Epstein Documents Released: Making Sense of It | Panel (Ep32) - StreamLeader Report with Ross Brand

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The Epstein docs are out. Whatdo we make of that? How to
fix higher education? TikTok is allexcited about a nine month cruise, and
can you do a newscast with AIand without anchors? Rebecca Gunter's here,
Rob Greenley's here, Claudia Santiago's here, I'm here. Let's do a show.

(00:24):
Let's do a show. It's thestream Leader Report, Live panel creators
talking to creators, graw, realand unscripted, and sometimes they see the
quiet part out loud. Here areyour hosts, Claudia Santiago, Rebecca Gunter,
Rob Greenley, and Ross Brand.We got a wealth of great topics

(00:58):
today on The stream Leader Report,our live panel show every Thursday, one
thirty pm Eastern. The list isout, the documents are out. Claudia,
you were brave enough to throw thatas your topic into our group chat.
So take it away. What doyou make of this? Where do
you want to go with it?It's all the floor is yours. Okay.

(01:23):
Well, I wasn't going to bringit up at first, because you
know, all of it was kindof up in the air whether they were
going to release the documents right away. Wait till the twenty second but yesterday
it came out and it was allover all over media, so I thought
it would be good to address itnow. I guess, having to be

(01:45):
careful what words I use, Iwill just say that Tom, I'm going
to refer to things as crimes,so I won't be using any terminology per
se that we would maybe normally usein a face to face conversation. But
it is quite something. I wantyour feedback, you guys too. I

(02:06):
had not heard of Epstein until actuallya lot of the accusations started coming forth.
What's your experience. Have you heardof him and heard of I don't
know if you would call it notorietybut obviously criminal activity. Yes, certainly

(02:28):
not the first time this name hascrossed my ears, for sure. Yeah,
I heard about him. I thinkwhen he was arrested from was he
in another country or he came back. I don't know when they arrested him
this not I didn't know about thefirst time he was He had that strange
deal where he was in jail butnot really and could go about his business

(02:52):
and then just come back and checkin at night or whatever. I didn't
know about that, but I guessI learned about him when they put him
in jail, and then I learnedabout you know, all the people and
you know, yeah, I didn'treally know much about it until that that
arrests. How about you, Rob, Yeah, I've heard his name for

(03:17):
many many years now in the spaces, especially online. I think there's been
a lot of a lot of thingsshared about him over over the years and
his his his connection to powerful peopleand government and corporations and things like that,
and and there's been lots of speculationthat he had linkages to what is

(03:44):
now I guess being termed the deepstate and the CIA and things like that,
and was doing a lot of kindof child trafficking kind of stuff.
I know, we're probably not wantingto say that, but that's kind of
what what is really all about.And everybody knows it. It's been following
this story for years and and hemysteriously died in custody and in jail,

(04:06):
and there's been a lot of speculationthat, you know, his untimely death
was not an accident, but Idon't know that we know that definitively,
but that's certainly been speculated a lot. But now these what's come out in
the last couple of days is reallykind of I think there's a lot of

(04:29):
people out there that are fearful ofwho was involved with him, And there's
been a lot of linkages, likewith Bill Gates and with other key figures
out there that are heavily in thenews even today, and I think a
lot of them are worried that they'regoing to be listed here, and some
of them have been actually listed inthese documents. Now, my understanding is

(04:56):
is that, you know, wehave to be careful of this kind of
stuff too, because these people haven'tbeen convicted of anything. So there is
a tendency to throw these folks underthe bus just because their name is listed
on a document and and that mayor may not be you know, it
may or may not be true,or we don't know the full spectrum of

(05:19):
these people's participation in this, Soit's it's there's just a lot of finger
pointing going on right now and alot of people denying their involvements and and
things like that. So it's it'sit's on everybody's mind right now, that's
for sure. Yeah. I guessI kind of thought people were talking about

(05:41):
it as a list, and Iwas expecting, like an Excel sheet with
like, yeah, name days there. We're complicated than that, right,
Yeah, exactly. It's it's documents, and it's court documents, and it's
I don't know whether it's from depositionsor I haven't had a chance to to
really go through. And I'm notsure whether I'm going to or I'm just

(06:02):
going to read some summaries in thenews. But the first news articles that
came out about it were all basicallytelling us what we already knew. They
were sort of recapping what we knew, and then dropping names that have long
been associated with Epstein. Whether they'reassociated with his crimes or not, I

(06:27):
don't know, but they're certainly associatedwith him. And I think the big
mystery is where did his money comefrom? Where did he get all these
connections, Why was he able tobe in with all these powerful and famous
people, and why, you know, what's going on here? And the

