Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So six seven, Yeah, six seven it's too dumb. We'll
get back to six seven later. But feel free A
Rod just for fun to inject six seven throughout the show.
If you whenever you feel, whenever you feel it's inappropriate,
actually say no more would probably be the best. A
Rod has his Friday the thirteenth hoodie on. It's actually
(00:21):
a pretty good looking hoodie. I have to say, I
kind of like it. I kind of like it. So
we had a lot to do today. I got some
very interesting guests on a huge range of topics. We'll
get to all of that. I want to just mention
briefly an event I went to last night was a
big annual fundraiser for Jewish Colorado. It's actually called the
Men's Event. For many years it was only for men,
(00:43):
but for some number of years now it's been open
to everybody, and lots and lots and lots of women there.
But it's still called the Men's Event because it's got
that history. And it was a It was at Wings
over the Rockies, which is an amazing venue, and there
were probably, I don't know exactly how many people, probably
a couple thousand people there, and it's obviously a place
(01:04):
that people want to go and be seen. Among the
people I saw there yesterday were multiple members of the
state legislature, Governor Jared Polis, Attorney General Phil Wiser, and
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. Now, of course Jared and Phil
are Jewish, Johnston is not Jewish. Among the members of
(01:26):
the legislature who were there somewhere and some warrants, Oh,
Barb Kirkmeyer was there. She is one of a handful,
a large handful of Republican candidates for governor. To me,
she's the most likely Republican nominee, and at this point
I think she's the best Republican nominee. But she was
(01:47):
there as well. Had a chance to talk with her
a little bit, and it was a great event. And
I just wanted to take a moment and talk about
the guest speaker at the event, and I got to see. Know,
I don't want to get his name wrong, so I'm
not even gonna say his name yet. I'm gonna look
for his name. But he's the former editor in chief
of the Jerusalem Post, which is the major English language
(02:09):
news outlet in Israel, and he recently former so he
was editor in chief of the of the Jerusalem Post
during October seventh and for a year or two before
that as well, and just the remarks he made just
so powerful. I thought, talking about what it was like
(02:29):
for him on that day, and I'm not going to
go into this in great detail, but just talking about
and you can imagine what it would what it would
be like when you're going into bomb shelters every few
minutes and so on. And he didn't even live that.
He was in Jerusalem, right and of course the terrible
destruction in Israel was much further south, down by Gaza,
but still there were a lot more rockets being fired
(02:51):
toward toward him, and that was a fascinating story. But
then what he what he really got to was how
it it unified country that was divided in a way
that even Americans might find difficult to understand, as divided
as our country feels right now. You know, Trump lovers,
Trump haters, Bernie bros Well, you know whatever I mean,
(03:13):
just people in the streets rioting against Ice and then
other people protesting against those rioters, and you know, it
feels like our country feels more divided than it's felt
in a long time, maybe maybe since the sixties, not
that I was very politically conscious in the sixties, but
in any case, Israel before the October seventh thing was
(03:37):
being absolutely torn apart, in particular by some moves towards
what is loosely called judicial reform, but wanting to change
the way that nation's supreme court works, and that nation
supreme court does not work like ours. It is very political.
The members of it are chosen in a way that
is very political. Obviously, we have presidents nominated our own
(03:58):
Supreme Court justices, but that feels even more political there
than here. And it was really shredding the country. And
then October seventh happened, and everybody unified. Everybody, even people
who were protesting aggressively against the net Nyahu government just
a day before. Everybody unified, and it really changed Israel,
(04:23):
at least for some time for the better. And one
of the things that really construct me was when he
talked about some of these young adults who were in
the military and taken captive by Hamas on that day.
A few of them just came back a couple weeks ago,
(04:45):
and some of the others, especially the females, came back
a few months ago, and he said there were five
female members of the IDF who were taken from one
base that was overrun by Hamas, taken hostage and released
a few months ago, and all five of them, all
five of them said that they said immediately they want
(05:09):
to go right back into the military. And there was
a guy who was just released two weeks ago, was
kept hostage for two years, two years in hamas dungeons
and tunnels and so on, and he met with the
Army chief of staff. According to the story, this guy
told he met with the Army chief of staff and said,
I want to go back into combat right away. I
guess the Army chief of staff told him, you know,
(05:30):
take a breath. We're in a ceasefire right now anyway.
But thank you. And it's just it's a wonderful it's
a wonderful thing to think about, that level of American spirit.
