,
we're in post, so we're gonna have a few months
of you know, some quiet not la movement. But as
we start releasing, maybe a trailer and start some clips
and this, as we start getting close to finalizing the film,
(42:18):
things will get ramped up again. You get to hear
you more, and we'll start releasing where we're going to
be showing.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
I also want to thank you Susan Tho nailed it
all right, thank you. I want to shout out again
Beatrice who put our website together and did an amazing
job Red White and Blue Beauty. And then also Nikki,
our wonderful social media person is she's just crushing it,
so much fun getting the word out, building our audience.
(42:46):
So please check out our socials, collaborate with us, you know, share,
share our socials with your friends.
Speaker 5 (42:52):
You know, let's let's make America united again.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Hey Manta that and guys, if you missed an episode
of the Jakes with Jacob Ali is our podcast because
our channels on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, iHeart Spotify and Spreaker.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Jake's Take with Jacob e j A c O b
e l y A c h a R. Now are
you on SO twenty because I'm on soci.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Twenty two, Facebook, Instagram, threads, Twitter and YouTube Jacob el
a hr.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
J A c o b e ol y A c
h a R.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
I want to find out what's going on with America's
Got Talent? What about the challenge? I want to see
all my thousand new music reviews. Well heads to the
block that started off Jake Sasha dot com, Jakes's hic
dot com and I'm thrilled to announce to Jakes with
Jacob your podcast is a twenty twenty five American Business
Award winning podcast. If I want to thank the entire
American Business Awards judges for awarding my show the Silver
(43:41):
Prize in the Best Interview Talk Show category and the
inaugural podcast today Susan who was an honor and friblished.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Have you, guys.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
I am so grateful that we've had this conversation, and
I'm hoping and praying that we can bridge the gap
and get lost united once again.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Yes, the word bridge of the gap.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Thank you, Jacob, You're awesome, You're so welcome, and guys,
thank you so much for watching, Thank you so much
for listening.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Until next time, everybody, have a great one.
Speaker 5 (44:08):
Go bye bye
Hello, and welcome back to the lates edition of the
j Podcast. I'm your host, Jacob As, the chief contector
and writer of Jakes six dot com, a pop culture
entertainment news website. You're watching us on YouTube, please give
us the thumbs up and please subscribe to my YouTube channel.
If you're listening to all us on our audio platforms,
please give us the five star rating. Download this episode
(00:43):
and more episodes. After this show, I'm going to welcome
our latest seven guests. They are, I mean, the first
guest is David Rosenberg. He's an actor who's worked with
the likes of Rod Howard and Olypia Dukakis, who's this
also stand up comedian and teacher.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
My next guest is Susan Grel.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
She's the president and producer of oak Mille Entertainment and
her family has been in the entertainment industry for.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Over for a total of fifty years.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Together, they are the respected director and producer of Bridging
the Gap movie the building Bridges of Hopes through talks
with dozens of Americans across country.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Dave and Susan, Welcome to the podcast. You welcome, Jacob. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
First of all, thank you guys. So much for connecting
taking time on your schedule today. I really appreciate it,
and I want to give a very special shout out
to our mutual friend b Kimmel, who it connected us.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
She's amazing, is the.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Best, absolutely she We love you be so I enjoy
I hope you and Coco and David are.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Enjoying the summer. Yes, alrighty guys, now that we got
that out.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Of the way, I would love to know how you guys
met Steak.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Okay, So we made a movie together in twenty nineteen
called The Reunion. It was about confronting basically confronting my childhood.
Bully is a movie that I was trying to get
made for about fifteen years, based on my experiences growing up.
Before we were Before we made the movie, I was
driving across country and the director said, you should check
(02:13):
out the Julian Deibuke Film Festival, which is Susan's film
festival at Iowa. It's a fantastic, burgeoning, growing film festival.
Because we were looking for a producer at that time,
we were interested in somebody, and so I got to
talk to Susan a little bit about you know, do
you think this is the right person, and you know,
just a little bit about producing. And I had never
(02:35):
made a movie, a feature film like that before. So
we just had a great conversation at the hotel where
her festival happens in the restaurant. And then after that,
once I got to New York and I was working
with my two partners, we asked Susan to kind of
help us get started. So she helped us with a
pitch deck and some other kind of just starter things,
(02:56):
and then working together, we just really enjoyed working with her.
So we asked her, would you know, would you stay on?
And so she became a producer for I mean years
problem Yeah, yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It was great.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
And then when Dave called me about this, ideas had
some other great ideas along the way and I just
hasn't worked out for me. And then when he asked
about this, I'm like, oh, I really it's a great idea.
I think you know, I'd love to all help produce that.
And he said, yeah, but I really want you to
be like the other character in it. I'm like, oh,
I don't do camera. I camera makes you five pounds,
(03:27):
you know, it makes you ten pounds fatter, And I
don't need ten more pounds. Yeah, so so it took
a little convincing. I'm like, and even doing it, I felt, really,
it's just not in my comfort zone. So I'm behind
the camera for a reason. But I enjoyed it and
it was really nice that he asked, and I'm glad
he did.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
And she was great one hearing to you for getting
outside a comfort level. I have the instance is where
I hated to get outside my comfort level, but I
did it. But like I think we all have to
get outside our comfort level all the time.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
I will say this is probably the first time I
said this to you.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
I'm probably as uncomfortable producing and being behind the scenes
as you are in front of the camera.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
To see so you guys how perfectly compliment each other.