(06:54):
interesting thing that I saw as I'vewatched a few things online about it,
and one of the ones that Isaw was an interview that a guy named
Eric Weinstein did with a British podcastor whatever, and he talked about his

(07:15):
experience meeting Epstein, and he saidit was pretty frightening. Actually the thing
was laid out and how he conductedhimself, it was like all to make
him feel uncomfortable as the other party. And I mean his I guess his
takeaway was somebody created this monster.I mean, this guy was you know,

(07:43):
he couldn't have done it on hisown, let's put it that way.
Somebody he was created for a purpose. And then his theory was that
he got bigger than the purpose,like you let the you know, you
let the monster out of the cave, and then you don't have complete control
over the months there and and Idon't mean that I'm calling anybody, although

(08:07):
you know, the evidence seems tobe that he was a really bad guy,
but I'm just using that as anexpression that, you know, they
the powers that be, the securitystate, whatever you want to call it,
if they were responsible for creating him, or you know, along with
different international British, Israeli, there'stalk were all had their hooks into him

(08:31):
through one one or another of hiscontacts. Whoever was responsible for this.
I don't think it was supposed toget to where it got to. It
did, and then he was nolonger useful. I don't know yeah,
exactly. Someone decided that enough wasenough and they basically shut it down,

(08:52):
right so, because I guess theinformation about what was going on here was
leaking out too much. And andI mean some of the names that are
listed in association with this, thiswhole thing are are definitely scandalous and definitely
not something that we should be proudof as a country. That there's so

(09:13):
many key prominent political leaders that haveassociation with him and protection, right.
You know, even even a namelike a Bill Gates has had significant connection
to him over the years. Imean I've heard Bill Gates talk in interviews
on CNN and interviews on other mediasources asking him about it. Even even

(09:39):
what's the other name, Bill Richardson, the former governor of Mexico, and
Prince Andrew. There's more names thatare coming out even I think yesterday there
was a big spin up around DavidCopperfield actually being involved, you know,
the magician. You know, peoplewere joking on online that David. You

(10:01):
know, if David was such agood magician, why what what why didn't
he get his name off of thedocuments? A well, you know,
I just I just want to bringup the fact that these types of crimes
are not new in society. Imean, if we do history studies and

(10:26):
go way back, back, backback, you know, the Egyptians,
like it was, you know,where these types of crimes were done for
certain initiations and uh, you know, to gain notoriety and status or to
get someplace some political arena. Sothis isn't really new, but it does

(10:50):
not minimize what's happening today. Andwhat's really disturbing is the hush money involved.
Uh, the I'm gonna say that, uh to cover up it is
consistent the types of victims that havebeen coming forth and the consistency in their

(11:16):
stories and the bravery even for themto come out now and to share this.
But it's what's what's frightening is thehush money, the hush the protection,
like you said, Rebecca, andso it is a very real thing.
And again, like Rob, thankyou for saying that this list does

(11:39):
not incriminate anyone at this point.Uh. And I want to go there
for a minute if I can thatwhile it's Epstein, there's also a whole
lot of lot of going on inreligious circles. Uh, some prominent figures
in those too. There's there's allkinds of stuff exploding, and again,

(12:05):
you know, there's a due processin place to to find out what actually
happened, but the bravery of somepeople that are stepping out and speaking on
these things. But then there's thewhole other camp, and this is kind
of one of the thing that Ihave a beef with. That's the camp
that is mocking the whole thing,accusing before convicted. To see what I'm

(12:31):
saying like, there's this whole arenaof people that are just like, yeah,
let's just shame them, let's justand I get if you know,
some of these things are very trueand there is is factual information on some
some things that this is why I'mseeing was in prison too, right,
But there's been a due process.But I think camp just gonna call it

(12:56):
what I find stinky, especially onlinewhere people could be using their voices to
go, hey you know what.Oh my god, I thought she's gonna
use her voice to say, hey, you know what? Right, you
know, the deep state, Itjust it just kind of burns me a

(13:20):
little bit to see the ugliness ofhumanity rising up. And you know what
I'm saying, like, am Iam? I speaking clearly here. I'm
not sure, but let's totally getwhat you're saying. And I guess we
should ask what what is our interestin this? Like? Why why do
why do people care so much aboutthis? Is it just voyeurism? And

(13:43):
is it the interest in crimes andsuch? Is it a hope to you
know, unmask the the the perpetrators, the perpetrators if there were any perpetrators,
you know, is it just happyto slime names of people or in
a different political party, or youknow, you have a they were an

(14:05):
a rival business or what have you? Like, what is going on?
Why is the story? Kind ofit's huge and then it disappears and it's
huge, and there's a lack ofinformation and whatever, and it's just the
whole ebb and flow of it isvery strange. I'll share why I'm interested
in it, and that is becauseI think it has a lot less to

