April 9, 2024 • 36 mins
Hour 3 of A&G features...
- Our guest, Craig the Obamacare Guru, with his newfound optimism...
- We have Eclipse!...
- Some rock-solid advice for maintaining yer mentals!
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
From the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington
Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty
show those total solar eclipse.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
It's the third one since nineteen seventy nine. If you're
in what they call the path of totality, you witnessed
a fairly spectacular phenomenon, the moon almost fully blocking out
the son of your anywhere else. It was like when
you accidentally leave your shades.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Open an inch. It was not so interesting. Yeah, I agree.
I'm glad it's over.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Like it's slightly cloudy for a minute. I'm glad it's over.
It's cool. I went to the one in twenty seventeen,
but because it happened in New York, it was treated
like a much bigger occasion than anything else that's ever happened.
It happened in the flyover country, who cares, But it
happened in New York. So we need to talk about
it all day long.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Right, right, of course. So here's something we can all
relate to. I Joe Getty came across a handful of
art I read with interest lately, with headlines like from
the New York Times Health insures lucrative alliance that drives
up patients' bills. Wall Street Journals. Seeing a doctor doesn't
have to be so frustrating. Wall Street Journal Again, hidden
hospital fees cost patients hundreds of dollars, and it all
(01:17):
boils down to it seems like the patient doctor patient
hospital relationship has gotten more screwed up, more complicated, and
less satisfying for all concerned, except perhaps for players behind
the scenes. And we thought we would invite to Craig
Gottwaldtz on the air. Craig, the healthcare GURUH has actually
recently made a professional change to the Mahoney Group for
(01:38):
reasons that I think are at least somewhat related to
those headlines.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Craig, how are you, sir?
Speaker 5 (01:44):
I am fantastic. How are you, gentlemen?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm so terrific.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Oh, I'm another failure of American healthcare. Yes, yes, so, Craig.
Would you agree that? Or what do you take away
from those headlines combined with what you observe yourself dealing
with the health and benefits and that sort of them?
Speaker 6 (02:04):
Well, first and foremost kudos to the mainstream media for
digging up there, rolling up their sleeves and digging in
and trying to get to the bottom of the issue,
because they're doing a pretty decent job at this point.
The short answer is, I know this is going to
shock you, gentlemen, coming from a freedom loving, libertarian minded
soul like yourselves, that seventy five years of a government
(02:26):
healthcare complex and enormous corporations in bed with the federal
government make for a bureaucracy that leaves the patient last.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
And it's just it's.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
Boiling to a head, as we've seen, and it's just
it's something that can't be it can't be understated how
brutal this is, and how many middlemen are in the pie,
making gobs of money and trying to do what's best
for their bottom line or their shareholder's bottom line, and
not best for the customer, which in this case is
(02:57):
the patient.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Boiling to a head is worst phrase of her today.
Let's try to stay away from that. Yeah, so, you know,
festering is that better.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I've said so many times that the idea that big,
if we just make a big, huge government that'll stand
up for the little guy, as opposed to the lobbyists
who go to the seat of the federal government and
write them enormous checks. I mean, this is an example
of it. I remember Stephen Brill in his great book
Bitter Pill, said that the government is involved where it
(03:27):
shouldn't be, and not involved where it should be.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
Yeah, and honestly not involved where it should be. I'd
have to sit down with Stephen for a bit and
have him tell me where should the government be more
involved in healthcare? I mean, you know, arguably maybe in
a safety net program. But even that is so hard
to accept because when Medicaid, which is our it's our
product for the low income folks in America. When that
(03:53):
first came into play in the late sixties, it was
designed to cover the bottom two percent of earners in
the United States. It now covers one third, and something
like thirty five to forty percent of all babies are
born onto Medicaid. Wow, you let the government in anywhere,
you get this creep a third.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
And the government compensation of doctors and hospitals is so
brutally low that perverts the system too. Okay, we've had
an audio problem with Craig. We'll work to get that
going again. But one of the points Stephen Burle was
making was that you have monopolies, hospital monopolies that are
(04:33):
exacting huge profits and there's very little competition because they've
gotten the government to permit it. You got us back again, Craig.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
I got you back again. Sorry, there was a blip there.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Excellent, excellent.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
So anyway, what I was saying was the compensation to
doctors and service providers hospitals is so artificially low for
all the government programs. It's really distorted the market. Yeah,
that's a huge problem.
Speaker 7 (04:59):
Right.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
There's actually a cartel, like a game going on here
behind the scenes, because what's happening is the government is
artificially keeping payments incredibly low, particularly in Medicaid, not so
bad in Medicare, but they keep it incredibly low, and
then with a wink and a nod, they say to
the hospitals, the large hospital chains, go ahead and charge three, four,
(05:22):
five hundred percent of what Medicare would pay when you
build the four national insurance companies, and then let employers
go ahead and pay those rates. And that way we'll
have enough cash coming into the system by and large
that everybody you'll be able to be just fine. And we,
the politicians that are behind this scheme, ultimately will look
good because we can point to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement
(05:45):
rates and say, see how low we negotiate them, See
how good we're doing. We're doing right by the little guy.
We need national health care. That's exactly the scam, Joe.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
So it's a gigantic hidden tax on people who have
their own insurance.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
It just occurred to me exactly that, and I go ahead, Jack, Sorry.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
There are all these forces that want to push toward
government healthcare, but there are are there any forces pushing
against that? Are there any forces pushing from the other
side other than maybe individual patients?
Speaker 6 (06:20):
Yeah, you know, there increasingly is larger employers. Employers would
at least say three hundred employees or more are now learning.
There's a growing trend. You don't have to play this game.
You can opt out entirely. I always say, if you
recognize the logo on your insurance card, you are their
profit and you're being farmed. But what employers can do now,
(06:42):
and again this has grown from one percent of employers
four years ago to now four percent of employers are
doing this is they're saying enough, We're not even gonna
rent one of these large ppo networks. We're going to
have direct contracts with hospitals and providers, and we're going
to negotiate better deals based upon reasonable reimbursements. We're not
going to play in the Ponzi scheme anymore. So it's unbelievable.
(07:05):
It's been a renaissance in my career Jack and Joe,
unlike I ever thought was possible, And I think there's
a serious chance this could save healthcare from sliding into
the oblivion of where people just get so fed up
they say, let the government do it all.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
We're talking to Craig Gottwaals, Craig the healthcare guru. That's
going to put the squeeze on the politicians though, because
they've been getting away with giving a dollar's worth of
medical care for a dime and then sticking the consumers
with the rest of the bill. If employers are successful
in those negotiations, won't that increase the pressure on them?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yes, it will.
Speaker 6 (07:42):
And it's been actually kind of fascinating to watch because
you have this inherent conflict going on at the political level.
Politicians like to talk about how, for example, transparency is good,
we need more transparency, health care is bad, and a
lot of these people in Congress don't really understand what's
going on in the medical system, so they have passed
legislation increasing the transparency that we're now having we have
(08:05):
access to to pay these claims, which has been phenomenal
for those of us in the free market healthcare space
because we can latch onto those numbers and use them
to negotiate these better deals. So now you're getting this
friction internally where those who really understand and are truly
cynical at the political level don't want the transparency.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
But the cat's kind of out of the bag.
Speaker 6 (08:26):
Because because Trump pushed this stuff into legislation and so
far the excuse me the Biden, So maybe that wasn't
such a Freudian slip. The Biden Obama administration has embraced
it and continue this tendency. So I don't know that
they're going to be able to put the hidden costs
back in. I think this is going to get out,
and I think freedom is going to win, or at
(08:48):
least has the best chance I've seen it have since
the passage of Obamacare.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Guys, that's the first time we've talked to you or
you've been optimistic ever.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
I think, yeah, well, a lot of it has to
do with a career change that I made as well.