And he also told some really horrendous stories about some
of the stuff that happened, you know, on October seventh,
(05:51):
and I'm not going to repeat it is just too
graphic and gruesome and horrible. And that part of the
converse just reminded me of how disappointing, and that's a
very mild word. The proper word would probably be a
lot stronger than that. Disappointing, moving towards infuriating, it has
(06:12):
been since October seventh to have so many folks on
the political left in the United States be unable to
tell the difference between who are the good guys and
who are the bad guys, and separate from members of Congress,
for all these years of having college students propagandized and
brain damaged by their professors who tell them that Israel
(06:35):
or a bunch of settler colonialists as a term they
like to use, or committing genocide, one anti Semitic lie
after another, and then you know, you're reminded of the
real stories of what happened to those people on that
day and the fact that the people who did it
would do it again if they could. And then you think,
(06:58):
how can there be anybody in America who has any
confusion at all about who's right, who's wrong, who's good,
who's bad? And just because somebody isn't perfect doesn't mean
they're not good. But everything about Hamas is bad. And
yet we seem to have many people in the United States,
(07:19):
including apparently the guy who's likely to be the next
mayor of New York who cannot tell the difference. The
first thing I want to mention is that, while I'm
not a religious person, I experienced or or witnessed perhaps
a miracle a couple of days ago, and I want
to share it with you. So, my younger kid, teenager,
(07:47):
he's just got this huge amount of light brown hair
I guess like brown, and he's very picky about his haircuts,
and of course I'm not very picky about my haircuts,
so I'll just like, wait until there's a cupeon it,
great clips, and then I'll go there. And you know, actually,
the last time I got a haircut, I made sure
(08:08):
to go back to the to the lady who did
my haircut the previous time because she was so good.
But normally I'm not like that. Normally, I just you know, whatever,
just get it. I feel the same way about getting
a haircut that I feel about doing my laundry. Right
It's it's annoying and it's got to get done every
once in a while. So that's how I feel about
about that. But my kid is much more particular, and
(08:30):
time after time after time, And I'm sure if you
are or know or own a teenager, then you know
that they get real picky and they you know, they
get a haircut and then they look at themselves in the
mirror and they don't like it, or they're embarrassed, or
they don't want to go to school after and it's annoying.
So here's what happened. I found a place that was
(08:52):
just sort of digging around online looking for a place
that wasn't one of these big chains where my kid
could get a haircut, and he went and got a haircut.
Now this is like two months ago. He got a
haircut and he liked it, and I thought, all right,
that's good. And so a few days ago he said, hey,
(09:13):
I need another haircut, and I said, well, here's I
reminded him of the name of the place, the name
of the haircutting guy, and he went again and came
back again and said, oh my gosh, that guy's that
guy's really good. I'm just going to keep going to him.
I really like my haircut. And it's a miracle. It's
(09:35):
an absolute miracle. And if you are the parents of
a teenager, you probably know what I'm talking about. To
have him come home and say I really like that haircut.
I didn't think those words would ever come out of
his mouth. So that was the miracle that I witnessed.
And I hope you're all. I hope you're all pleased
for me. There was a piece over at KDIVR dot com,
(09:56):
our news partners at Fox thirty one. The headline is
investigation finds that DPS board member was likely quote belittling, dismissive,
and condescending. So this is an investigation into John young Quist,
who actually is one of the guys who has the
most experienced in education, who is on the school board.
He is a recently elected member of the school board
(10:18):
and politically, I would say, a bit to the right
of many of the other members of the school board.
And I guess he treated some people in a way
that they didn't like. And the investigation was set off
after the superintendent, Alex Morrero, who I think young Quist
(10:38):
doesn't like very much, and I think young Quist wanted
and maybe still wants, although he denies it, the job
of superintendent, but he did want it. But Morrero said
that mister young Quist consistently demonstrated a pattern of hostility,
policy violations, racial insensitivity, and unethical conduct that has created
a toxic working environment. Now, look, I don't really necessarily
(11:00):
take Morrero at his word because these two don't like
each other very much, especially after young Quist had suggested
that maybe Morero's contract should be bought out and he
should move on and they should hire somebody else. So
they did this report, and I guess some people who
work in the district are perhaps African American or Hispanic
(11:21):
or whatever. And the report says that young Quist engaged
in belittling, dismissive, and condescending behavior and that he has
not changed his behavior. A couple of those people, though,
quote unquote, both people of color, said that they were
wondering whether, essentially whether young Quist was being racist, and
(11:41):
the report said there is not evidence that young Quist
is being racist. Is basically they're saying he's rude to
everybody and you shouldn't take it as if it's a
racist thing. Now, what I wanted to share with this
with you, and I think I have time to do
this right now, is some truly insane audio. And I
have to thank Rob Dawson from our Kawa newsdesk for
(12:04):
getting this to me. Truly insane audio from soci Ga Tan,
who was the past chair person and still a member
of the Denver School Board. I just want you to
understand that this is the kind of person making the
most important decisions about your children's education if your children
(12:25):
are in public school in Denver. And let's see, I'm
going to back this up to this part and go
from here.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And I'm still working through the findings of the report
and thinking about how thinking about how I want to
deconstruct the white privilege that I read within it and
how it's playing out. And my lens in which I
see the world is that of a Latina Mexicana, having
(12:51):
lived the undocumented, experience, the sensitivities that I have due
to the race dynamics that I experienced my whole life,
what it feels like to live with internalized oppression due
to the racism, having to live up to standards of whiteness.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
And so that is the lens in which.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I see and am reviewing this report and the findings.