(14:28):
do with one or two bad actorsand a lot more to do with systemic
grooming in with vulnerable populations. Isaw a very interesting hot take yesterday on
this topic on TikTok about e Fstein'srole within a classical music conservatory. If
you know the name of it,put it in the comments. So it

(14:50):
was because I don't remember this veryelite institution in which he was highly involved,
had scholarships, had a a buildingon campus that was his own personal
lodge in which you would host youknow, like students over for whatever kind
of work. Not only is itthe setup of that exposition, but also

(15:13):
what is the classical music industry likeClaude, I'm sure you can speak to
this, how cutthroat it is,how high pressure it is, how you
can only be, you know,the elitist of the elite in order to
pursue your music career. How you'retold by all your teachers that if you're
not that there are eight thousand peoplebehind you in the door waiting to take

(15:35):
your place. How you have torelentlessly practice, and then once you get
through conservatory, how you have toalign yourself with sponsors and benefactors of this
upper level of society. And we'retalking about thirteen and fourteen year old girls
who are manipulated to their career inorder to fulfill these larger agendas. So
for me, it's about grooming andwhere it's happening, and how we have

(16:00):
a blind eye to it because wethink you know, oh well, music
teacher is never gonna you know,do anything, and yet all of these
forces work together to ignore turn ablind eye to the situation. For I
have my own I have my ownstory of you know, I'm not going
to go into details, but youknow when I was studying opera that one

(16:22):
of my teachers tried to take advantageof me. And I was very young
and impressionable, but I was uhable to escape the grasp of that.
And but but I think you're soright, Rebecca. There's so much pressure,
there's so much the grooming going on, there's so much of that.
But then there's the creative mind aswell. And creatives are uh musician types

(16:48):
are were you know, wire differentand that's what makes us feel and do
so well at our craft. Now. The thing is is that, uh,
I also through all this and throughwhat's going on, I see such
an opportunity to help people too,because addictions don't start just like that.

(17:14):
This uh, this, these crimeshave have shown up because of years,
years of addiction in that realm.And again I'm being careful with my wording
that I'm choosing here because we areon y ep. Uh those types of
crimes develop over time. It's likea cocaine addict or a heroin addict.

(17:37):
At first they start off with thesmaller drugs and then they they they're they
need a bigger, dopening hit andtheir brain actually changes. So I think
what I see through all this,uh is there's been some amazing opportunities to
talk with people and too, youknow, as they start talking about some

(18:00):
of their kind of addictions in thatarea, to hey say, hey,
you know what, this can bestopped before it gets greater. You can
get help. There is help outthere. So anyways, just my little
take on that as the creative world. Yeah, I think we have to

(18:22):
be careful too, because Jeffrey Epsteinwas never convicted of anything and the only
thing that spiral around him is associationsaround accusations. Well, I'm not saying
that he didn't. He plead guiltyto something which he had that first jail
term that was Yeah, I thinkhe Yeah, I think he played Acosta.

(18:45):
Acosta was the brooked involved as onthe prosecuting side. Yeah, I
guess I'll look that up. Youcan continue did plead plead guilty, But
at the end of the day,you know, this is a lot of
this is very politically motivated. Andyou you combine this with all the attention
that came to the movie the Soundsof Freedom Right that came out like maybe

(19:11):
six eight months ago, uh,and how much controversy that created, and
lack of frankly lack of support bybye by the institutions of power that didn't
want to have that topic raised,right, And so now we're seeing it
it happened, you know, kindof in this case, which is which

(19:34):
is another kind of I think thatthere is a thirst out there for this
what's being accused here of getting gettingshut down, you know, the abuse
of children and things like that.I think if that's really what happened here,
getting that shut down is what Ithink people are really focused on.

(19:57):
And if there's key leaders that wesupposedly trust and have in places of power,
you know, there is a reasonto root those people out. Right.
Let me just bring in the historyhere. I'm just gonna read this
real quick. March two thousand andfive, police in Palm Beach, Florida

(20:18):
begin investigating Epstein after the family ofa fourteen year old girl reports she was
a victim of a crime at hismansion. Multiple underage girls, many of
them high school students, would latertell the police that Epstein hired them to
give criminal massages. May two thousandand six, Palm Beach police officials signed

(20:44):
paperwork to charge Epstein with multiple countsof unlawful crimes, but the top prosecutor,
State Attorney Barry Critcher, takes theunusual step of sending the case to
a grand jury. Twenty sixteen Julyno two thousand and six July Epstein arrested

(21:07):
again on a relatively minor minor charge, one count of soliciting prostitution. Let's
see, he's already the prosecutor,Krisher is already being accused of giving Epstein's