It's perfect. Yeah, so let's never do that again.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Yeah, all right, all right.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
I love I when I was heard of, when THEO
heard about this idea, I thought this was a brilliant idea.
But I would love for a film, but I would documentary,
but I would love if you could please share Virginia
Gaps origin stories to my audience.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
With my audience, Well, it's so interesting because you know
my film The Reunion took about fifteen years to get made.
I started when I was twenty seven and ran into
my childhood bully, and then we made it when I
was forty two. This was the opposite. This happened within
a couple of months. I like, I have a bunch
of ideas and scripts and I'm writing and such, and
you know, and God's just like this one, you know,
(04:55):
and I go, Okay, well, then we'll do this one.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
So a few months ago I reached out Susan. We
had had a conversation.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I'm not sure if it was before or after we
decided to do the movie. I think it was before
where the election had just happened. You know, I'm not
a big fan of Trump, but I'm trying to, you know,
learn more and such. And I reached out to Susan.
I said, you know, I have a question for you.
You don't have to answer it. I'm not going to
talk at all. I'm just gonna listen. In fact, i'll
mute my line. And I said, why do you support
(05:23):
this person? And Susan talked to me for about twenty
twenty five minutes. And although I didn't necessarily agree with everything,
and still I'm not a fan, it made sense to me,
help to enlighten me in terms of what people in
the middle of the country may be thinking. And it
was a totally different perspective and point of view than
I was hearing in Los Angeles, and that I was
(05:43):
seeing through the algorithms that come to the liberals and
algorithms that come et cetera, and so forth.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
And then, you know, for the last couple of years.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
I've just been really upset about what's happening in the country,
particularly with the divide and family is being torn apart.
Our colleagues not talking to each other, friends not talking
to each other, and I just thought, this is ridiculous,
you know, And so as an artist, what can I do?
Speaker 5 (06:08):
And it was really the.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Most obvious idea in the world. It just took some
balls to do it. I hope I can say balls.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
You can't.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Assume that I asked her, And to be honest with you,
I was really surprised that she kind of just said, yeah,
it's a great idea. And I said, well, if you're
if you're willing to do this, then let's let's set
some timelines and let's start spending money, because that's how
you make a movie.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Yeah, And I think to what Dave is saying, and
it's true. I like the idea because I'm not a
real vocal political political person. I don't feel like politics
to find your character. It's really your character is defined
by you as a person. So I really don't care
how you vote. That's to me is a very private thing,
and I don't let my my choices reflect like what
(06:55):
I as far as like even like with the film festival,
you know, things always done, I don't. You know, if
you have a really good product and you're shot well
and your acting's great, you may have a story that
maybe I don't necessarily agree with, but that doesn't matter.
It's not about what I agree with. It's about what
I see in the product and along as well as
my other team. So that's always really really important to me,
(07:16):
and I just but I told them myself, I really
like this. I did because I just feel like there's
more of us that just want to get along and
enjoy each other's company than fighting and arguing. Like the
way that social media says that we are.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
And the thing is that's what I've discovered along the way,
is because we're all in our different we're all in
our different turnstiles, and like when the thing is when
people pass away, and it's just like it's just awful,
and like you're gonna have a lot of people are
gonna have. It's gonna take something so awful, it's so
tragic to get out of their confort zones and realize
about the people that they miss. Because the thing is
(07:52):
when they get to six year, when it gets a four,
like and when it gets when my generation gets a
forty and sixty and after losing some people the way along,
some loved ones of God forbade along the way, they're
going to have to realize they have to make peace
because once we live live our planet, that's it.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
I remember what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
I remember is Shaquille O'Neill after Kobe died saying, you know, God,
I wish I would have I wish I would have
gone back and up with him. All this stuff was
ego and it was nonsense and this was my little brother,
and I would I think Shaq even cried like on TV.
So you're absolutely right.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Yeah, yeah I don't And I'm not like even with me,
and I don't think people should carry grudges and hatred
and angry when you carry that and that affects you personally,
and then it just makes you more depressive. And so
I'm like, you know, you don't have to necessarily forget
things that happened to you along the way, but you
can learn to forgive. And I think forgiveness as well.
And people, you know, get so hooked up in this
(08:50):
political divide that they just caused so much hatred and
and I my biggest thing on the whole trip was
I think social media plays a huge part of that.
You know, you can say whenever you want on social
media and hate each other, and you know it's okay
because you're, you know, protected by the Internet, whereas if
you were face to face with people, you probably would
(09:10):
never say the things that you do on on social media.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And also, I think people have realized and I admit
that I have done this as well, especially since with
my with my stuff going on, with a lot of
with a lot of stuff going on with since Optomber
seventh and everything, I admit that I've gone I've caught
out a lot of people. And at the same time,
I'm like, Okay, is this going to come out back?