So right, so I take you doing this from a
free market. From a free market standpoint, I'm not. I'm
not burdened by banks and Wall Street and private equity anymore.
I truly amd with a small, nimble, privately held group
that's willing to fight this fight.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Yeah, yeah, I'm just I'm I gotta believe if social
security is the third rail of American politics, that the
big healthcare plans are something close to that, and it's
so easy to demagog them, I guess as a voter,
as a as a talk show host posts. So pushing
for transparency is one thing that's that we can do
(09:39):
even if we don't fully understand all the issues involved.
Would you say, that's like job number one?
Speaker 5 (09:46):
That is job number one.
Speaker 6 (09:47):
And one of the other things that you guys have
seen and I've heard you talk about is the whole
idea of concierge care where you pay a monthly fee
and you go and you get you get a personal
relationship with that doctor. Well, that's something we're in racing
in the freedom community where we're saying, hey, let's build
that into the health plan. Let's not even have one
of those big, those big four national carriers out there. Instead,
(10:09):
let's direct contract with those concierge providers. Let's pay the
fee for the employees. We call it direct primary care
when we do it at the employer level, and then
let's use a fair reimbursement system for everything that goes
beyond that primary care system. When we do that, we're
seeing patients and doctors a hell of a lot happier, with.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
The results interesting, and the expenses aren't out of hand.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Well, see the reason the expenses get out of hand
when you do it on your own, like you've done
in the past, Joe, I know, is you're paying an
insured product up above, and then you're also paying for
this concierge medicine. So you're kind of double paying for
what you're getting. But when we can do this at
the employer level, we don't. We can set up the
insurance such that it doesn't even kick in until something
(10:56):
goes beyond what your concierge doctor can do. So no,
we see this reducing prices anywhere from eighteen to forty
percent when we do it. You're saying, here's a better statistic,
you'll get you'll, like, you guys, your typical doctor in
the system. So if you have one of those big
four logos on your card, that doctor is typically responsible
for twenty five hundred to five thousand patients per year.
(11:19):
That's what their primary care bailiwick is that they would
have to be, you know, to potentially see in a
given year. When we do direct primary care concierge models,
those doctors are limited to six hundred patients in a
given year, and they end up making more money because
we're cutting out all of the bloated bureaucracy that harms
the patient.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
So you've been saying for years you thought we were
a decade or whatever away from full government takeover of
our healthcare, though, was just the direction was going.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
You no longer believe that.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
Now.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
I still believe that's the impetus. I mean, remember, what
I'm doing has grown from one percent of the market
to four percent. Until this grows to fifteen or twenty percent,
I think the overwhelming momentum here is toward a single
pair medicare type system, probably still by twenty thirty, like
we've seen.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Okay, well, let's talk about that on the other side
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healthcare Guru in moments stay with us Armstrong And.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
So I've been reading this piece from this guy I
worked at NPR for twenty five years talking about how
NPR changed so much in the time he was there
and went so far left, and how there's no representation
of the rest of America anywhere. There will not be
a surprise to you, but we can get to that
coming up later this hour. So we barely got four
or five minutes with Craig Gotwalls, Craig the healthcare Guru,
attorney law benefit consulting with the Mahoney Group, and Craig,
(13:50):
we've both come across, Well, I came across an article
you've lived at that private equity is buying up lots
and lots of the healthcare world. What would be your
to well, first of all, what's happening? And secondly, what
would be your answer to somebody who would say, well,
that's the private that's.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
The market at work, that's the free market.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Yeah, you know, and excuse me, pardon me that I
even used to believe that at one point as a
good free market loving libertarian. Here's the thing. Somewhere about
the late seventies into the eighties, the focus of American
business really changed dramatically. And this started, I think with
all of our outsourcing to China, where the number one
(14:33):
customer shifted to become the shareholder. Whereas if you looked
at American business, in American productivity prior to say, nineteen eighty,
the number one customer was the purchaser of the product.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
And we've undergone this shift.
Speaker 6 (14:46):
And I actually don't think this is a truly capitalistic
free market shift. I think it's a I think it's
a symptom of government involvement in the large corporations because
what has happened now is private equity buys up everything.
And what we're seeing in healthcare is private equity buying
up absolutely every facet of the healthcare chain. Remember, healthcare
(15:11):
is the number one employer in the United States, it's
the number one lobby in the United States, and it's
roughly one fifth of our economy. So private equity has
come in and bought brokerages. I mean, heck, I used
to work at the fifth largest insurance brokerage in the
United States. Private equity just gobbled it up fifteen billion dollars.
And what do they do. They come in on a
(15:32):
two to five year sales cycle. They cut everything they
can out of it, all the extra services, all of
the stuff that made it a really good experience for
the customer gets Pilford because the whole focus is on
a two to five year sales cycle, where we're going
to just wretch everything we can out of this thing
and then flip it and then buy the next thing.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
We're not just seeing that with brokerages.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
We're seeing that with insurance companies, and we're seeing that
with the large medical groups, where again, the number one
customer has become that disconnected person on Wall Street as
opposed to the person you're supposed to be serving with
the good you produce.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Well, I think we've seen that in a lot of
different industries.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
That very thing you just described, I don't know what
you do about it, and you know, a free market society,
any thoughts, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (16:19):
It's it's it's well, it's a tough quandary, right. I
actually just read and I'm trying to remember where it was.
I'll get the link to you when I find it.
I just read something that said, you know, this is
something that perhaps perhaps Milton Friedman had wrong, because Milton
Friedman was a big proponent for making the stockholder, the
shareholder the number one goal of the of American business,
(16:41):
and that it really is not the way this country
was founded, it's not the way we operated up until
the seventies. So there has to be some sort of
a rejuvenating impetus of pushing pushing that focus back on
the customer, the person to whom you're serving, right.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
I think it probably has something to do with the shift,
some would say eroding morality of the country in which
a company that was seen as abusing its customers would
be roundly criticized from both high and low, constantly till
they mended their ways. You're making an unsafe product, you're
not having good medical results, that sort of thing. I
(17:18):
just it's like we always say, it's tough to have
a government showing fiscal restraint for a people that don't
show fiscal restraint in their own lives, but we may
need to leave it there as we are out of time.
Craig Gotwall's the healthcare guru. Always fasting, Craig, how can
people reach you if they have follow up questions?
Speaker 6 (17:38):
Gottwalls dot substack dot com is probably the easiest way
to get me, and that leaks up to all my
other stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Cool.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Okay, if you didn't catch that drop as an email,
we'll send you the link.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
That conversation about the stockholder and all that sort of stuff.
That's a fascinating one. I would take college classes on that.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
I mean, that is really interesting.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Yeah, the whole by strip and flip tendency of big
money is rough on everybody.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
I think some of it is.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
We we more people are into the stock market and
pay more attention to it. Now you buy and sell
and buy and sell throughout your life, as opposed to
buying GM or Ford stock or IBM stock and holding
onto it for forty years.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
You know, maybe that's some of the difference.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I don't know what a what a topic arm Strong
and Getty.
Speaker 7 (18:26):
That's unbelievable, so unbelievably, like I knew what was gonna
happen but still, when I saw it like that just
completely took my ability to speak away.