(21:27):
special treatment. The FBI begins aninvestigation. Two thousand and seven, federal
prosecutors prepare an indictment against Epstein,but for a year, the money manager's
lawyers engage in talks with US attorneyand Miami Alexander Acosta about a plea bargain
that would allow Epstein to avoid afederal prosecution. Epstein's lawyers to cry his

(21:51):
accusers as unreliable witnesses. June twothousand and eight, Epstein pleads guilty to
state charges one count of solicitation ofprostitution and one count of solicitation of prostitution
from someone under the age of eighteen. He sendence to eighteen months in jail.
Under a secret agreement, the USAttorney's Office agrees not to prosecute Epstein

(22:14):
for federal crimes. Epstein serves mostof his sentence in a work release program
that allows him to leave jail duringthe day to go to his office,
then return at night, and thenJune July two thousand and nine, Epstein
released from jail for the next decade. Multiple women who say they are Epstein's
victims wage a legal fight to gethis federal non prosecution agreement voided and hold

(22:38):
him and others liable for the abuse. And there's more, and then it
jumps ahead to twenty eighteen. Well, good times. So clearly, based
on the allegations, based on whatwe're seeing lawsuits, based on what people

(23:02):
have claimed, based on the mediastory, they really went after and none
of it should be made lighter.But they really did not go after the
most serious of crimes that he couldhave been prosecuted under. I mean,

(23:25):
this was about as sweethearted deal asyou could get. If he's done any
of the things that he's accused,and I don't know as a fact something
I'd have to look into more ofit. I have read and heard a
few things where communication with certain powersthat be and money's got exchanged, where

(23:52):
do not disclose this, keep thiscovered up. So then there was things
that were very legit or said tobe very legit, that there was hush
money there and people in power thatwe're able to execute on that. So

(24:14):
again I'm not saying that's a fact, it's just things i've heard. I
don't know how true any of thatis. And that's right there is why
a lot of people don't bother comingforward. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I mean there's former US presidents thatare listed here, so you know,
it doesn't go any higher in thepolitical infrastructure too. On both sides of

(24:41):
the oil and the circles of theelite, the higher elite circles, there's
a lot of money there and there'sa lot of power there. I know
in the entertainment world, even inthe circles, doesn't matter how good you
are what you're associated with, butif you're in that circle, you will

(25:03):
get an in on something. Soyou know, it's very disturbing. Like
I mentioned, I brought up andI'm not going to go there today today,
but even in some religious large largeorganizations and large leaders that there's something's
going on right now, and peopleare covering up because it's that religious leader

(25:29):
that they followed forever and given money, given money too. So it's very
hard to swallow that somebody that youadmired or followed with would have such a
secret life. So and it's veryhard to swallow that the people associated with
that person will turn a blind eyewith something that's so blatantly wrong in front

(25:52):
of them. And it happens infamilies, and it happens in institutions,
and it happens in the arena andit breaks heart exactly. And then and
then, like I said earlier,then you've got the whole other camp where
it's I see them like the courtgestures, you know, they're just mocking
And I just even entertainers and comediansin my industry that are just putting out

(26:18):
garbage content and sliming people before they'reconvicted. And you know what I'm saying,
Like I hate that. Yeah,So I don't know where this goes,
you know, I think it's it'sgot everybody's attention and we're all spun
up about it, and people's namesare getting thrown around. But I don't

(26:38):
know that it What does it reallymean in the context of things I don't
know? I don't you know?And how widespread is this and how And
when I say widespread, I'm notnecessarily talking about how widespread the crimes are,
but how how much is this normaloperating procedure? Is this? Is

(27:03):
this what goes up? Who isthe question right? And is this what
goes on beyond the oversight of beyondthe oversight of Congress, the public.
You know, if you want toplay at that level, you want to
be president, or you want tobe you know, Bill Gates level executive

(27:29):
or whatever, or you know,a major science researcher at a university that's
getting huge funding from the government.You have to make deals so to speak
or or close your eyes to notthings that you know you have no power
to impact, but things that youcould speak out against, even at your

(27:55):
own risk. But you're just like, hey, go along to get along,
or you know, I'm so closeto being in power that you know,
because there is the actual crimes andhow horrific that side of it is.
But then there's also the idea,which I think is why there's so
much interest on this, is whothe hell's in on this? Like,

(28:19):
you know, how many people thatwe look to and we've been sold as
these wonderful leaders and philanthropists and youknow, humanitarians and these NGOs and everything
else that are supposedly doing good work, you know, and this is what

(28:40):
a good part of them they're aboutto say. I mean, I don't
I don't want to say that,like allegedly, but like, what what
what is going What is the hellis going on in this in this thing?
Or is this you know, oris this partly a psium to distract
us from something else? All right? I mean it's like, well,