I believe that white people never learn never learned, never
had to, never will have to unless they choose to
bear witness to the pain.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
That people of color deal with.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Due to racism, biases, microaggressions that impact us.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
That my friends that person was the chair of the
Denver school Board, still a member of the Denver school Board,
and I have a question for you, actually, I have
a very specific question. I would like to hear at
five six six nine zero right now from any folks
of Hispanic descent who listen to them at and get
(14:01):
your take on it. Because I don't share her history.
I don't know her history. I am not, as she
put it, a Hispanic Mahicana. I'm not, never have been,
don't play one on TV, so I don't know that perspective.
I would like to know from you, if you are
a Hispanic person, whether you think what she said is
(14:21):
sensible or the kind of nonsense that should cause people
to be running very far from Denver public schools. When
we come back Buffalo, let me just talk briefly about
Donald Trump's President Trump's meeting yesterday with Chinese presidents Shijinping.
This is hugely important. I know it's a little bit
(14:41):
in the weeds, but it's just so important I need
to talk about it for a few minutes. So there's
a lot going on between these two countries. There are
a lot of issues between the two countries, issues including
trade balance, overall rare earth minerals, the TikTok deal, Chinese
fentanyl precursors being exported to Mexico where they get turned
(15:04):
into actual fentanyl that then ends up coming into the
United States of America. These are some really really big issues.
And Trump and President She met face to face in
person for the first time in I think six years
or something yesterday, Right, They've had phone calls and such,
(15:25):
but they met in person and they got some things done.
President Trump was asked from one to ten, with ten
being the best, how would you rate this meeting? And
he said it was a twelve. That's very trumpy. I'll
call it a six, but that's fine. That's better than
a zero or a one or a two. And I
(15:46):
think one of the things that has happened, and I
think it's a useful thing, is that at the beginning
of this trade war stuff, President Trump was constantly saying,
and his Treasury secretary was constantly saying, that we have
all the leverage over China because we buy so much
more from them than they buy from us, that if
(16:06):
we put tariffs on them that make it more difficult
for them to sell stuff to us, that we're going
to have an incredible amount of leverage, and we're going
to be able to get done everything that we need
and want to get done. And the Chinese said, ah,
not so fast. Sure, we buy less from you than
(16:27):
you buy from us. But the thing is, Americans, the
thing is that a lot of what you buy from
us you can't get anywhere else, and a lot of
what we buy from you we can get other places.
So you have to look at a lot more than
just who's buying how much in total. You have to
look at, well, what are your alternatives? And America, you
(16:50):
don't have as many alternatives as we do. And they
were right about that. And so the negotiations, which I'll
just move ahead. The negotiations are, I think are much
more of an equal basis between the US and China
than between the US and any other country where the
US absolutely has escalation dominance to one degree over or
(17:13):
another over all these other countries. So they met yesterday
and they agreed on a few things. So China has
agreed to hold off on their most aggressive restraint on
the export of rare earths for a year. And that's
a big deal because a lot of absolutely critical industries
(17:33):
rely on these things, especially to make magnets, so electric vehicles,
a lot of power generation, especially so called renewable power generation,
A lot of weapons systems need these things. So they
agreed to delay those restrictions for a year. China has
said that they're going to start buying at least some
quantity of American soybeans, and there are some numbers floating
(17:54):
around out there, like twelve million metric tons, but we
don't really know, and we don't really know whether they
will do what they say they're going to do, but
they probably will buy some. So those were some good things.
The TikTok issue, I think it came up, but it
was not resolved, so and I actually don't know what's
(18:17):
still left to be resolved there. We know the framework,
but I guess the Chinese government hasn't necessarily agreed to
it yet. And then President Trump agreed to cut tariffs
on Chinese stuff by ten percent, which is modest. Right,
the average Chinese tariff rate going into the meeting was
(18:37):
fifty seven percent and now it'll be forty seven percent.
So eh, you know, all of this, all of this
is better than nothing, and I think it's a good meeting,
and I think it was fairly successful. It wasn't a
twelve out of ten, but it was good enough for
(18:57):
their first meeting. And we'll just have to see how
this plays out. Hey, Rod, can I do this thing now?
All right? We're gonna I'm gonna hit this button. This
is uh yeah, hold on. Let me let me just
make sure I get everything going properly here in our
efforts at semi professional radio. Here on KOA, I'm getting
(19:21):
a zoom thing going. If you're wondering what I'm doing
while I'm talking to you here, all right, there she is.
I've been looking forward to this conversation for quite some
time since I saw an article at the CSU website
entitled Home Again and it's about bison. The subtitle the
subhead of the article is from Petri Dish to Prairie
(19:42):
the Laramie Foothills Bison Conservation herd restores bison and invigorates
Native American culture. And a lot of this article is
cultural right and about the significance for different Native American
peoples u having the opportunity to bring bison sometimes called buffalo,
(20:04):
back to where they live and back integrating them into
their cultures again. But of course in order to get
that done. There's a lot of science behind this. How
do you rebuild, how do you restore, how do you preserve?