Speaker 6 (18:34):
Being being able to take your your glasses off and
then like seeing it for the.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
First time was shocking.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
That some of the uh pretty ecstatic coverage of the
eclipse yesterday afternoon. I have to tread carefully here so
I don't come off as my son who is a
teenager and thinks nothing is cool or you shouldn't mote
about anything, because that's part of the whole teenage buy.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I guess sure. I am so aloof and so world
weary enough impresses me.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
The only thing that impresses me is cool and as
cool as some band you've never heard of. Dad, that
is worth getting very excited about. But I don't want
to be that guy. Because h Hanson, our executive producer, Michael,
you really enjoyed the eclipse or whatever I.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Look. I traveled.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
I took a day off work and traveled for the
last eclipse with my kid. Obviously, I thought it was
a worthwhile thing and spent a fair amount of money
to get into a spot where I can watch it.
But God, some of the reactions from people, I just thought, really,
I don't know, all right, let's let's hear some more
of CNN's coverage.
Speaker 7 (19:39):
I'm flabberg aid. I'm speechless. I saw something that I
have dreamt for, Thank you, that I've dreamt of for years.
We've seen this coming for years, and now we just
witnessed it. You heard the enthusiasm of the crowd. As
a meteorologist, I'm dumbfounded. It was spectacular and I want
to do it again.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
It was so wonderful.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
You've dreamt of total eclipses, all right, that's just a
guy who says odd things.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I mean, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
I would never urinate on another person's wonder at the Cosmos.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I thought the coverage was a tad much. I hear
you some more.
Speaker 7 (20:23):
It is every three hundred and seventy five years for
a total solar eclipse to occur on any one point
in the planet.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
What do you think about that?
Speaker 5 (20:30):
That's unbelievable.
Speaker 7 (20:31):
I did not know.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
You're Unbelievable'm lucky to have an experience like that so much.
I'm so lucky to do it young too. It's amazing.
So I'm confused by that. I saw one a few
years ago. What was that at a particular point on
the planet. Oh, if you lack both an automobile.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
An airport ticket, and legs exactly, then you've got to
wait three hundred and seventy five years.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
For the rest of us, though, we'll just go over there.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
If you're tied to a post and have to hope
that an eclipse comes your way, it is very rare.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
But if you have the ability to travel a little
bit over there, you've probably gonna see one in a
couple of years. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Yeah, although you know now that taken just as a
piece of science, that's oh wow, every three.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Hundred and seventy five years. That's interesting.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Yeah, It's as if the eclipse is painting the Earth,
going around and around, and eventually it covers the whole
thing that it starts again. On the other hand, if
you're putting it in terms of viewing one of them,
then no, it's not that miraculous. Hasn't been since really
man first mounted horse. Well, this is my theme in
the New York bias towards everything. It didn't get this
(21:42):
sort of attention and wonder and oh my god, crying
oh when it was going over Montana, Idaho and Washington,
as it does when it's going over New York.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
I just think it has a lot to do with
the New York media market. Here's some more I had
in my spine.
Speaker 7 (22:01):
I had a tear because as a meteorologist.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
You dream, I dream, you dream these days.
Speaker 7 (22:07):
And to have this occur on a snow capped mountain,
on the tallest mountain in Vermont during this incredible, incredible,
you know, celestial dance.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
We call it all right, you can't beat it. I
don't want to hear him say anything else he's wearing.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
I'm saying, oh, oh, I forget my wife, need good
to meet you.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
I think is with a tingling in your spine you
might want to see a chiropractor about that.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
What was that bit on Saturday Night Live?
Speaker 5 (22:35):
Girl?
Speaker 1 (22:36):
You wish you hadn't started talking to at a part?
Speaker 7 (22:39):
Right?
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yeah, that's that dude. How about the we got one
about the animals. That's clip thirty seven there, Michael.
Speaker 7 (22:45):
We've been talking to Ed Lavendera who was watching close
to the animals at the Dalla Zoo and how wild
they were going.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
There was there were birds that were going crazy.
Speaker 8 (22:53):
In the miss missed it was so wild and clearly
the animals have delivered. I will say they have delivered
during the eclipse, and it's a good one, I think.
I think it's such a it's such a dramatic eclipse,
and that may be why they're responding to it.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
All right, all right, I mean maybe she had more
to say about the way in which animals behaved.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Perhaps I'll read something later, I don't.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
I like the combination of this is the most important,
emotionally satisfying thing that's ever happened in our lives. And
schools wouldn't let kids go outside because it's too dangerous.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Yeah, don't get me started, which is being of science. Yes,
speaking of science. I can either do this right now
or after a break. But they're learning about learning a
lot about what middle aged people can do now to
help prevent dementia later.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
And as a middle aged guy, I read this article
with great interest.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
And reminds me of a quote that came across health
last night. Because when you said that, I'm thinking it's
probably gonna help to eat eat well, or exercise or
do something.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yeah, I wouldn't bother.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So there's a new may have already aired. It's airing
now or on PBS. A new documentary about William F.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Buckley.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
It was one of my favorite people to UH to
read about and learn about and listen to back when
he was alive, William F.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Buckley.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And it's gotten a variety of reviews positive and negative about.
You know, it's a liberal outlet doing a documentary about
one of the most important conservatives seriously, maybe in the
last century, William F.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Buckley.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
But I was watching some interviews with Buckley, uh last
night for some reason, and he was at he was
toward the end of his life. Interesting, he was on
Charlie Rose. If you don't know William F. Buckley, he's
really one of them. He honestly is one of the
more important conservatives in American history and a founded National
Review and and and and he he he made conservatives
(25:00):
feel good about themselves. There's a lot of conservatives that
make their way onto media now that that make us
look bad.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
He made us look good.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
But anyways, towards the end of his life, he's on
Charlie Rose, and Charlie Rose said, are you you know,
how do you feel about dying?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
I mean you, he said, I'm ready. I am ready.
I've lived long enough. I'm tired of life. He actually
said with a smile on his face.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I'm tired of life. I've done everything i can. I'm
breaking down. I'm ready to be done. I thought that's
really interesting. But he was talking about how he had
to start exercising more and his least favorite hour of
the day is when he has to exercise.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
But he had this quote, and I thought this is
a very good sort of thing. William F. Buckley would say.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Nature goes after you and castigates you for any tendency
to self satisfaction.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yes, self satisfaction.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Like wanting to sit around in a chair and watch
TV or eat this food or any of the things
we indulge ourselves in.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Nature will take a look. Ah, ain't gonna let you
get away with that. Now.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
You think you can get away with it, but you can.
I'm watching you owe me, you owe me. Yeah, and
that's just a reality right there. Nature castigates me for
any tendency towards my self satisfaction. I need to remember
that every single day. You can't slip one by. You
can't say to God or nature or whatever you say,
oh look over there, and they need to don it
doesn't work that way. Yeah, no kidding, or skip leg
(26:20):
day or whatever you're going to do.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I saw a review of that NPR PBS whatever it
is Buckley thing, and I didn't read the whole thing,
but one thing they pointed out was that can you
imagine doing a documentary on somebody who spent their career
crusading against the Klan the KKK, and never once mentioning
(26:43):
the evils of the clan. Well that the PBS thing
with Buckley does that. They mentioned he was a life
long crusader against communism, but they don't spend thirty seconds
explaining why somebody might be against communism.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
And I think there's probably a reason for that. Interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Uh so you're gonna give us some tips for trying
to stay healthy. Coming up, I've also got this NPR
guy talking about how NPR has lost its way and
he's a liberal, among other things.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
On the way stay here.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
After Friday's earthquake, everyone asked did you feel it? After
today's eclips, everyone asks.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Did you see it? This is better than usual question
in New York City? Did I sit in that? And
you know I didn't? Did I? I didn't?