(29:02):
why would these prominent people make thiskind of mistake? Is the question I
have? I mean, what wasgoing on here that motivated them to even
be involved in this to begin with? And I have a hard time believing
it's there to be a child predator, because that would be like, you
know, career suicide to get involvedin something like that knowingly in advance,

(29:26):
unless it just doesn't make common sense, right, is it? Though?
Rob? Well, it depends onif the person is really evil or not.
Right person is really evil. It'skind of a dumb move, right,
Well, like Priscilla Presley was liketwelve years old when Elvis started pursuing
her, Like Beyonce was like seven, it doesn't happen. I'm just saying,

(29:48):
like, we're so normalized that thepowerful men get young girls already.
Yeah, yeah, I mean,I guess there's nothing in this that really
accuses any of them. I mean, like like New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson,
his name is listed here, butnobody's said anything about what he did.

(30:10):
Is it just because he was thereonce or something like that. I
don't. You know, it's easyto associate activities with this by guilt by
association, right, But it's alsoa very dumb move on the part of
these people to be associated with thisguy, right, I mean, I
mean I've heard Bill Gates talk aboutit many times and say he was there

(30:33):
to try and get funding for aproject that he had because you know,
this guy had had lots of moneyand he was offering grants to this and
that, and just like what youknow Ross just said about you know,
this guy going in and donating toa project or something like that. I've

(30:53):
heard examples of that too. Somaybe there was two heads of this this
beast. Right, So the philanthropiston one side that was trying to do
good and then there was this darkside to this guy. Right, I
mean a guy is not an academic, who's not you know, other than
doing shady finance deals. If hedid, I don't really know what his

(31:18):
expertise is. And yet it's likehe's got a seat at the table something
at Harvard at Yeah, you know, like, why is Stephen Hawking going
to Why is Stephen Hawking dealing withthe like yeah, And I'm going to
push back that is it that theymade them decisions or is it that it's
so normalized? Well, I thinkclearly if if this guy has been convicted

(31:45):
of being a you know, ofthe crimes that that, or even accused
of this, these people would arecrazy to be associated with him. Well,
that's all questions from one angle.Is it being normalized? Is it
normalized in and this is a normalhuman desire or a normal mail desire,

(32:06):
or is it normalized in that thisis how intelligence agencies for an organized crime
for decades and you know one hundredyears or whatever have gone about getting information
from people or or or blackmailing people. And well, so is there pressure,

(32:29):
like hey, just you know,I'm gonna give your your thing one
hundred million dollars. Let so andso give you massage or whatever. And
you're like, you know, it'slike maybe she's seventeen, but maybe she's
not. I don't know. LikeI'm not excusing it, but I'm saying

(32:51):
is this is this isn't so muchlike guy goes down there because there's young
girls. Guy goes down there toget Jeffrey Eppsen to donate to or to
get the funds to the Clinton Foundationor what have you. And then also

(33:12):
this is I'm not saying it's forcedupon these guys. I'm not saying that,
but some of them it might bein some of it. Some are
are you know, more than morethan willing to take advantage of opportunities.
But I think I think there's somethingmore complex than human nature going on.

(33:35):
It's a negative feedback loop, likeyou need all of those aspects where it
to work exactly. And I'm justgonna add this, You've got to be
pretty naive if you think some guyis gonna go to the Epstein Island and
not see anything, not experience anything. There's in in in gatherings like this,
there's the drugs are roundhant okay,mind altering hallucinogenics and stuff that is

(34:02):
running rampant. And if you knowmuch about addiction, I'm going back to
that because some people may go,well, how could they make a choice
if they're so prominent. Well,if you look at even White House stuff
like they're fed. Some of thosepresidents are fed drugs just to keep them
going because their schedules are so okay, they're my Like when there's addiction,

(34:30):
the prefrontal cortex, the lobes arenot getting enough blood supply. They cannot
think right and wrong anymore. Thebrain has been altered. So some of
these people have lived a life ofgrowing addiction in some area or another,
whether it's sex addiction, drug addiction, whatever, what happens over time and

(34:51):
as a frequent parties like this,Hello, why the hell would you go
to an island without yours? Hello? You know, like, it's like
that stuff is running rampant. Andsome of the testimonies, even from the
victims, are just that the drugswere rampant, so they can't think straight.