And bite me or also with the thing is with
impulse with like trying to calm my impulses down, because
(09:35):
the thing is I'm an uncle of a nephew and
two nieces and a lot of mentioned. I have friends
that I'm an honor uncle too, and I'm like, I
have to go back and say why is up? Have
them explaining why is uncle Jacob act display? If they
see us number one and number two? How am I
going to ask God forbid I find my dream job
with somewhere I want to work? How am I going
(09:57):
to explain that? And they say, why are you out
like this? I didn't have a long time. I have
to think very hard and clear why why I did?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
On social media?
Speaker 4 (10:06):
That's right, you do, and it's always there. It doesn't
go away. People think you can remove it.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
It doesn't. That's it's there forever. So that's true. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So I want to get back to back to the
film about the organization because I'm very fascinating because you
guys mentioned a quick timeline of like going to it,
like it was like month by month. So how do
you guys organ how did you and your teams organize
this film?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, it's right, No, I mean I will.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Dave had a lot of people sent out mass emails
to across the US of his connections to see if
you can get some people that would want to be interviewed.
We worked very closely with Braver Angels organization. They're amazing.
They're across the US as well, so they were able
to bring some Republicans and Democrats and independence for us.
And then we sat down and kind of mapped out,
(10:58):
like Dave had some very specific places he really wanted
to hit, and then based on people he knew or
maybe it was we also wanted to include that this
involved the crew of seeing things and experiencing things across
the US. And then I had some connections so throughout
that we were able to create this map of Okay,
here's the towns, and then I worked out travel and
(11:19):
where we go. Because Dave was on the creative, I
was more the logistic of, you know, and then saying
to him, no, that's not going to work, Dave, than
him not being happy as a director, that's.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Not going to work. That'll work. I'm like, you can't
drive thirty hours.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
So you know, the realistic of you know, making his
dream and his visions come true, but also the realistic
part of Okay, we're going to try to cram all
this in and do these things. So we had agreed interviews,
we had been Dave can add to it. But we
had wonderful fun things that we did along the way
as well. It was really important Dave really wanted to
be in this kind of the center of America, which
(11:56):
would be like the Brown Dubuke, Iowa and go to
the field of dreams. We get we got to play football, yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
That was fun.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
And then we did Donalds in my hometown, so and
fourth of July. There so a lot of really cool
things that we did along the way, and we.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
You know, we really wanted to keep it light. Me
and Susan, I think our friendship survives on humor, you know,
and uh, you know, we wanted this very heavy topic
and we we had a lot of fun making fun
of the seriousness of it. Particularly Susan's brother came along.
He's a maga self described where's the hat and all that,
(12:37):
and you know, I was really nervous, you know, before
he came.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
You know, we had met once and got along, but
there was some.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Stuff there and and then the r V that he
was driving, showed up late, and I was getting very
nervous about that problems and had some issues and but
we ended up getting along great and and we kind
of stan in the film. We ended up like just
kind of being these two little kids. I got to
play and really kind of just sort of poke fun
at the seriousness of it and go, guys, what are
(13:05):
we what are we doing here? You know? In fact,
there was there was one interview in Iowa that got
very heated with the highest Republican in the Iowa land
and he came in pretty worked up with a very
specific agenda and he felt I was being biased, and
he and I got into it and it got ugly.
He actually was going to introduce Trump right after Wow.
(13:28):
So but it was interesting sort of juxtaposing that which
got very heated, which is what we're seeing across the
country with me and Philip like playing with dolls, playing
with like Obama and Trump baba. We just kind of
like it was just kind of like, really, do we
need to be doing this when we could be doing this?
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:49):
And the thing is that why I'm so happy that
you did, because I want to talk about the stops
you when of course, I went to Los Angeles in
New York City and watch news. It's the three big
epicenters of financial tics and entertainment.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
But along the way you also include stops.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
In the Grand Canyon, Denver, Saint Louis, Nashville, and Iowa.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
So why did he chose those cities?
Speaker 5 (14:11):
Ha ha, Well.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
This is fun. So I have a little bit of OCD,
and I'm i'm and I'm an artist, and I really
wanted to create a yin yang, so that was a
part that was part of it. I told Susan I
want to kind of have like a wave, like a
yin yang like this, and we have a you'll see
on our website. So that that was part of it.
And then Susan and I kind of went through and
(14:36):
we're like, okay, where can we Where can we go?