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
So I listened to NPR regularly. It's always bothered me
as a guy who's been in commercial radio my entire
adult life, that NPR gets boosted by the taxpayer, so
doesn't have to run commercials, which gives it a tremendous
edge competitive edge for the rest of us. And one
(27:59):
of the reasons they can do such fantastic reporting and
everything like that is they got a business model that
nobody else in the free market commercial world can pull off.
And they get really good ratings because they do a
really good job with their increasingly left wing.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Reporting. So I thought this was really interesting.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
A guy, an NBR veteran guide worked there for twenty
five years.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
It wrote a piece.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Just the other day about how far left NPR is gotten,
and it bothers him even as a liberal.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
I'll read a little bit of it.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
During most of my tenure at NPR, an open minded,
curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee jerk
activists or sculting scolding.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
That sounds right.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
That's the way I took an NPR back in the day.
It was nerdy and it was liberal, but you know,
I could tolerate it. In recent years, however, that has changed.
Today those who listen to NPR or read its coverage
online find something different, the distilled worldview of a very
small segment of the US population. Like many unfortunate things,
the advocacy took off with Donald Trump. As in many newsrooms,
(29:04):
his election in twenty sixteen was greeted at NPR with
a mixture of disbelief, anger, and despair. But what began
is tough, straightforward coverage of a belligerent, truth inspired president
veered towards efforts to damage or toppled Trump's presidency. Persistent
rumors that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia over the
election became the catnip that drove reporting at NPR. We
(29:25):
hitched our wagon to Trump's most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff,
I was about to become a US Senator in California.
The shift talking points became the drum peat of NPR
news reports. But when the Muller Report found no credible
evidence of collusion, NPR's coverage was notably sparse.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Russia Gate quietly faded from our programming.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
It's it's a bad to blow a big story. What's
worse is to pretend it never happened. To move on
with no Maya couples, no self reflection, as we did
at NPR.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
He mentioned some other examples.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Hunter's laptop was newsworthy, but the timeless journalistic instinct of
following a hot story lead was being squelched. During a
meeting with colleagues, I listened as one of NPR's best
and most fair minded journalists I wish he'd name the name,
said it was good we weren't following the laptop story
because it would help Trump. Over the course of the pandemic,
a number of investigative journalists made compelling, if not conclusive
(30:18):
cases for the lab leak, but at NPR, we weren't
about to swivel or even tiptoe away from the insistence
with which we backed the natural origin story. Our new
news director declared that diversity on our staff and in
our audience was the overriding mission.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Now race and identity became paramount and nearly.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Every aspect of the workplace, journalists were required to ask
everyone we interviewed their race, gender, and ethnicity, among other questions,
and it had to enter it into a centralized tracking system.
We were given unconscious bias training sessions. A growing DEI
staff offered regular meetings employing us to start talking about
race how about that, anybody you interviewed for a news story,
(31:00):
if a flood happened here, you just got to interview
people that were affected by the flood. You shouldn't be
getting into their race, gender, ethnicity, all these different things,
cataloging and then deciding you don't have enough of this
or that.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
I mean, that's how nuts is the flood destroyed your home?
What's your gender identity?
Speaker 3 (31:19):
The mindset prevails in choices about language and a document
called NPR Transgender Coverage Guidance, we were asked to avoid
the term biological sex. The mindset animates bizarre stories on
how the Beatles and Bird names are racially problematic, the
Beatles of the band as a racially problematic name for
(31:39):
a band, among other things.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
I can't even imagine what that went into.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
I looked at voter registration for our newsroom in DC,
where NPR is headquartered and many of us live. I
found eighty seven registered Democrats working in editorial positions and
zero Republicans, not one single one. Anyway, don't worry about
that lead bias. Yeah, it's a very long piece with
a whole bunch more examples. But I was I guess
(32:06):
pleased to hear that it's not just me that's gotten
more cranky about listening to NPR.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
It has actually moved. According to a liberal who works.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
There, Oh yeah, absolutely, they're they're unmistakably obsessed with all
of the woke identity questions.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
It's it's well, it's shameless, but.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Well remember the example I gave a couple of weeks
ago where my jaw actually dropped. Very seldom does my
jaw actually drop taking in media coverage.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
But they had somebody on there.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
They are talking about Hamas and using the hospitals and
all that sort of stuff, and somebody said, the whole
Hamas uses hospitals has been thoroughly debunked, and they just
went on with that.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
They just went with that. The hosted with who were
there interviewing.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
I thought, wow, that is crazy. Well that's just flat propaganda.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Now there are just engaging in well not engaging in
any effort to find truth.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
That's that's well, that's not helpful to the cause.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
They get tremendous ratings, partially because the advantage of tax
payer money and not having to have advertising propaganda works anyway,
totally different topic, if I might, since I said we
would get to it. As a middle aged person, I'm
certainly concerned with this. We've all had the senior moments.
We all have seen folks from the president on down
who are clearly suffering from the signs of age related dementia.
(33:24):
And there's increasing science about what you can do in
your middle age to decrease the chances of being more
seriously afflicted with that sort of thing. And a lot
of the science is new because science had quite appropriately
been studying people who had severe dementia to try to
figure out what's going on, Can they be helped that
sort of thing, And it's only now that they've started
(33:46):
to move into all right, well what does this look
like really early on, and let's talk about the people
who do get more severe dimension those who don't, and
what kind of lives they live in the things they do,
which is obviously you know, it's like a lung cancer.
It turns out to all these people smoked or ninety
percent of them. That's worth knowing. So the bad news
(34:08):
is m.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
This is not like some sort of hack that people
who brush their teeth with the opposite hand once a
week don't get dementia.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Ah A lot of simple life hack.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Yeah, well that's the bad news. The good news is
this appears to be very, very promising science. But it
has to do with the white matter in your brain,
which are the connectors between the brain areas. As you
age in your forties and fifties, they decrease in volume,
which means slower processing speed. You have more life experience,
you have more data, more wisdom, if you will, But
(34:44):
the processor doesn't run quite as fast.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
And we all deal with that. We all must deal
with that, all right, So what do you do? Heart
health is brain health.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
Same things that can lead to blockage of arteries can
affect arteries to the brain, impeding blood flow and oxygen delivery,
allowing plaques to build up. That sort of thing. Exercise regularly,
eat a healthy diet, do not smoke, avoid getting or
managing or do better managing conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity,
(35:15):
obstructive sleep, apnea. And this is intuitive. Challenge your brain,
challenge it regularly. Do puzzles, learn to play an instrument,
try to learn another language, whatever, read, learn whatever you
(35:36):
can do to keep your brain functioning.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Keeps your brain functioning. Yeah, that's not surprising it's just
like your muscles.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
One of the great revolutions of revelations rather that I
heard not long ago. We talked about it on the show.
It was probably a few years ago. Was that at
that point you feel frustrated. That's when you're doing your
brain some good.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Yeah, that's the thing with puzzles. Of puzzles are fun,
but if they're not actually like this is freaking pishling
me off hard. It's not doing the good that like
trying to learn the piano. Try to do two hand
independence on a piano. You want to hurt your brain.
That'll hurt your brain, but in a good way. It
hurts so good. Yeah, And I can see why we
(36:18):
tend to want to stay away from that, especially as
we get older. I've learned enough. I just want to
do things that are easy for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
And I'm a man who craves leisure.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
But I am going to embrace that feeling and start
challenging my brain more.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
I suggest you do too. Good Luck, Armstrong.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
And Getty, Like if I use my brain, maybe I
ought to come up with the concierge program that Steve
and our friends that elevate realty group did get in
a house ready for sale,
From the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington
Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty
show those total solar eclipse.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
It's the third one since nineteen seventy nine. If you're
in what they call the path of totality, you witnessed
a fairly spectacular phenomenon, the moon almost fully blocking out
the son of your anywhere else. It was like when
you accidentally leave your shades.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Open an inch. It was not so interesting. Yeah, I agree.