(35:15):
They're jeopardizing their position because the brainis just not thinking too. I'm
not making excuses. I'm just sayingthat this isn't We can't just try to
reason this in a normal context ofhow you would think, because that's not
how they're thinking. Yeah, Ordo we live in a different type of

(35:40):
experience. I mean a lot ofthese billionaires and politicians, they live a
different kind of a lifestyle than wecan even associate with. So in entertainment,
any of the big acts, there'salways the doctor in the house,
you know what I mean. Okay, it's the money there. The drugs

(36:00):
are rampant. They're feeding that,and this is why they need more and
more and more. And it's notjust drug addiction and their sexual addiction and
all of a sudden that turns intothe crimes that we're talking about today.
When you're talking about let me justask this question interjected, When you're talking
about this level of wealth, celebrity, and power, aren't you talking about

(36:23):
people who have security with them,either secret service if they're a former president,
or you know, people who arethere to protect them, people who
are an assistant there who you know, manages the schedule so you just show
up and saying if you're at acertain level, or you know, they

(36:44):
manage the books so that the scientistdoesn't have to you know, busy as
mind with you know, filling outhis daily calendar. Like do you do
these people leave these people behind?Or are these people in on it?
Or uh, you know what,like there has to be another layer of

(37:05):
people. These people don't just likelike, don't just book their own flight.
I don't think all the time,you know what I mean. You
know, I've worked I've worked withsome really and toured with some really high
profile people that when when I didthose gigs, the security is private security.
It's not the city security. It'shired private security, and whatever they

(37:34):
pay them, they will cover upwhatever needs to be covered up. I
hate to say that, but I'veseen it firsthand, and what's done to
younger people is covered up. Sowhat I'm saying here is and by the
time it gets to that level,there's been a lot of years of this
brain infecting activity so to speak.It does change the brain patterns and they

(38:00):
cannot think right and wrong to them, it's the next dopamine hits the next
hit. So anyways, just I'mjust saying from just my personal experience in
some of that arena, it canbe very scary. Yeah, and a
lot of them kind of think thatthey're invincible too, that can play a

(38:23):
factor too, and they can dowhatever they want and that they don't have
to be accountable to And as BeautyBubble mentions, you know, her experience
with the Sultan and Brunei ironclad ndaof the most serious kind, not to
mention other threats that will you know, is sure that you don't don't speak

(38:45):
up. Yeah. So at theend of the day, like with all
this, like I mean, youcan get lost in the whole vortex of
it. But for me, Imean, like I mentioned earlier, what
grieves me is is how people arejust it's all about the rumor mill and
it's all about the shaming and allthat, and I hate that. And

(39:07):
the stance that I'm taking is I'mseeing the opportunity that there is right now
to address maybe some people that havegone through they are victims, or some
that are going you know what I'mreally I actually struggle in this area and
I need some help. Okay,you know there is help before it gets

(39:31):
worse, or I had somebody reachout to me the other day, Claudia.
I'm touring with so and so,and this is happening. I don't
know what to do. If Ileave. It's my bread and butter.
If I don't leave, I couldbe incriminated along with that, you know
what I'm saying. So being asupport to people too right now, rather

(39:52):
than joining the mockery, you know, jokers in the court or the rumor,
mil Claudie, what was your advice? I told them, you know
what, I think it's time toinvolve another party, like a counselor.
Because I'm not a counselor. I'ma good friend and I'm one you trust.

(40:15):
But this level of thing is you'regoing to need a professional counselor that
is going to help you navigate anout as you're going to need to because
if this person would stay in thatit would not be good over long term.

(40:36):
And so this person got the counselorand now they're walking that out and
so the only time I'm there togive us support is just hey, I
just you know, I just sawthe counselor. We're taking some steps for
great. Okay, you're not alone. You know what this is. This
is good. It's going to bea life change and a career change,

(40:58):
but it's going to be good foryou in the long term. What do
you wish people knew about the musicindustry that they don't in terms of this
kind of world happening around you andyou've seen firsthand, and you've people are
reaching out to you and thinking aboutkind of like what are the industries that

(41:20):
are need rely so heavily on influenceand power that it would influence them to
turn the blind eye. So it'slike Hollywood, you know, everybody,
everybody loves us, Everybody loves ourgift, they love what we bring to
the table, but do they reallycare about us? And that's where also,

(41:40):
you know, even in Nashville,I'm connected with a whole I wouldn't
call it underground, but they aretrusted, amazing people that have been in
the industry, dealt with the bignames, but they're literally there to pick
up the pieces of people that havegotten into addictions or have gotten in weird

(42:05):
circles like we're talking about here,that are helping them get out. It's
almost like, yeah, it's that'sneeded because really for entertainers, people will
use us and then dompus. Imean, I think that's one of the
threads that connects the entertainment industry towhat's going on here, to Hollywood and

(42:30):
to other big industries as well.Is I mean how the people in power
see other people as disposable as theirlife is worthless. I mean, they're
clearly, like in the case ofthe allegations, let's just say that right,