How do you expand these herds of buffalo? I'll use
the term buffalo in when you're starting from a relatively
(20:26):
small population and when you're also dealing with a species
of animal that is sometimes sometimes at risk of some
diseases that make it so that you couldn't send the
buffalo out into the world if they catch these diseases.
So how do you deal with all of that? It's
all really complicated, so joining us to talk about it.
(20:47):
Jennifer Barfield. She's a PhD. Associate professor at the College
of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at CSU and I've
been working on setting up this interview for probably a month,
so we finally got it done. Jenks for being here.
It's good to see you.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Okay, before we get into the nuts and bolts of
the science, Uh, talk about the goals of this project.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Well, you know, I mean, for me as a reproductive physiologist,
I was really interested in the scientific question of using
reproductive technologies to mitigate disease, let's say. And so you know,
when we established the herd ten years ago now, which
is amazing to me, all of the project partners had
(21:37):
different goals. So the city and the county are our
partners as land managers and land owners, and so they
really wanted to help bring the vison back into that
ecosystem and get the benefit of them there. And so
we had other researchers who were coming in to study
the ecological side of things, and we were on the
reproductive side of things. And then I think the idea
(21:59):
of the herd was that it could be a seed
herd to do exactly what you've just described, where we
could share these animals with other people who may want
them in their herds for their genetic value. So there
were a lot of different reasons to do this project.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
All right, one question that's outside of your lane, and
you can just tell me you don't know the answer,
although I bet you do, and then we'll and then
we'll get back to your lane. But you were just
talking about the benefits to the land and then to
the land owners, the city and the county of having
bison on that land. What are the benefits to the
(22:33):
land and the perceived benefits to the land owners of
having those animals on that land, if you know.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
Sure, I mean, I can speak a little bit to that. So,
I mean, bison are often called gardeners of the prairie,
so just having them on the landscape can create habitat
for other species. They push seeds into the ground, so
they really help keep the landscape healthy. And all grazers
can do that to some extent. You know, bison were
(23:00):
historically in these ranges, but you know, cattle can do
that too, And I think, you know, I have always
really been interested in conservation and kind of larger landscale
land management that benefits everyone who is on that land,
you know, whether it's the bison and the other animals
there and the grasses itself, or even you know, the
(23:21):
ranchers who are right across the fence. You know, if
we have healthy animals, they can have healthy animals. It's
all connected and it's all important.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So I'm not a scientist, although I sometimes try to
play one on the radio because I love science and
I'm real I'm a real nerd, And I can think
of two things and I touched on them both before.
There's probably a lot more than two. That would be
big challenges for you on the reproductive side for these
bison to be able to build the herds big enough
(23:50):
to be able to then distribute them out to Native
American tribes or who knows, to wherever else you might
want bison in the future. Right, it doesn't have to
be just that. But I can think of two major things,
and then you can tell me what other things there are.
One is resistance to disease, and I want to talk
to you about brucellosis. And the other is starting with
(24:11):
a with a relatively small population of bison, certainly compared
to what it was one hundred and fifty years ago,
how do you build a big population of bison without
some of the problems you can get from mammalian in breeding.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Sure, yeah, those are both great questions. So, you know,
I think it's you know, when we are doing the
work that we're doing with our herd, we are not
necessarily making these animals resistant to disease. What we were
trying to do is to bring them back to the
landscape and ensure that they weren't bringing particular in particular
(24:50):
brucellosis with them back onto the landscape. So just to
give you a little bit of background, I mean, you know,
bruscellosis came from cattle at some point probably cross over
into bison. And now you know in the greater Yellowstone area,
that's really the only place that we have to worry
about brucellosis and by some populations. But because that population
(25:11):
is really valuable, people want to move those genetics out.
They want to move those animals out for conservation purposes,
but it's really risky with the disease, right, So what
we do is we use the reproductive technologies to essentially
help establish a herd where you don't have to worry
about the risk of brucellosis in the same way that
you would if you were just moving ma animals directly
(25:32):
from the park and having to test and go through
You can quarantine them, you can move them out of
the park, but it takes time and testing and all that.
So we were developing a new tool really. But what's
kind of cool about the tool that we are using,
the reproductive technologies is that it goes right to your
second question, where when you have a small population, you
(25:52):
worry about things like inbreeding. Right, an inbred herd can
be susceptible to a lot of challenges, is from disease
standpoints or you know, dramatic climactic events, those types of things.
Sometimes these small populations are less resilient. So one of
the things we can do with the reproductive technologies is
bring in new genetics in the form of you know,
(26:16):
spermer eggs or embryos, and we can ensure one that
they are bringing in disease with them, but we are
bringing in new genetics in a pretty safe way. And
so that's kind of how we have helped build our herd.