Within that? Where do you want to go? What's a
good place to go? We wanted to balance out the
you know, Republicans and Democrats. We didn't want to have
a huge, you know, imbalance there. So that was that
was kind of the just And then like Susan lives
in Iowa, I live in Los Angeles, Philip lives in
Susan's brother lives in North my cousin lives in Denver,
(14:58):
So there was a lot of reasons to hit certain places.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
And the thing that I'm what I'm what I'm admirer
by is like you guys were not you do guys
made sure to tackle all the areas of the country
of the forty in continental the United States. And the
thing that because the thing is I feel like overlooked
because yes, it feels like the East Coast and the
West coast to the tow husband Westerners, and I'm proud
I'm coming from Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas
(15:25):
City in the Kansas City area that we get overlooked
sometimes because of all because these are we're not either
A we're in the middle of the country.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
B know what we be.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
We don't have a center of power or gravitational forces
where we're bringing people and and see a lot of
a lot of people underestimate us. And I say, never
underestimate the Midwesterners. Because the thing is, I got and
I'm gonna be honest. The reason why I moved I
moved to New York City over Los Angeles because I
rather have the honesty of the New Yorkers to my
(15:58):
face than people who smiling behind my back in La
while try to who say, my friends, but they are
plotting to stab.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
Me into that.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, well yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
It speaks to kind of one of the things that
I think we learned that so much is about perspective
and point of view, and when we start talking to
each other, we realize we're thinking a lot of the
same things. Like me and Philip. Philip was really nervous
driving the RV. I was really nervous. I was like, Oh,
he's this big, maga bully guy in the today and
you know, and it was like, no, he was feeling
the same way. And he and I had both the
bully and you bring up you know, feeling like ignored
(16:29):
in the in the Midwest. I mean, you know in
Los Angeles right now, my school is down by where
Ice is having a field day. So, I mean, you
can only imagine what people in Los Angeles are feeling.
They're feeling attacked, They're feeling that they have to hide,
they have to hide away in their houses, they have
to go and get their birth certificates because they may
get picked up. So and they may look at the
(16:50):
Midwest and go, oh, that's Trump country and Trump's in power.
So I think when we started talking to each other
and realize, man, we're all going through it. We're all
feeling fear. We're all fearing fear of the other, and
we're not the other. We just have different points of
view and perspectives. And it's really very similar to racism.
What is racism. It's it's ignorance of not knowing the other,
(17:13):
and once you get to know each other, that.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Stuff starts to go away. And part of it, you're right,
is geographic.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
On the on the on the ends or tend to
be pretty liberal and in the middle to be pretty conservative.
So maybe everybody needs to get it in an RV
and start driving through the country.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
I just don't do it in seventeen days, all right,
or in.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
The summer or in the summer.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, I think my friend's over at NTV with the
Real World and who are Real World alumni and rold
Rules alumni and can definitely can talk about like living
in an R and B and everything.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
So well, I think, you know, this movie is kind
of a new genre. It's reality TV meets political documentary, which.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Is awesome, which is awesome, and I want to talk
to you guys about the challenges that you guys fit
you in your production team space throughout this filming process.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
And how are you able to overcome those obstacles. Oh, well,
one major obstacle it was really hot.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I mean we're traveling in the middle of summer.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
It happened to be heat wave all the way cross.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
And you know, you're in a thirty five foot RV
with eight people and you're you know, in the morning
would be nice and cool, and we get in there,
but by the later in the afternoon, the generator and
the acs can't keep up with the amount of heat
and it would get hot. So you're dealing with the
heat and it's like oh, and you know you're on
windy roads and you're going up the mountains and you
just want to get off. So I think it was
(18:42):
learning to balance that by like, I'm used to riding
an RV. We did a lot of camping when I
was a kid. And but you know, you've got like
Dave and I think Nika and I think I'm not
sure Armand's ever been in RV, never own RV, so
they you know, they're not expecting. One of the challenges
I think was funny was I was initially telling you
(19:03):
about you know, I probably should have been more clear
about it. Don't bring a lot of baggage, Bring like
one bag. I mean you're an RV. There's not that
much room, and they're like coming with three or four
bags and.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Stuff like what like we're not. Yeah, I mean, you've.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Got this giant we call it the pizza bag. It's huge.
It looks like it could carry like a hundred pizzas.
And he's got all the merchandise and teachers.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
We had the bobble heads in there, we had the
hats in there.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Come on, what this thing?
Speaker 4 (19:38):
So everybody's like every time you're like, oh, that aren't
pizza bag, you pick it up and move it. And
so I you know, those were to me. We're challenging
and personality wise, I mean on a hole. Honestly, you're
gonna have things are gonna come up. We did get
we got along, we had issues, would walk through them,
but then it goes back to that thing, like I
feel you move on from that. You know, we have arguments,
(20:00):
we have things come up. You're going to but you
can't carry that anger and that hatred. You just learned
from it. And move on from it. That's always important
to me.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
But they may say different version.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
No, I think you know, look, Susan and I met
this morning. We had a meeting and we went.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
Through a lot. I mean, you know, we went through.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Susan and I love each other and we you know,
we we talk, you know, once in a while if
we're not doing a movie together, and we're doing a
movie together, we're talking once a week on zoom. But
we've never lived together.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I can't even live with my husband, so.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
I can't live with anybody. I live alone. I've lived
alone for thirty five years.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
So we you know, we're both very sensitive people, and
I think we're kind of mirrors of each other, and I.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Think God kind of set that up. So there was
there was some there was some.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Fights, you know, and it was hard and it was painful,
I think for both of us. But seeing her today
and seeing that we're both we're rested, we're both coming
back to ourselves. I look back and I go, that
wasn't me, that Susan. That was like that was our trauma,
Like that was when that was us really triggered and
(21:06):
the circumstances were such that it was it was very challenging.