I'm glad it's over.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Like it's slightly cloudy for a minute. I'm glad it's over.
It's cool. I went to the one in twenty seventeen,
but because it happened in New York, it was treated
like a much bigger occasion than anything else that's ever happened.
It happened in the flyover country, who cares, But it
happened in New York. So we need to talk about
it all day long.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Right, right, of course. So here's something we can all
relate to. I Joe Getty came across a handful of
art I read with interest lately, with headlines like from
the New York Times Health insures lucrative alliance that drives
up patients' bills. Wall Street Journals. Seeing a doctor doesn't
have to be so frustrating. Wall Street Journal Again, hidden
hospital fees cost patients hundreds of dollars, and it all
(01:17):
boils down to it seems like the patient doctor patient
hospital relationship has gotten more screwed up, more complicated, and
less satisfying for all concerned, except perhaps for players behind
the scenes. And we thought we would invite to Craig
Gottwaldtz on the air. Craig, the healthcare GURUH has actually
recently made a professional change to the Mahoney Group for
(01:38):
reasons that I think are at least somewhat related to
those headlines.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Craig, how are you, sir?
Speaker 5 (01:44):
I am fantastic. How are you, gentlemen?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm so terrific.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Oh, I'm another failure of American healthcare. Yes, yes, so, Craig.
Would you agree that? Or what do you take away
from those headlines combined with what you observe yourself dealing
with the health and benefits and that sort of them?
Speaker 6 (02:04):
Well, first and foremost kudos to the mainstream media for
digging up there, rolling up their sleeves and digging in
and trying to get to the bottom of the issue,
because they're doing a pretty decent job at this point.
The short answer is, I know this is going to
shock you, gentlemen, coming from a freedom loving, libertarian minded
soul like yourselves, that seventy five years of a government
(02:26):
healthcare complex and enormous corporations in bed with the federal
government make for a bureaucracy that leaves the patient last.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
And it's just it's.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
Boiling to a head, as we've seen, and it's just
it's something that can't be it can't be understated how
brutal this is, and how many middlemen are in the pie,
making gobs of money and trying to do what's best
for their bottom line or their shareholder's bottom line, and
not best for the customer, which in this case is
(02:57):
the patient.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Boiling to a head is worst phrase of her today.
Let's try to stay away from that. Yeah, so, you know,
festering is that better.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
I've said so many times that the idea that big,
if we just make a big, huge government that'll stand
up for the little guy, as opposed to the lobbyists
who go to the seat of the federal government and
write them enormous checks. I mean, this is an example
of it. I remember Stephen Brill in his great book
Bitter Pill, said that the government is involved where it
(03:27):
shouldn't be, and not involved where it should be.
Speaker 6 (03:31):
Yeah, and honestly not involved where it should be. I'd
have to sit down with Stephen for a bit and
have him tell me where should the government be more
involved in healthcare? I mean, you know, arguably maybe in
a safety net program. But even that is so hard
to accept because when Medicaid, which is our it's our
product for the low income folks in America. When that
(03:53):
first came into play in the late sixties, it was
designed to cover the bottom two percent of earners in
the United States. It now covers one third, and something
like thirty five to forty percent of all babies are
born onto Medicaid. Wow, you let the government in anywhere,
you get this creep a third.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
And the government compensation of doctors and hospitals is so
brutally low that perverts the system too. Okay, we've had
an audio problem with Craig. We'll work to get that
going again. But one of the points Stephen Burle was
making was that you have monopolies, hospital monopolies that are
(04:33):
exacting huge profits and there's very little competition because they've
gotten the government to permit it. You got us back again, Craig.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
I got you back again. Sorry, there was a blip there.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Excellent, excellent.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
So anyway, what I was saying was the compensation to
doctors and service providers hospitals is so artificially low for
all the government programs. It's really distorted the market. Yeah,
that's a huge problem.
Speaker 7 (04:59):
Right.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
There's actually a cartel, like a game going on here
behind the scenes, because what's happening is the government is
artificially keeping payments incredibly low, particularly in Medicaid, not so
bad in Medicare, but they keep it incredibly low, and
then with a wink and a nod, they say to
the hospitals, the large hospital chains, go ahead and charge three, four,
(05:22):
five hundred percent of what Medicare would pay when you
build the four national insurance companies, and then let employers
go ahead and pay those rates. And that way we'll
have enough cash coming into the system by and large
that everybody you'll be able to be just fine. And we,
the politicians that are behind this scheme, ultimately will look
good because we can point to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement
(05:45):
rates and say, see how low we negotiate them, See
how good we're doing. We're doing right by the little guy.
We need national health care. That's exactly the scam, Joe.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
So it's a gigantic hidden tax on people who have
their own insurance.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
It just occurred to me exactly that, and I go ahead, Jack, Sorry.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
There are all these forces that want to push toward
government healthcare, but there are are there any forces pushing
against that? Are there any forces pushing from the other
side other than maybe individual patients?
Speaker 6 (06:20):
Yeah, you know, there increasingly is larger employers. Employers would
at least say three hundred employees or more are now learning.
There's a growing trend. You don't have to play this game.
You can opt out entirely. I always say, if you
recognize the logo on your insurance card, you are their
profit and you're being farmed. But what employers can do now,
(06:42):
and again this has grown from one percent of employers
four years ago to now four percent of employers are
doing this is they're saying enough, We're not even gonna
rent one of these large ppo networks. We're going to
have direct contracts with hospitals and providers, and we're going
to negotiate better deals based upon reasonable reimbursements. We're not
going to play in the Ponzi scheme anymore. So it's unbelievable.
(07:05):
It's been a renaissance in my career Jack and Joe,
unlike I ever thought was possible, And I think there's
a serious chance this could save healthcare from sliding into
the oblivion of where people just get so fed up
they say, let the government do it all.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
We're talking to Craig Gottwaals, Craig the healthcare guru. That's
going to put the squeeze on the politicians though, because
they've been getting away with giving a dollar's worth of
medical care for a dime and then sticking the consumers
with the rest of the bill. If employers are successful
in those negotiations, won't that increase the pressure on them?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yes, it will.
Speaker 6 (07:42):
And it's been actually kind of fascinating to watch because
you have this inherent conflict going on at the political level.
Politicians like to talk about how, for example, transparency is good,
we need more transparency, health care is bad, and a
lot of these people in Congress don't really understand what's
going on in the medical system, so they have passed
legislation increasing the transparency that we're now having we have
(08:05):
access to to pay these claims, which has been phenomenal
for those of us in the free market healthcare space
because we can latch onto those numbers and use them
to negotiate these better deals. So now you're getting this
friction internally where those who really understand and are truly
cynical at the political level don't want the transparency.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
But the cat's kind of out of the bag.
Speaker 6 (08:26):
Because because Trump pushed this stuff into legislation and so
far the excuse me the Biden, So maybe that wasn't
such a Freudian slip. The Biden Obama administration has embraced
it and continue this tendency. So I don't know that
they're going to be able to put the hidden costs
back in. I think this is going to get out,
and I think freedom is going to win, or at
(08:48):
least has the best chance I've seen it have since
the passage of Obamacare.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Guys, that's the first time we've talked to you or
you've been optimistic ever.
Speaker 6 (08:56):
I think, yeah, well, a lot of it has to
do with a career change that I made as well.