We have had some animals that we've introduced that we've
gone through the quarantine process with. But also, you know,
we bring in these new genetics and help kind of
(26:38):
make the herd more resilient through the reproductive technology. So
we're doing kind of both at the same time.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
So with the second thing, effectively, you can create bison
babies as if one of the parents, well with one
of the biological parents being five hundred or thousand miles
not actually part of that particular breeding herd, to expand
the genetics of that breeding herd, right, that seems pretty simple.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Yeah, absolutely, And I can give you a great example
We have a bull calf on campus here who was
the product of an artificial insemination. So the sperm that
we used to inseeminate his mother was frozen ten years
prior to the insemination from a bull from Yellowstone National Park,
and so I don't know where that bull is now,
(27:29):
but his genetics are now here and can potentially be
represented in our population in just that way.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Do you think that the bulls that have genetics or
the bison doesn't have to be the male bisons. Do
you think the bison that have genetics that trace too
Yellowstone National Park consider themselves slightly superior, like some Americans
who can trace their genealogy back to the mayflower. Do
you think they think about it that way?
Speaker 4 (27:56):
You know, I'm not really an expert on bison psychology,
but they all seem to get along pretty well unless
it's breeding season, and then you start to see some
of the fools try to establish some superiority or dominance
is the word we normally use.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Okay, Another equally scientific question for you, because I am
a scientist at heart, is how do you think, for example,
that that bison that you just described, how does he
feel about Kevin Costner?
Speaker 4 (28:28):
You know, that's a question. I'll have to ask him
when I go out and see him later today. I'll
just you know, kind of wave him over and be like, hey, Bud,
what do you think?
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Yeah, I want to I want to just go back
briefly to the brucellosis thing, because I've heard of it
for a long time and I know it's bad, but
I don't really know what it is and what it does.
So can you just edumacate me on that a.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Bit sure thing? So, brucellosis is a disease called caused
by a bacteria and in animals, particularly you know hoofstock, cattle, bison,
you know, it will kind of can stay dormant in
the body. When a female gets pregnant, you know, it
gets activated and it goes into the placenta and really replicates.
(29:12):
So what it causes in females is that they will
abort their calf, usually fairly late term, or sometimes they
have a weak calf that dies soon after. And then
the other animals, because bison are super curious, they'll come up,
they'll sniff, they'll lick that calf, whether it's alive or not,
and they get the disease. And that's kind of how
it perpetuates through the herd. It can be transmitted to
(29:34):
other species, so it is zoonotic. You know, Elk cavet
cattle can get it, and so people can actually get
it too. The result isn't the same as far as
symptoms it can cause, kind of like a long term flu.
You have to take antibiotics for a really long time
if you have underlying health conditions, that can be really
bad and potentially deadly, you know, And so you know,
(29:56):
there's been a real effort to kind of get rid
of it from our cattle population for all of those reasons.
And so, yeah, it's a nasty disease. It doesn't always
kill the animal or kill a person if they get it,
but it's you know, it's pretty undesirable.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
And how easy or difficult is it. Let's just stick
with the bison population here to test for it and
to treat for it.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
So you can test for it, but there really isn't
a treatment for it.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Well, even though it's bacterial, there's not bison antibiotics that
are highly effective against it.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
That's right. It has to do with kind of where
that bacteria goes when it gets into the animal itself.
It goes to places where it's really hard for the
antibiotics to attack it. So that's why even in people,
you have to take these really long term antibiotic schedules.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
So if a female test positive for it, does that
mean that you then would remove that female from the
breeding stock.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Well, with our technologies, we could still potentially use her
for breeding purposes. Now we wouldn't put her out in
our conservation herd. We would keep her in a facility
where she is contained and cannot potentially spread this to
other animals. But we don't have any animals like that
currently in our hands, so we are really just working
with animals that do not have brucellosis at this point.
(31:21):
And in all honesty, once the animals go out into
our conservation herd, we let them breed naturally, and we
only use these reproductive technologies when we need to when
we need new genetics. And so you know, in that way,
we're kind of minimally applying these technologies and just kind
of letting the bison do the rest because they breed
really well on their own. So the thirty adult females
(31:44):
in our herd and we have twenty nine calves this year. Wow,
so they're doing really well.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
We're doing great. Yeah, they should be able to have
some fun too. A couple of listener questions. Are bison
raised in captivity smaller than bison and that are out
in the wild. Are they same size?
Speaker 4 (32:05):
I guess I don't have any say to to support
my answer, but I don't believe they're different.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Okay, for some reason I care different say.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
That for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I don't know. Okay, I don't think they're different either.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
I mean, they're being well fed, they're being kind of
protected from things that might challenge them, and so I
would think in captivity they would be the same size.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Listener question, are you involved with the bison that live
near the Pawnee power station north of Wellington?
Speaker 4 (32:33):
I am not. So we are just to the northwest
of that herd, and I think they're talking about the
Platte River power plant up there, and that they have
a separate herd that they manage. They're beautiful animals and
we've been over there, we've visited them. So yeah, they
have bison out there doing kind of the same thing
(32:53):
that ours are doing, being gardeners of the prairie.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
So listener asks, did your guests grow up a ranch girl.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
That's a great question. No, my mother was a she
was a secretary at elementary school. My dad was a luthier.