(42:52):
clearly, they're not picking any younggirl. They're picking young girls who
have a need for family or orimpoverished or you know, I want to
get into something like I can Ican offer you something like they're selecting their
victims by people who you know,who's who's less likely to have a powerful

(43:15):
father coming to look or a powerfulmother who can get resources to get their
child back into seconds, Like who'sfrom a broken home that you know,
doesn't have a parent around all dayor whatever. I mean, I think
there's a there's a level of evilhere with the disposability of people. And

(43:37):
I mean I'm sure to some degree, even when entertainers are picked to be
who can we easily handle and manageand and and and and who's you know,
who's too much trouble to work withbecause they have a team or a
family that cares about them and itdoesn't doesn't need them to be successful at
this at any cost. I'm gonnapush back on you, Ross, because

(44:00):
I think that looking only for peoplewho are vulnerable or come from broken homes
ignores a whole other swath of peoplewho are vulnerable in a different way.
So say you're will, but I'mjust saying, like, say you're like,
you're a violin virtuoso and you're goingto this music conservatory, and the

(44:21):
only way that you can actually bea violinist is to be in alignment with
a patron and that maybe you dohave a powerful dad who's going to come
down here, but maybe your parentsare like, well, we know things
are getting a little weird over there, but it's the only way she'll be
able to play for this orchestra orgets second chair or whatever. And only
looking for like the unstable or theignored or the marginalized populations. But I

(44:47):
also say people who need something,and well that falls under people who need
something, but we all need something, Like I don't know, it's just
how many times even in the industry, and I know Hollywood, it's like
this a lot too. Is thepressure touring pressure is huge. Pre touring

(45:07):
you are, you are in ondiets, you are you're literally you are
sleep deprived, you are working liftingweights, you are you are next like
it's like being an Olympic champion,because pre touring you're preparing to be on
that road twenty four. So,I don't know if you all saw Shanaia

(45:29):
when she was on tour, allof a sudden, she just like dropped
all this weight, almost looked unhealthy, and you know, I love Shania
but Okay, So what I'm sayingis sometimes whether it's Hollywood money or label
money, they've it's a business.They've got investors, and they need that
artist come hell or high and tofinish that tour. So what happens They

(45:52):
end up at a party one night, they may never have tried any drug,
and all of a sudden, theyget a hit of some thing and
they're hooked. Guess what next night? That artists can't perform unless they got
another hit. So the labels andthe people, the security around them,
the peeps around them, go makesure the doctor's in the house to feed

(46:15):
that artist. Uh, somewhere ofthat drugs. So this goes on and
on and on and on and on. Why because it's a friggin business and
they need to finish that tour otherwiseall the sponsors don't you know, get
hey, get you know, thereturns. So it's a very it's a
very high pressure and very highly addictive. And the creative brain is very highly

(46:39):
addictive too. So I just speakfrom from my industry, but that's what
happens, I think to Ross's pointof vulnerability for sure, and also the
people we need in order to getour career leg us. And as being
you said something there that's very deep, Gloodi and you said there's an addictive

(47:01):
personality in creators and artists and stufflike that. And taking away the microphone,
taking away the stage, taking awaythe ability to live stream or do
a show or what have you,can be worse than death to somebody for
whom that's their entire identity, that'stheir joy, Their whole life is built

(47:22):
around that, you know, Andthat's a tremendous power that's also held over
people's heads. I know when Iworked in radio, there were program directors
who you know, kept the troopsin line by simply opening the door and
go. Look. Look at thenumber of tapes I have here. You

(47:44):
know, when people use to sendresume like I have packages. I get
one hundred and fifty packages a dayof people who want to work here.
You know, if you don't wantto work Thanksgiving, I got a thousand
people here who are as good asyou who work Thanksgiving exactly exactly. It
wasn't said like that. But whyelse is are those packages sitting around and

(48:08):
you know that the person you know, she's never going to open that one
of those packages, but they're thereto intimidate you that you know, hey,
at any time, you can bereplaced, and you will be replaced
eventually, exactly. And that's that'swhere it's so key. Like what I
find with situations like this is lookfor the opportunity, look for the opportunity

(48:30):
to help others. Like when I'mcoaching artists, I one of the big
things we work on is mindset andthe foundations your identity. You your value
is not based on what you do, is who you are. So if
there comes a time in the careerwhere you're going to take a year off,

(48:51):
guess what You're not going to spiraldown, you're going to go.
No, you know what I'm worththis time off. I am worth being
off the road for a while.I am worth getting healthy, if I
am worth going to rehab, ifI need to see what I'm sand.
I think we should save our othertopics for next week because this is obviously,

(49:14):
this is a massive, massive issue, and there's so many angles,
and I think one thing maybe totalk about before we wrap up is that
this is the good side of digitalmedia and the entrepreneurial creator and so forth,