So right, so I take you doing this from a
free market. From a free market standpoint, I'm not. I'm
not burdened by banks and Wall Street and private equity anymore.
I truly amd with a small, nimble, privately held group
that's willing to fight this fight.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Yeah, yeah, I'm just I'm I gotta believe if social
security is the third rail of American politics, that the
big healthcare plans are something close to that, and it's
so easy to demagog them, I guess as a voter,
as a as a talk show host posts. So pushing
for transparency is one thing that's that we can do
(09:39):
even if we don't fully understand all the issues involved.
Would you say, that's like job number one?
Speaker 5 (09:46):
That is job number one.
Speaker 6 (09:47):
And one of the other things that you guys have
seen and I've heard you talk about is the whole
idea of concierge care where you pay a monthly fee
and you go and you get you get a personal
relationship with that doctor. Well, that's something we're in racing
in the freedom community where we're saying, hey, let's build
that into the health plan. Let's not even have one
of those big, those big four national carriers out there. Instead,
(10:09):
let's direct contract with those concierge providers. Let's pay the
fee for the employees. We call it direct primary care
when we do it at the employer level, and then
let's use a fair reimbursement system for everything that goes
beyond that primary care system. When we do that, we're
seeing patients and doctors a hell of a lot happier, with.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
The results interesting, and the expenses aren't out of hand.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Well, see the reason the expenses get out of hand
when you do it on your own, like you've done
in the past, Joe, I know, is you're paying an
insured product up above, and then you're also paying for
this concierge medicine. So you're kind of double paying for
what you're getting. But when we can do this at
the employer level, we don't. We can set up the
insurance such that it doesn't even kick in until something
(10:56):
goes beyond what your concierge doctor can do. So no,
we see this reducing prices anywhere from eighteen to forty
percent when we do it. You're saying, here's a better statistic,
you'll get you'll, like, you guys, your typical doctor in
the system. So if you have one of those big
four logos on your card, that doctor is typically responsible
for twenty five hundred to five thousand patients per year.
(11:19):
That's what their primary care bailiwick is that they would
have to be, you know, to potentially see in a
given year. When we do direct primary care concierge models,
those doctors are limited to six hundred patients in a
given year, and they end up making more money because
we're cutting out all of the bloated bureaucracy that harms
the patient.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
So you've been saying for years you thought we were
a decade or whatever away from full government takeover of
our healthcare, though, was just the direction was going.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
You no longer believe that.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
Now.
Speaker 6 (11:50):
I still believe that's the impetus. I mean, remember, what
I'm doing has grown from one percent of the market
to four percent. Until this grows to fifteen or twenty percent,
I think the overwhelming momentum here is toward a single
pair medicare type system, probably still by twenty thirty, like
we've seen.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Okay, well, let's talk about that on the other side
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healthcare Guru in moments stay with us Armstrong And.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
So I've been reading this piece from this guy I
worked at NPR for twenty five years talking about how
NPR changed so much in the time he was there
and went so far left, and how there's no representation
of the rest of America anywhere. There will not be
a surprise to you, but we can get to that
coming up later this hour. So we barely got four
or five minutes with Craig Gotwalls, Craig the healthcare Guru,
attorney law benefit consulting with the Mahoney Group, and Craig,
(13:50):
we've both come across, Well, I came across an article
you've lived at that private equity is buying up lots
and lots of the healthcare world. What would be your
to well, first of all, what's happening? And secondly, what
would be your answer to somebody who would say, well,
that's the private that's.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
The market at work, that's the free market.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Yeah, you know, and excuse me, pardon me that I
even used to believe that at one point as a
good free market loving libertarian. Here's the thing. Somewhere about
the late seventies into the eighties, the focus of American
business really changed dramatically. And this started, I think with
all of our outsourcing to China, where the number one
(14:33):
customer shifted to become the shareholder. Whereas if you looked
at American business, in American productivity prior to say, nineteen eighty,
the number one customer was the purchaser of the product.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
And we've undergone this shift.
Speaker 6 (14:46):
And I actually don't think this is a truly capitalistic
free market shift. I think it's a I think it's
a symptom of government involvement in the large corporations because
what has happened now is private equity buys up everything.
And what we're seeing in healthcare is private equity buying
up absolutely every facet of the healthcare chain. Remember, healthcare
(15:11):
is the number one employer in the United States, it's
the number one lobby in the United States, and it's
roughly one fifth of our economy. So private equity has
come in and bought brokerages. I mean, heck, I used
to work at the fifth largest insurance brokerage in the
United States. Private equity just gobbled it up fifteen billion dollars.
And what do they do. They come in on a
(15:32):
two to five year sales cycle. They cut everything they
can out of it, all the extra services, all of
the stuff that made it a really good experience for
the customer gets Pilford because the whole focus is on
a two to five year sales cycle, where we're going
to just wretch everything we can out of this thing
and then flip it and then buy the next thing.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
We're not just seeing that with brokerages.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
We're seeing that with insurance companies, and we're seeing that
with the large medical groups, where again, the number one
customer has become that disconnected person on Wall Street as
opposed to the person you're supposed to be serving with
the good you produce.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Well, I think we've seen that in a lot of
different industries.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
That very thing you just described, I don't know what
you do about it, and you know, a free market society,
any thoughts, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (16:19):
It's it's it's well, it's a tough quandary, right. I
actually just read and I'm trying to remember where it was.
I'll get the link to you when I find it.
I just read something that said, you know, this is
something that perhaps perhaps Milton Friedman had wrong, because Milton
Friedman was a big proponent for making the stockholder, the
shareholder the number one goal of the of American business,
(16:41):
and that it really is not the way this country
was founded, it's not the way we operated up until
the seventies. So there has to be some sort of
a rejuvenating impetus of pushing pushing that focus back on
the customer, the person to whom you're serving, right.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
I think it probably has something to do with the shift,
some would say eroding morality of the country in which
a company that was seen as abusing its customers would
be roundly criticized from both high and low, constantly till
they mended their ways. You're making an unsafe product, you're
not having good medical results, that sort of thing. I
(17:18):
just it's like we always say, it's tough to have
a government showing fiscal restraint for a people that don't
show fiscal restraint in their own lives, but we may
need to leave it there as we are out of time.
Craig Gotwall's the healthcare guru. Always fasting, Craig, how can
people reach you if they have follow up questions?
Speaker 6 (17:38):
Gottwalls dot substack dot com is probably the easiest way
to get me, and that leaks up to all my
other stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Cool.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Okay, if you didn't catch that drop as an email,
we'll send you the link.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
That conversation about the stockholder and all that sort of stuff.
That's a fascinating one. I would take college classes on that.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
I mean, that is really interesting.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Yeah, the whole by strip and flip tendency of big
money is rough on everybody.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
I think some of it is.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
We we more people are into the stock market and
pay more attention to it. Now you buy and sell
and buy and sell throughout your life, as opposed to
buying GM or Ford stock or IBM stock and holding
onto it for forty years.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
You know, maybe that's some of the difference.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I don't know what a what a topic arm Strong
and Getty.
Speaker 7 (18:26):
That's unbelievable, so unbelievably, like I knew what was gonna
happen but still, when I saw it like that just
completely took my ability to speak away.