He's a musician at night. He fixed the string instruments
in the day. And I grew up around Fort Bragg,
North Carolina, or Fort Liberty, So you know, I know
I was not a range girl, but I don't know.
(33:24):
I've been drawn to it for a long time.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
They renamed Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, if I
remember correctly, But I think what they did. If I
remember this right, you're gonna have to go look it up.
I think they named it after a different Brag because
you know, this administration kind of wanted to go back
to the old names. They thought Liberty and all that
was a little bit woke, even though I liked Liberty.
But I think they made it Brag again, but for
(33:47):
a different guy, if I remember right, So check it out.
I know they did that with one of them. I
know they did that with one of the fots. Okay,
last quick thing, Just give me a few seconds on
ten years of of this herd and anything you want
to say about that.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Oh man, this herd has been so rewarding to work
with for me and the staff, and I think what's
really been such an important part that I, you know,
I didn't really anticipate is the connection within the community,
not only with our Native American community here in Northern Colorado,
but the students at the university, and then all the
people we've met and touched across this country that we've
(34:26):
gotten to work with, and we send animals to other places,
and you know, it's just been kind of this all
encompassing good thing that I want to share with other people.
I hope people go out and see the herd. I
hope they join us this weekend for some of our
celebration events.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Oh yeah, what are those? Tell us about those and
how to find out more.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Sure on our Facebook page. We have a poster that
lines all the events. But on Saturday, which is National
Bison Day, We're going to have an open house at Soapstone,
So I will be there with my team and our
partners from the city and county to answer questions. We're
going to try to encourage the bison to be in
a viewing area. I can never promise that. That afternoon
is the powwow at CSU that starts at one, and
(35:08):
then on Sunday we're going to be an old town
square of Fort Collins from noon to two. We are
going to have the Iron Family doing drumming and singing.
They were the ones who did the blessing for the
herd on the day we released them, and we will
the project partners will also be out there too at
that time.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
All right, what's the Facebook page called so I can
put into my blog and listeners can find it.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
Laramiefoothills Bison dot com.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Laramie Yeah face bills or Laramie Bison has its own
web page, Laramiefoothills Bison dot com. Does that work?
Speaker 4 (35:40):
It's a Facebook page?
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Okay, Facebook page? All right, I got it. I found it.
I'll put it on my blog and listeners you can
go to Facebook type in Laramie Foothills Bison and you'll
find it and you can check out all the events
coming up. Congratulations on ten years, and thanks so much
for spending some time with us today.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
Thanks so much. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
All right, that was a great conversation. That's doctor Jennifer
Barfield from CSU. Thanks Jen, all right, that was great.
I love that little biology nerding out. It's not always
physics nerding out on the Roskiminski Show. It can be
biology as well. All Right, when we come back, you know,
well you might know, unless you didn't hear, in which
(36:18):
case you don't know. My show is moving from my
current timeslot to Morning Drive six am to nine am,
starting Monday, November tenth, the week from next Monday, and
this time slot nine to noon will be taken over
by Michael Brown, who many of you know very very well,
either from listening to him on our sister station ka
(36:39):
how or from as many years here on KOWA. Michael
Brown's going to join me in studio talk about it
a little bit right after this. We're making some changes here,
and that is that my show currently nine to noon,
we'll be moving to what we in the radio business
called Morning Drive, and that'll be six am to nine am,
and Michael will be coming over or i should say
(37:02):
coming back to KOA, and he will be taking over
this current time slot of nine am to noon for
Colorado morning news listeners. What you need to know is
that five am to six am will be the same
as it is now Colorado's morning News. Gina's going to
do the news. It's all news, all the time for
(37:22):
that hour, really get caught up on all that. And
then starting at six is going to be Ross Kaminski
on the News with Gina Gondek, and it's going to
be a show that's very similar to what I do
right now nine to noon. Gina will be much more
of a participant though than if you ever hear my
crossovers with Gina that we do usually at eight fifty
(37:43):
eight in the morning, I think you get a sense
of why I'm so excited to have Gina much more
involved in the show. So anyway, that's what's going to be.
That's what's going to be six am to nine am,
and we're going to bring you news four times an hour.
We'll still be bringing you traff weather and all that,
and then we're gonna you know, we're gonna talk more, right,
(38:04):
And I really hope that you find that for those
people who live who listen during that kind of morning
drive thing, who used to Colorado's Morning News, I hope
that you will find it fun and interesting to have
some talk as well as news there. And you know,
we hear at KOA hope that that's gonna be that
that's gonna be something you enjoy. A listener did send
(38:27):
a text here, Ross, I'm concerned that you're gonna get
burnt out and we'll be retiring soon having to work
that early. And let me just tell you that's absolutely
not a thing you need to worry about. So before
I did this job, I did the job that Michael
Brown is doing right now. Was that six seven, hey, Rod?