We were doing one of the hardest things I think
that that you can do in and on r V
eight people the heat, trying to bring the country together.
I mean, it was it was really challenging. So you know,
all of my ship came up. You know, I remember
(21:27):
saying to the crew in the beginning, my hardest job
is not going to be interviewing, and it's not going
to be directing.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
It's going to be trying to make sure you guys
don't hate me.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
By the end that I'm very sensitive and things bother me.
And it was really hard. But you know what, we
we made what I think it's going to be a
great movie, and I hope that the relationships can survive
and heal.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Absolutely. I want to talk.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I want to talk about the interviewees and the processing,
like where you make I love learn about the stuff
that you ask them, like, for example, was it like
a spec how was it organized? Was it like okay?
One question would be like a liberal question. The other
one of the favorite conservative questions were like where they
all sprinkled around?
Speaker 3 (22:14):
They had for the first half or first sixty or
seventy percent of the trip, they all had the same questions.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
So it's the first question was.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
How did you attain your political affiliation? So I wanted
them to start with what's the background story, what's their
origin story?
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Right?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Was it their parents were Republicans, so they became Republicans,
Or their parents were Republicans so they became Democrats and
they rebelled, or there was a particular president that they loved,
or there was an event that happened in the world
or their life, so that both people can kind of
see again perspective stories. So we don't start with the
question of what do you think of Trump? You know,
that's like wanting you pour some explosives, you know into
(22:52):
the mix, like what do you.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Think of the squad? That power is another thing as
well of what the squad? I don't know.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Oh okay, okay, gotcha. See you guys are getting different news.
I've never heard that before. So yeah, so then it
was questions like, you know, what do you fear? What
is your greatest fear about the other side? What are
some stereotypes about your side?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Right?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
And then towards the end there was like we did
a fun thing of like a word association. So I
would say, like Nancy Pelosi and they would say criminal
or like lovely and you say Trump and they go horrible,
the greatest, you know. So that was kind of fun.
And then we had them take five minutes to work
(23:42):
together to try to come up with an action that
they could take, whether they would take it or not.
But going through that five minute process of can they
actually come up with a simple action? And I think
that gave us a sense of maybe what we're seeing
in Washington, how challenging it is to actually just come
up with a simple solution. Because I'll tell you, I
(24:03):
teach middle school, and it sounded like an easy prompt
to me. It wasn't because they started talking and theorizing
and I want.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
To go, wait, wait, stop.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
The prompt is you guys get to come up with
one simple action that you guys are going to take.
So that was that was interesting.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
And I will say Dave did a very good job
with the interviews. He did most of them.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
He tried to pull me in for some I'm like, God,
I'm terrible at it, but he did.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
He did do a very good job with that.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Every now and then, you know, I would kind of
the only time I really stepped in is if I
felt like the conversation maybe Dave was, you know, because
the Democrat would maybe bond more of the Democrat, or
you know, the Democrats said something against Trump or against
the president, and he would lean and I would, Okay,
we have to remember that we it's not about It's
really not about who's present, because fifty percent didn't like
(24:56):
the last president, you know. So it's about two political
or three political parts, parties of people coming together and
not judging each other by your political affiliation, and you know,
and Daved's like, yeah, you're right, You're right, I mean,
and the same thing with me. We just had to
make sure we stayed remained in the middle. We didn't
favor any side. This was about, again, not about the
president or any president. It's about political parties and why
(25:20):
people choose a political party. And a lot of people
I think found like, okay, here are my policies. If
you give me, I may be registered Republican, but if
you give me a Democrat that does these policies and
my Republican doesn't, I'm going to vote Democrat. So I
think we found a lot of that as well, and
that was good. So but it did a very good
job with the interviews and on a whole most everybody
(25:42):
was really good, and.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
It's getting people talking again, you know, getting people communicating
again and realizing we're not the boogeyman.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
The other side is not the book. We just have
different opinions.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
And I think social media, which is absolutely wonderful, and
chat GVTA. I mean, these are just amazing things. But
we may not be communicating as well as we did
twenty five or thirty years ago because we're all on
our phones and we're texting and all. We have to
learn how to communicate again. We have to learn how
to listen and not immediately trying to win a conversation.
(26:15):
Conversations are not meant to be won or lost. They're
meant to learn. We're meant to learn from each other.
And we've become this debating society that doesn't really know
how to debate, except for great debaters that are on TV,
like you know, it's Stephen Stephen A. Smith on first Take.