Speaker 6 (18:34):
Being being able to take your your glasses off and
then like seeing it for the.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
First time was shocking.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
That some of the uh pretty ecstatic coverage of the
eclipse yesterday afternoon. I have to tread carefully here so
I don't come off as my son who is a
teenager and thinks nothing is cool or you shouldn't mote
about anything, because that's part of the whole teenage buy.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I guess sure. I am so aloof and so world
weary enough impresses me.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
The only thing that impresses me is cool and as
cool as some band you've never heard of. Dad, that
is worth getting very excited about. But I don't want
to be that guy. Because h Hanson, our executive producer, Michael,
you really enjoyed the eclipse or whatever I.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Look. I traveled.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
I took a day off work and traveled for the
last eclipse with my kid. Obviously, I thought it was
a worthwhile thing and spent a fair amount of money
to get into a spot where I can watch it.
But God, some of the reactions from people, I just thought, really,
I don't know, all right, let's let's hear some more
of CNN's coverage.
Speaker 7 (19:39):
I'm flabberg aid. I'm speechless. I saw something that I
have dreamt for, Thank you, that I've dreamt of for years.
We've seen this coming for years, and now we just
witnessed it. You heard the enthusiasm of the crowd. As
a meteorologist, I'm dumbfounded. It was spectacular and I want
to do it again.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
It was so wonderful.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
You've dreamt of total eclipses, all right, that's just a
guy who says odd things.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I mean, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
I would never urinate on another person's wonder at the Cosmos.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
I thought the coverage was a tad much. I hear
you some more.
Speaker 7 (20:23):
It is every three hundred and seventy five years for
a total solar eclipse to occur on any one point
in the planet.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
What do you think about that?
Speaker 5 (20:30):
That's unbelievable.
Speaker 7 (20:31):
I did not know.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
You're Unbelievable'm lucky to have an experience like that so much.
I'm so lucky to do it young too. It's amazing.
So I'm confused by that. I saw one a few
years ago. What was that at a particular point on
the planet. Oh, if you lack both an automobile.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
An airport ticket, and legs exactly, then you've got to
wait three hundred and seventy five years.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
For the rest of us, though, we'll just go over there.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
If you're tied to a post and have to hope
that an eclipse comes your way, it is very rare.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
But if you have the ability to travel a little
bit over there, you've probably gonna see one in a
couple of years. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Yeah, although you know now that taken just as a
piece of science, that's oh wow, every three.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Hundred and seventy five years. That's interesting.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Yeah, It's as if the eclipse is painting the Earth,
going around and around, and eventually it covers the whole
thing that it starts again. On the other hand, if
you're putting it in terms of viewing one of them,
then no, it's not that miraculous. Hasn't been since really
man first mounted horse. Well, this is my theme in
the New York bias towards everything. It didn't get this
(21:42):
sort of attention and wonder and oh my god, crying
oh when it was going over Montana, Idaho and Washington,
as it does when it's going over New York.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
I just think it has a lot to do with
the New York media market. Here's some more I had
in my spine.
Speaker 7 (22:01):
I had a tear because as a meteorologist.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
You dream, I dream, you dream these days.
Speaker 7 (22:07):
And to have this occur on a snow capped mountain,
on the tallest mountain in Vermont during this incredible, incredible,
you know, celestial dance.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
We call it all right, you can't beat it. I
don't want to hear him say anything else he's wearing.
Speaker 4 (22:23):
I'm saying, oh, oh, I forget my wife, need good
to meet you.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
I think is with a tingling in your spine you
might want to see a chiropractor about that.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
What was that bit on Saturday Night Live?
Speaker 5 (22:35):
Girl?
Speaker 1 (22:36):
You wish you hadn't started talking to at a part?
Speaker 7 (22:39):
Right?
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yeah, that's that dude. How about the we got one
about the animals. That's clip thirty seven there, Michael.
Speaker 7 (22:45):
We've been talking to Ed Lavendera who was watching close
to the animals at the Dalla Zoo and how wild
they were going.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
There was there were birds that were going crazy.
Speaker 8 (22:53):
In the miss missed it was so wild and clearly
the animals have delivered. I will say they have delivered
during the eclipse, and it's a good one, I think.
I think it's such a it's such a dramatic eclipse,
and that may be why they're responding to it.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
All right, all right, I mean maybe she had more
to say about the way in which animals behaved.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Perhaps I'll read something later, I don't.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
I like the combination of this is the most important,
emotionally satisfying thing that's ever happened in our lives. And
schools wouldn't let kids go outside because it's too dangerous.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Yeah, don't get me started, which is being of science. Yes,
speaking of science. I can either do this right now
or after a break. But they're learning about learning a
lot about what middle aged people can do now to
help prevent dementia later.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
And as a middle aged guy, I read this article
with great interest.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
And reminds me of a quote that came across health
last night. Because when you said that, I'm thinking it's
probably gonna help to eat eat well, or exercise or
do something.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yeah, I wouldn't bother.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
So there's a new may have already aired. It's airing
now or on PBS. A new documentary about William F.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Buckley.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
It was one of my favorite people to UH to
read about and learn about and listen to back when
he was alive, William F.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Buckley.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
And it's gotten a variety of reviews positive and negative about.
You know, it's a liberal outlet doing a documentary about
one of the most important conservatives seriously, maybe in the
last century, William F.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Buckley.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
But I was watching some interviews with Buckley, uh last
night for some reason, and he was at he was
toward the end of his life. Interesting, he was on
Charlie Rose. If you don't know William F. Buckley, he's
really one of them. He honestly is one of the
more important conservatives in American history and a founded National
Review and and and and he he he made conservatives
(25:00):
feel good about themselves. There's a lot of conservatives that
make their way onto media now that that make us
look bad.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
He made us look good.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
But anyways, towards the end of his life, he's on
Charlie Rose, and Charlie Rose said, are you you know,
how do you feel about dying?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
I mean you, he said, I'm ready. I am ready.
I've lived long enough. I'm tired of life. He actually
said with a smile on his face.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
I'm tired of life. I've done everything i can. I'm
breaking down. I'm ready to be done. I thought that's
really interesting. But he was talking about how he had
to start exercising more and his least favorite hour of
the day is when he has to exercise.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
But he had this quote, and I thought this is
a very good sort of thing. William F. Buckley would say.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Nature goes after you and castigates you for any tendency
to self satisfaction.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yes, self satisfaction.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Like wanting to sit around in a chair and watch
TV or eat this food or any of the things
we indulge ourselves in.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Nature will take a look. Ah, ain't gonna let you
get away with that. Now.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
You think you can get away with it, but you can.
I'm watching you owe me, you owe me. Yeah, and
that's just a reality right there. Nature castigates me for
any tendency towards my self satisfaction. I need to remember
that every single day. You can't slip one by. You
can't say to God or nature or whatever you say,
oh look over there, and they need to don it
doesn't work that way. Yeah, no kidding, or skip leg
(26:20):
day or whatever you're going to do.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
I saw a review of that NPR PBS whatever it
is Buckley thing, and I didn't read the whole thing,
but one thing they pointed out was that can you
imagine doing a documentary on somebody who spent their career
crusading against the Klan the KKK, and never once mentioning
(26:43):
the evils of the clan. Well that the PBS thing
with Buckley does that. They mentioned he was a life
long crusader against communism, but they don't spend thirty seconds
explaining why somebody might be against communism.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
And I think there's probably a reason for that. Interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Uh so you're gonna give us some tips for trying
to stay healthy. Coming up, I've also got this NPR
guy talking about how NPR has lost its way and
he's a liberal, among other things.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
On the way stay here.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
After Friday's earthquake, everyone asked did you feel it? After
today's eclips, everyone asks.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Did you see it? This is better than usual question
in New York City? Did I sit in that? And
you know I didn't? Did I? I didn't?