Was that unintentional sixty seven I did? I did morning
(38:50):
Drive on our sister station KJOW four hour show from
six am to ten am for six years, and I'm
used to it. I woke up at four fifteen today
without an alarm. I just got up, and usually I
am up before five am anyway, without an alarm. And
(39:10):
so it's absolutely no problem for me. I will I
will not have to really change my own lifestyle very
much in order to do this. So for me, I
am really really excited about this change. For those people
who are asking, Ross, was it your idea or their idea,
management's idea to move my show to earlier in the morning,
(39:33):
Here's how I'll put it to you. It was their idea,
but it would have been my idea if I knew
it was possible. I'm very very excited for this. I
think it'll be great for the station, great for listeners,
and excellent for me too, which is also important. So
you know, for those people who are texting in wondering
if I'm upset about this or sad about this, absolutely not.
(39:56):
I cannot think of anything more that I would want
in radio than Kaway Morning Drive. And now it's happening,
and I hope you will enjoy the new project as
much as I'm sure I will and Gina will. Uh. Okay,
So we expect Michael Brown to show up in just
a couple of minutes here, so someone hit a quick
break and then when when we come back, we'll have
(40:16):
Michael with us. I want to take a moment here
because I got a really really interesting email. I'm not
gonna play the audio. Uh oh is he walking in
right now? All right? All right, all right, I'll hold
off on that email because I want to give it
a more more as much time as it deserves while
(40:37):
we wait for Michael to come in, and he should
be here momentarily.
Speaker 6 (40:40):
Now.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
I just want to let you know that five more
people have been arrested in this Louvra heist thing. So
they've got they've got a total of seven people now
arrested in this in this jewel heist, but they haven't
found any of the jewels yet, so we'll we'll have
to see what happens. And I don't know whether they'll
find any of this stuff before somebody gets to cutting
(41:01):
them all up in the little pieces and destroying all
that history. All right, Michael Brown just arrived with his
dark sunglasses, putting on his other glasses. Good to see you.
Speaker 6 (41:13):
What's with the chair here?
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Oh? This is ihearts So we have really cheap chair,
flimsy chairs.
Speaker 6 (41:19):
I thought I was moving up in the world.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
You might still have maybe the chair in the k
House studio that I bought for myself years ago.
Speaker 6 (41:27):
That's the one that I still use.
Speaker 7 (41:28):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
It's a decent chair.
Speaker 6 (41:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
When do you bring it with you, you get a little.
Speaker 7 (41:31):
Up great actually, because I actually prefer those taller chairs.
Speaker 6 (41:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
I do like the taller chair too.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
So I wasn't gonna say welcome, but really I should
say welcome back, you know, to Koa. You are here
way before I.
Speaker 7 (41:46):
Was all right, this is I'm in my start of
my twentieth year wow, and I started.
Speaker 6 (41:50):
I started on this station, gosh back in maybe two.
Speaker 7 (41:53):
Thousand and six, I think, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
So a lot of folks we've told if you're just
joining now, okay, So here's what's going on. My show,
which is currently nine to noon, is going to move
six to nine, and Michael's coming over from K HOW
and he's going to be nine to noon, Mandy stand
everything else stay in the same, Mandy stay in twelve'
to three. Everything else is staying the same.
Speaker 7 (42:14):
And as far as KA How is concern, they're gonna
they're going to audition people and you know, maybe by
the first of the year, how somebody replaced me, yeah,
which I mean replaceable, but you know they'll they'll they'll
search and find some such some idiot.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
I'm sure you're aware that I follow the exact same
path as you K How Morning drive over here to
KOA and for me, one of the greatest things beyond
just the fact that you know, I do love K Well,
I loved k HOW too. It's both great. But going
from a four hour show to a three hour show.
Oh and you've done both now for what a difference?
Speaker 7 (42:44):
Well, I do a nationally syndicated program on the weekend
for Premiere three hundred and fifty stations across the country.
It's a three hour show and it's some Saturdays, and
it goes by like that.
Speaker 6 (42:55):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (42:56):
In fact, today it's I'm looking at the clock in
the king Oh, I'd be done, I'd be done.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
I imagine it's a long time. I imagine that the
vast majority of people listening to us right now already
know when you and know your show. But for those
who maybe don't, tell us a little about you and
the Michael Brown Show.
Speaker 7 (43:17):
Well, I came back from working for President Bush in
two thousand and five and two thousand and six, I
got asked by Peter Boyles of all people, to go
on his public Affairs TV Easton program.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Oh didn't even know he had one.
Speaker 6 (43:33):
Yeah, he had one.
Speaker 7 (43:34):
And I, you know, I kind of knew of Peter,
but not a lot about him. So I is a
week before Thanksgiving, I drive down to the studios down
at PBS somewhere, and I'm thinking about canceling because it's
snowy and nasty and everything else.
Speaker 6 (43:47):
But I think, no, I made the commitment. I'm going
to do it.
Speaker 7 (43:50):
So I go in and I think Pete was having
me on simply because he wanted to rip George W.
Bush apart. Which, fine, you want to have that debate,
all have debate.
Speaker 6 (44:00):
Sure? Was he perfect?
Speaker 5 (44:01):
No?