But you know, I think I think a big thing
(26:36):
that I got from this is listen, Listen, Come from listening,
don't be furious, be curious. Something I heard.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Recently that is a really good tack I can be
curious not furious, which is like there are some stuff
issues and I have a hotter time with and it's
like basically saying.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Yeah, yeah, how much how much can you listen with
without having to jump in and defend yourself.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
And it's hard too, because I admit, and when I
talked to val Davide early in an earlier episode this year,
I admit that sometimes actions like that can like well
speak out and like when Missus Rachel posted something, I
spoke out about that, When when Imagine Dragons posted something
about that, I spoke out about that. When Joseph Ablin
was talked about Michael Rabbitport's inclusion on A Trader's cast
(27:26):
and people calling him out because he was he was Jewish,
I called out about that as well. So I call
people out when I see it fit like, yeah, of course,
there's like times I'm like, I have to be cared
to keep my knees for the actions in check, but
at the same time you have to you have to
speak out, but at the same time be us more
speece simple.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
Yeah, and I think there's such respect.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
I think there's something also to waiting until you're in
a better like, I need to wait until I'm calm
before I respond. And I learned that from being a
middle school teacher. Like in my second or thirty year,
I'm like, what I'm doing is not working. So if
I'm in fight or flight, my only job is to
get out of fight or flight unless there's a tiger
coming after me that I need to get out of
the way of. I don't have to react. I can
(28:11):
respond when I'm ready, because when I react, it's generally
going to be negative, toxic, destructive. Right, So we also, yes,
we want to speak up and speak out, but I
think we also want to ask ourselves what's our intention
behind it? Is it just to to compete? Are we
trying to win something? Or what is the intention? Is
(28:32):
the intention to come together? I think that's important because
when we're in fight or flight, we're not always thinking
about what our intention actually is. We're come from a
place of I feel threatened, I need to fight back,
where everybody.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Wants to win.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
You want to win, you want to change other person,
and it's not your job to change the other person,
and it's not their job to change you. And I
find when you know when I'm with somebody who's in
a complete that do get in political talks and they're
talking about stuff, but maybe I don't agree with my comments,
just you know that. You know that's interesting. I said,
it's not necessarily I agree with everything you're saying, but
I absolutely understand your feelings on it. And I think
(29:07):
it's just changing your opinion or how you react to
those people make a big difference to anybody. And that
that's even just in political talk. I think that's in conversations.
You don't have to win the conversation. You just have
to find a way to be okay and make that
person feel like you're really listening and you understand, and
then just carry on from it.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Absolutely, absolutely, I want to go into the interviewees. You
do you guys have any interviewees that sad that to you?
And why today stand out amongst people you interviewed?
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Okay, okay, Well, we had a fascinating situation. It wasn't
even an interview with a dinner. We had it with
a bunch of my friends. It was going to be
all dudes and then we had to balance it out.
So there were some women involved, including Susan. It was
in La It was one of the last things I
think we did in LA. It was fascinating because I
(30:01):
told you about the Iowa guy. Well we also had
a liberal who came in guns of Blazing with I
know him. I love this guy. His name is Jerry.
I can say his name. He's gonna be in the movie.
But he came in cowboy hat, just ready to go.
And I assume he had been watching some CNN, MSNBC,
et cetera, and so forth. He was ready to make
(30:21):
his points. But he walked into the wrong dinner because
we were not there to debate. We're there to bring
people together. So it became this really fascinating dynamic where
Jerry was going and going and going, and Susan was
kind of coming back, not at him, but to him
in a certain way of like being curious but also
(30:44):
standing up for herself. You know, there's one point, Jerry
was you were talking about something with medicaid or something
like that, and they had and I don't even care
what it's about her who is right, It didn't matter,
but Susan brought up, you know, my dad is dying.
My dad is dying of cancer.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Right, Yeah, well sorry about that, but blah blah.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
And I said, Jerry, stop, you're on my side, you know,
like politically, but stop. Did you hear what she just said?
She just said her father's dying. And you went back
to like yelling and debating no, no, no, no, And
so it was interesting. And then Susan's grandson was there,
who I knew when he was in on the reunion
(31:23):
and is now a young man seventeen, and we watched him.
Speaker 5 (31:26):
Up and he took on Jerry and he said, Jerry,
let me ask you something.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
And without any attitude, he said, you know, I hear
that you're, you know, watching these particular news shows, but
are you watching anything on the other side? And Jerry said, well,
and he said no, no, no, but are you watching
any of the other It was just a fascinating conversation.
And to Jerry's credit, and I love to hear, Susan's
one of you on this as well. To Jerry's credit,
he stayed, he's stuck around and he did shift a bit.
(31:53):
I mean, by the end we were hugging me. He
and I walked out together. So I just that's the
one that sticks out out for me.
Speaker 4 (32:01):
I think for Jerry, I think he came in and
I and I understand exactly what he's saying. He's like,
he told us, what do you he told Dave, what
do you expect when you bring Republicans and Democrats and
you tell we're going to come in and have a
political conversation. He said, well, of course, I'm going to
come thinking this is a battle. So he came in
thinking that, and I understand probably where he might have
(32:22):
thought that, but not realizing that the questions that were
going to happen in the conversation was not to create
a battle. It was to create conversation and talk about differences.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
And yeah, it was about I.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Think Jerry was saying they were taking so security away,
and I said no, And I kind of said, well
why would they? Why would my dad vote for somebody
who was taking so security because he's dying from cancer
and it's all he has to give to my mom.
And Jerry kind of after he made his comment then
he kind of stepped back, and but I understood Jerry's anger.