Speaker 3 (27:36):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
I didn't.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
So I listened to NPR regularly. It's always bothered me
as a guy who's been in commercial radio my entire
adult life, that NPR gets boosted by the taxpayer, so
doesn't have to run commercials, which gives it a tremendous
edge competitive edge for the rest of us. And one
(27:59):
of the reasons they can do such fantastic reporting and
everything like that is they got a business model that
nobody else in the free market commercial world can pull off.
And they get really good ratings because they do a
really good job with their increasingly left wing.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Reporting. So I thought this was really interesting.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
A guy, an NBR veteran guide worked there for twenty
five years.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
It wrote a piece.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Just the other day about how far left NPR is gotten,
and it bothers him even as a liberal.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
I'll read a little bit of it.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
During most of my tenure at NPR, an open minded,
curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee jerk
activists or sculting scolding.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
That sounds right.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
That's the way I took an NPR back in the day.
It was nerdy and it was liberal, but you know,
I could tolerate it. In recent years, however, that has changed.
Today those who listen to NPR or read its coverage
online find something different, the distilled worldview of a very
small segment of the US population. Like many unfortunate things,
the advocacy took off with Donald Trump. As in many newsrooms,
(29:04):
his election in twenty sixteen was greeted at NPR with
a mixture of disbelief, anger, and despair. But what began
is tough, straightforward coverage of a belligerent, truth inspired president
veered towards efforts to damage or toppled Trump's presidency. Persistent
rumors that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia over the
election became the catnip that drove reporting at NPR. We
(29:25):
hitched our wagon to Trump's most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff,
I was about to become a US Senator in California.
The shift talking points became the drum peat of NPR
news reports. But when the Muller Report found no credible
evidence of collusion, NPR's coverage was notably sparse.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Russia Gate quietly faded from our programming.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
It's it's a bad to blow a big story. What's
worse is to pretend it never happened. To move on
with no Maya couples, no self reflection, as we did
at NPR.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
He mentioned some other examples.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Hunter's laptop was newsworthy, but the timeless journalistic instinct of
following a hot story lead was being squelched. During a
meeting with colleagues, I listened as one of NPR's best
and most fair minded journalists I wish he'd name the name,
said it was good we weren't following the laptop story
because it would help Trump. Over the course of the pandemic,
a number of investigative journalists made compelling, if not conclusive
(30:18):
cases for the lab leak, but at NPR, we weren't
about to swivel or even tiptoe away from the insistence
with which we backed the natural origin story. Our new
news director declared that diversity on our staff and in
our audience was the overriding mission.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Now race and identity became paramount and nearly.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Every aspect of the workplace, journalists were required to ask
everyone we interviewed their race, gender, and ethnicity, among other questions,
and it had to enter it into a centralized tracking system.
We were given unconscious bias training sessions. A growing DEI
staff offered regular meetings employing us to start talking about
race how about that, anybody you interviewed for a news story,
(31:00):
if a flood happened here, you just got to interview
people that were affected by the flood. You shouldn't be
getting into their race, gender, ethnicity, all these different things,
cataloging and then deciding you don't have enough of this
or that.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
I mean, that's how nuts is the flood destroyed your home?
What's your gender identity?
Speaker 3 (31:19):
The mindset prevails in choices about language and a document
called NPR Transgender Coverage Guidance, we were asked to avoid
the term biological sex. The mindset animates bizarre stories on
how the Beatles and Bird names are racially problematic, the
Beatles of the band as a racially problematic name for
(31:39):
a band, among other things.
Speaker 5 (31:42):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
I can't even imagine what that went into.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
I looked at voter registration for our newsroom in DC,
where NPR is headquartered and many of us live. I
found eighty seven registered Democrats working in editorial positions and
zero Republicans, not one single one. Anyway, don't worry about
that lead bias. Yeah, it's a very long piece with
a whole bunch more examples. But I was I guess
(32:06):
pleased to hear that it's not just me that's gotten
more cranky about listening to NPR.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
It has actually moved. According to a liberal who works.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
There, Oh yeah, absolutely, they're they're unmistakably obsessed with all
of the woke identity questions.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
It's it's well, it's shameless, but.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Well remember the example I gave a couple of weeks
ago where my jaw actually dropped. Very seldom does my
jaw actually drop taking in media coverage.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
But they had somebody on there.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
They are talking about Hamas and using the hospitals and
all that sort of stuff, and somebody said, the whole
Hamas uses hospitals has been thoroughly debunked, and they just
went on with that.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
They just went with that. The hosted with who were
there interviewing.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
I thought, wow, that is crazy. Well that's just flat propaganda.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Now there are just engaging in well not engaging in
any effort to find truth.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
That's that's well, that's not helpful to the cause.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
They get tremendous ratings, partially because the advantage of tax
payer money and not having to have advertising propaganda works anyway,
totally different topic, if I might, since I said we
would get to it. As a middle aged person, I'm
certainly concerned with this. We've all had the senior moments.
We all have seen folks from the president on down
who are clearly suffering from the signs of age related dementia.
(33:24):
And there's increasing science about what you can do in
your middle age to decrease the chances of being more
seriously afflicted with that sort of thing. And a lot
of the science is new because science had quite appropriately
been studying people who had severe dementia to try to
figure out what's going on, Can they be helped that
sort of thing, And it's only now that they've started
(33:46):
to move into all right, well what does this look
like really early on, and let's talk about the people
who do get more severe dimension those who don't, and
what kind of lives they live in the things they do,
which is obviously you know, it's like a lung cancer.
It turns out to all these people smoked or ninety
percent of them. That's worth knowing. So the bad news
(34:08):
is m.
Speaker 4 (34:10):
This is not like some sort of hack that people
who brush their teeth with the opposite hand once a
week don't get dementia.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Ah A lot of simple life hack.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Yeah, well that's the bad news. The good news is
this appears to be very, very promising science. But it
has to do with the white matter in your brain,
which are the connectors between the brain areas. As you
age in your forties and fifties, they decrease in volume,
which means slower processing speed. You have more life experience,
you have more data, more wisdom, if you will, But
(34:44):
the processor doesn't run quite as fast.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
And we all deal with that. We all must deal
with that, all right, So what do you do? Heart
health is brain health.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
Same things that can lead to blockage of arteries can
affect arteries to the brain, impeding blood flow and oxygen delivery,
allowing plaques to build up. That sort of thing. Exercise regularly,
eat a healthy diet, do not smoke, avoid getting or
managing or do better managing conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity,
(35:15):
obstructive sleep, apnea. And this is intuitive. Challenge your brain,
challenge it regularly. Do puzzles, learn to play an instrument,
try to learn another language, whatever, read, learn whatever you
(35:36):
can do to keep your brain functioning.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Keeps your brain functioning. Yeah, that's not surprising it's just
like your muscles.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
One of the great revolutions of revelations rather that I
heard not long ago. We talked about it on the show.
It was probably a few years ago. Was that at
that point you feel frustrated. That's when you're doing your
brain some good.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Yeah, that's the thing with puzzles. Of puzzles are fun,
but if they're not actually like this is freaking pishling
me off hard. It's not doing the good that like
trying to learn the piano. Try to do two hand
independence on a piano. You want to hurt your brain.
That'll hurt your brain, but in a good way. It
hurts so good. Yeah, And I can see why we
(36:18):
tend to want to stay away from that, especially as
we get older. I've learned enough. I just want to
do things that are easy for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
And I'm a man who craves leisure.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
But I am going to embrace that feeling and start
challenging my brain more.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
I suggest you do too. Good Luck, Armstrong.
Speaker 4 (36:35):
And Getty, Like if I use my brain, maybe I
ought to come up with the concierge program that Steve
and our friends that elevate realty group did get in
a house ready for sale,
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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