(49:36):
is that for those who can buildtheir own platform and can attract their
own audience, they're no longer underthe thumb of powerbrokers who don't care about
them and don't care about their artand don't care about like you know,
you can you know, I don'twant to sell as a dream like everybody

(50:00):
can do it and what but peopleare doing it, and they are building
their own media platform and there areindependent artists doing their own distribution and all
that stuff, and you know,bring it full circle, the extremely to
report. We want less people tohave to deal with gatekeepers. We want

(50:21):
people to be able to go directlyto their audience and directly to the world
and sink or swim on their ownmerits. I mean, right now,
we have the platforms hanging over us, and they have a certainly a say
and who succeeds and who doesn't basedon how they change their algorithms and stuff.

(50:42):
But it's far better than you know, a casting couch to get your
show out there. Rossat is sucha beautiful wrap up and a message here
to this conversation. And I'll justadd my favorite Prince quote, which is,
if you don't own the masters theexactly so good Yes, beautiful rob

(51:08):
final thought. Yeah, I thinkit's a complicated topic and and lots of
you know, ways to to tolook at it. And you know,
being a being a creator is ais a challenging kind of endeavor that involves

(51:29):
a lot of being able to beflexible and and being able to be accommodating
of others. And as this mapsback to what we've seen in this news
around the Epstein stuff, it's itdoes have an impact on why some of
these people have gotten kind of insnarled in this uh is is this kind

(51:52):
of pursuit of of of things thatare bring kind of you know, an
emotional benefit to them that may beunhealthy, and that is unfortunate that we're
seeing, you know, this thingunfold the way it is and how it

(52:15):
is a reflection of probably a lotof things that are going on in the
world that are not good. Claudia, what's going on at Santiago dot com?
Claudia Santiago dot com. A lotof good things going on there.
Yeah, well, I just wrappedup Christmas Aleganza, which is my annual
Christmas show, and we've been overtime recording and filming and traveling in all

(52:40):
different countries working on those project.So the plan is to be in Italy
next year for twenty twenty four Christmasand a release there in Sabionetta, Italy,
which is in the Lombardi region.It's the northern Italy. That's that's
kind of know the plan and I'mexcited about that. And yeah, so

(53:06):
if you get a chance, goto my website and if you click on
Christmas Selligaza, you can actually getaccess into seeing some of that that we
did in twenty twenty three. That'sexciting. Rebecca, what's going on with
the stone Fruit roll up? Ohmy god, have you had any guests?
Only if we can just go backat a time machine ninety minutes ago.

(53:30):
Fresh off the press? How offthe press, you guys? Stone
Fruit roll Up featured the press tourlaunch of one hundred Live one hundred Predictions
from Live Streaming and Digital Media,Volume four. So every face you saw
on the screen, you saw onthat roll of biding cars. Everybody to
check out the replay on that onebecause it is beautiful of Ross to hear

(53:52):
you talk about the book kind ofbeyond just like Hey, lots of people
came together and did something really cooland having some very personal project. You
watch, people should care about it. So if you're a fan of Ross
like I am, please go overto the stone Fruit channel st O N
E D F R U I Tand check out the roll up from today

(54:15):
because it's an awesome, awesome episode. Well, thank you for putting that
together. I really appreciate it.Thank you Claudia and Rob for being a
part of it. Rob. Whatdo we got coming up tonight on Podcasting
Tips with Rob Greenley? Yeah,I've got a successful podcaster that's gonna join
me, John Miles, who hostsa show called it Passion Struck is the

(54:39):
name of the show, and he'sbuilt quite an empire for himself with books
and video and audio podcasting and stuff, so it'll be great to kind of
pick his brain around coming up withpodcast tips for podcasters. So that's at
seven pm Eastern, four pm Pacific. So if you wanted to swing on

(55:01):
over to the stream Yard channels onYouTube or Twitter or any of these platforms
to check out the show tonight.So great to have you there. Sounds
good. You can catch us againfor another edition of the stream Leader Report
Live Panel every Thursday one thirty pmEastern. You can catch all the replays

(55:23):
on I think most of our YouTubechannels certainly online, and I know Rebecca
puts it on LinkedIn and I thinkher channel as well. Rob on your
channel, and Claudia, I don'tknow if it's on yours or it's on
your website, but wherever you wantto go over your favorite member of the

(55:45):
panel is, go check out theshow and we will see you again next
week for Rob Brienley, Claudia Santiago, and Rebecca Gunter. I'm Ross Brand.
Take care everybody going, Captain

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Epstein Documents Released: Making Sense of It | Panel (Ep32)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Epstein Documents Released: Making Sense of It | Panel (Ep32)