He's definitely there's there's extremes on either end. We have that,
(32:56):
but I wouldn't even consider Jerry a bad extreme because
he wasn't violent in any way. He was just very
passionate and making a point, and the same thing with
the guy. And I wasn't violent. They're just very passionate
and trying to get their opinion across. And I understand that.
And you can't like with Jerry. I'm not going to
have a full out argument. I don't need to win
(33:16):
my conversation with Jerry. But I did want to listen,
and actually he.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Is a very nice guy.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
I mean, he got up, he's a big guy, and
Paul and you know, I gave him a hug and
I actually enjoyed his conversation. He does great things. He
goes out and helps people and works the land. I mean,
those are beautiful things. He just sees things a little
different than the rest of us and that's okay. And
so that doesn't make me hate him, just makes me
want to understanding more. And I would probably visit Jerry
(33:44):
when I go out to California. We will not talk
about politics, but he's a fun guy.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I'd go out to.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
I mean, I would to have no problem hanging out.
And Jerry did say that. He said, if you brought
us together and didn't tell me there was a political thing,
he said, we would all come to dinner and just
have great conversation then so you know, yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
All right, so that was Jerry's credit.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
All right, first and foremost season, I want to say
my thoughts with you and your family.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Oh, thank you, thank you. Yeah, it's and we you know,
I will say real quick. One good thing that did
happen with the RV breaking down my dad. Because my
brother had twenty four hours to get the r V
to us, my dad from Iowa to he can on
even make it to uh New Mexico. My dad got
to come down with him and spend the first half
of the trip with us. And my dad loved camping
(34:35):
and he's bone answer terminal, so it was difficult for him,
but he did that. And I told Dave, if anything,
no matter what happens with this, you've got video of
us and enjoying my dad. And I said that that
is something we'll always remember and thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
So well, what's amazing about that is why I we
were talking before the movie about like what's going to
happen if he gets sick or what have you. Yeah,
we're going to finish this film.
Speaker 5 (34:59):
But it turned out to be the opposite.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
He came, he came with us half the trip and
he's just an amazing man, just an amazing human being, strong, kind, loving.
Speaker 6 (35:10):
It's an amazing, amazing man. Thanks, And I hope you
include him in some of the feathers because I would
love to. I think that my audience and what would
it would appreciate and I think other audiences as well
would appreciate as well. Because the thing is there's like
a powerful like that is like almost powerful, that is
extremely powerful and could be like an important part of this,
(35:32):
like say of you guys talking about you know, stuff
along the way and then like like bucking in and
it's like, I'm glad, I'm glad you guys have that time.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
He'll laughing, He'll definitely be in there. It's it's a storyline.
I'm laughing because there was a moment where we left.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
We left her.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
There's a lot of funny stuff in this parents they
were standing outside kind of like it was like a
Norman Rockwell photo and we're.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
So just so just to give it back. You and Daalson.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
They live in Dawson. That's where we celebrated Fourth of July.
So they we end up you come back and see
my dad in Dawson at fourth of July.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
So go ahead, Dave.
Speaker 4 (36:11):
Sorry, I just wanted to get gun.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
As we're leading in the r V, Susan's mom and
dad are standing there like a Norman Rockwell painting, and
he's holding a sign which I gave to him that
says does not play well with liberals.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
It was funny. We're just all waving out the window.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
I just said, that's there's a photos from that there,
because I think I would bring a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
That would make a lot of people in the Midwest.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (36:42):
Yeah, So I mean, and you know, to Dave's credit,
who came in a you know, more democratic liberal, he
really enjoyed and he wasn't sure how he was going
to get along with everybody and was concerned and he
really did well.
Speaker 4 (36:59):
And and again it shows it's all about humor and
fun and kindness. You don't, you know, other than the
fact that we're doing this documentary and politics. It wasn't
our friendship and everything is in about politics. It's about friendship,
and I think those are things that people have got
to come back to and remember your family, your friends,
who cares who they vote for. Don't talk about it,
(37:22):
talk about things that do matter.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
And I agree, And that's the thing is, like, I
was just talking to my friend Kaig, who I've known
since we were in six points over our quarter of
a century, and the thing is, it's like I keep
up about my friendships. Is like I have friendships in
my life that have ranged from eight months all the
way to twenty five years and with my land laws and.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Made possibly thirty.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
But the thing is you hold on to them no
matter what happens, because I've learned the best from my
folks who have friendships that have gone to their fifties year,
fifty years of friendship up to forty years of French.
You hold on tight to them. Yeah, and you may.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
Not even know how they vote. It was never a conversation,
had nothing to do. I mean, years and years and
years ago, nobody cared. It's just become this thing and
we need to get back to not worrying about that.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Well, what you say, Jacob really strikes me because I
have seven or eight friends that I've lost over the years,
good friends that maybe I can get back, and maybe
I can, But when you balance out the balance sheet
of the good and how much you love them with
the other things that are mostly ego again ego, You're right,
it is. It's worth having those people that you love
(38:37):
in your life.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
So.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
One of the questions I want to ask before we
wrap up our conversation.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Is why will Bridge Bridging a Gap be an essential
film to watch? I?
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Well, first of all, I think it'll be fun, I
hope so. I think there'll be humor, human human connection.
It's not going to be a typical documentary. And now
I'm not in the editing, but I'm assuming from my
conversations with Dave and then our editor, it will be. Yes,
it's about bridging the gap. It's about you know, political dying,
divide coming together. But it's not a bunch of talking heads.
(39:11):
It's a journey of a crew that was also mixed
to political and all the people we met and the
things we did, there's fun stuff. All of this was
just about going across how can we all get along
and just have fun? And then interviewing and hearing from
people as well that really from east coast to west
coast all feel the same. Would you agree, Dave?
Speaker 3 (39:34):
I think it's exposing a lie, now, exposing a lie
that's out there that we all hate. Each other, and
we also be afraid of each other. And this narrative
that we're seeing on social media, it's not true. I
mean there's some of it, but again we're seeing the extremes,
and Susan and I realized as we went across, your
(39:54):
extremes were five percent. We interviewed one hundred people and
maybe a few of them came in with a extreme,
you know energy. I think it's an important movie. I
think it's a fun movie. I think we had a
lot of fun with it. I think it is political
documentary on it on its own is very interesting with
what we're tackling of trying to bring people together, try
(40:15):
to understand each other. But then you also have the
journey of the crew, which was Democrat and Republican with
me and Susan, you're gonna see, you know, we had
our ups and downs, and it was kind of a
metaphor in a lot of ways for what's going on
with the country. So, you know, we had a podcast
with doctor Marissa recently called The Asian Oprah, and she said,
I think it's the most important movie coming out right now,
(40:38):
and you know, my ego goes yeah, But I also
do think it's important and I think if it starts
some conversations with people, go join braver Angels Braveranngels dot org.
It's in your neighborhood. It's an opportunity to start talking
with people and coming together.
Speaker 5 (40:54):
Don't be alone in your silos.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Stop driving yourself crazy, you know, go out with your friends,
go bowl, go to the park, talk to each other.
It's enough of being isolated. We got to come back together.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
One one hundred percent agree with this and I'm looking
forward to seeing this documentary and the final question I.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Have for you guys, are you ready? Yes?
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Where can my audience find out more information about Bridging
this Gap? And where can connect with you guys on
social media?
Speaker 3 (41:22):
Go ahead, Susan, you're great. You did great at this
last time.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
No.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Well, first of all, Dave's under the names is Bridging
the gapmovie dot com. Definitely go to our website on
there has all of our social media handles. You know,
we're terrible social media. I'm terrible social media by TikTok
and Facebook and Instagram.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
We'll have some.
Speaker 4 (41:40):
We have a YouTube channel. Go to those things to see. Also,
we have a petition on our website. It's just say,
people sign. We're trying to get seventeen and seventy six.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Find that Fame Declaration of Unity is busy independence.
Speaker 5 (41:54):
Yeah thing, Let's come together.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
And sign and you can get some HAPs like Dave
or some T shirts, some merchandise if you like, but
definitely follow Bridging the Gap movie dot com. Right now,
we're in post, so we're gonna have a few months
of you know, some quiet not la movement. But as
we start releasing, maybe a trailer and start some clips
and this, as we start getting close to finalizing the film,
(42:18):
things will get ramped up again. You get to hear
you more, and we'll start releasing where we're going to
be showing.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
I also want to thank you Susan Tho nailed it
all right, thank you. I want to shout out again
Beatrice who put our website together and did an amazing
job Red White and Blue Beauty. And then also Nikki,
our wonderful social media person is she's just crushing it,
so much fun getting the word out, building our audience.
(42:46):
So please check out our socials, collaborate with us, you know, share,
share our socials with your friends.
Speaker 5 (42:52):
You know, let's let's make America united again.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Hey Manta that and guys, if you missed an episode
of the Jakes with Jacob Ali is our podcast because
our channels on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, iHeart Spotify and Spreaker.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Jake's Take with Jacob e j A c O b
e l y A c h a R. Now are
you on SO twenty because I'm on soci.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Twenty two, Facebook, Instagram, threads, Twitter and YouTube Jacob el
a hr.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
J A c o b e ol y A c
h a R.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
I want to find out what's going on with America's
Got Talent? What about the challenge? I want to see
all my thousand new music reviews. Well heads to the
block that started off Jake Sasha dot com, Jakes's hic
dot com and I'm thrilled to announce to Jakes with
Jacob your podcast is a twenty twenty five American Business
Award winning podcast. If I want to thank the entire
American Business Awards judges for awarding my show the Silver
(43:41):
Prize in the Best Interview Talk Show category and the
inaugural podcast today Susan who was an honor and friblished.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Have you, guys.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
I am so grateful that we've had this conversation, and
I'm hoping and praying that we can bridge the gap
and get lost united once again.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Yes, the word bridge of the gap.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Thank you, Jacob, You're awesome, You're so welcome, and guys,
thank you so much for watching, Thank you so much
for listening.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Until next time, everybody, have a great one.
Speaker 5 (44:08):
Go bye bye
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