Speaker 6 (44:01):
Did he do things I liked? Yes? Did he do
things I didn't like? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Yeah, So all presidents are like that, yes, some degree.
Speaker 7 (44:07):
So I get into this debate and unbecombs to me.
When I get done, he calls our then market manager,
Chris Ollinger and says, hey.
Speaker 6 (44:17):
This guy was really good. You have to have him
on the radio. So I don't know.
Speaker 7 (44:21):
A few weeks later, I get a call from Chris
Allinger that said, hey, we got this opening on Saturday
on KOA.
Speaker 6 (44:27):
You want to do that? Yeah, of course I want
to do that.
Speaker 7 (44:30):
And then next thing I know, I'm doing evenings on KOA,
and then I'm doing drive time on k HOW. Then
I'm doing morning drive, and the I'm right back in
KOA again.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
You know, it's funny. I have a sort of a
Chris Olinger story. So you you did weekends here on
KOA and then you moved to a weekday job, right,
I was doing weekends on a different station on not
even in this building. I won't bother naming it. And
I went to Chris olinger or and said, hey, would
you think about me for weekend? She wouldn't listen to
(45:01):
she wouldn't even give me the time of day. And
then Greg Foster came in and a long story short,
he gave me k away weekend. So I had no
after you that after you it's it's it's quite a world.
What do you like to talk about? How do you
describe yourself? I do. I have to say I love
the taxpayer protection shot pay taxpayer relief shot, relief shot, Yeah,
(45:24):
relief tax paryl one of.
Speaker 7 (45:26):
They will continue on Friday's in the from eleven to twelve,
and that whole segment is I don't think that. I mean, look,
you know, someone defends their home with a gun locally
or baseball bat or anything. I don't care what it is,
but they defend themselves from home invaders, and it might
get local coverage. But there's a mass shooting somewhere and
(45:47):
that gets national coverage. Nobody ever talks about the use
of self defense, a god given natural right of self defense.
So we collect those stories. We have a guy in
New Jersey, of all places, that collects all these stories
for us, sends them to us, and then we spend
an hour every week just playing those stories because it's
(46:08):
it's good for people to hear that we still have
the Second Amendment, which the story, the segment's not really
about the Second Amendment. It's about the god given right
of self defense. Yeah, and sometimes it involves a gun,
sometimes it does not. And sometimes they're funny. Sometimes they're
really like shocking because you stop and think about, holy cow,
that could be me, you know, So people learn to
(46:31):
think in terms of, oh, yeah, there's a local home
invasion here. That's actually something that ought to be a
national story because an individual defended their family, their property, whatever,
and we have a right to do that in this country,
and we're slowly losing that right.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
I'm talking with Michael Brown, who will as of November tenth,
be on KOA in this very time slot, nine am
to noon as I moved to six am to nine
a m And I want to mention that one of
the things I've always appreciated about Michael is that, unique
among the hosts we have here, he's got serious experience
(47:08):
inside government and really can talk about the operations of
government with a perspective that even someone like me who
reads a lot about it or talks to a lot
of politicians or whatever, doesn't have.
Speaker 7 (47:22):
You can talk about having a baby. You and I
can talk about that. Yeah, but we've never had a baby.
Mm hm. I, however, have served at the highest levels
of the government that it for almost six years, five
years and ten months or so, and really good experience,
really bad experience, good, bad, ugly everything. So you ask earlier,
what's how would I describe my show? It's culture and politics,
(47:45):
because I believe culture is ahead of politics. It's culture
and politics. But when we get into the politics, the
political side. I tried to explain to people nationally, state
and locally, here's what's really going on, Here's what's really
happening behind the scenes, here's what you really need to
think about it, and here's what the media. The media
does as much by co mission as they do by omission.
(48:08):
And I try to fill in the omission part. It's
we can all watch the television, we can all see
what the news is, or we can listen to the
news even on KOA or k how and hear what
they're telling us. I like to tell you what they're
not telling.
Speaker 6 (48:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
I love that perspective. And like I say, Michael has
he knows how it works. Plus he knows people is
access to people that you know many of us don't
have access to. We've only got about a minute left here, Michael,
I'd like to ask you to give me an example
of a cultural thing that's on your mind today, or
maybe it was on your show yesterday. You know, some
cultural thing that you think is ahead of the politics,
(48:42):
that you think is important.
Speaker 7 (48:43):
Well, it's what we talked about today, was the Snap
program and the food stamp issue. Because we are developing
and we don't think about this, but we're developing, and
the government closure is exposing it. How we're developing a
culture of dependence, dependence on the government, whereas that's truly
(49:04):
a private sector function. Church, charitable organizations, Feed America, all
the different organizations that can feed poor people and make
that If my wife's going to buy some shoes for
some kids that need shoes for winter, let's say she
spends twenty dollars, but we now expect the government to
be compassionate for us. They'll spend forty dollars for that
(49:25):
same pair of shoes and be less effective in getting
it to the kids that really need it.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
I couldn't believe it when I learned that something around
ten percent of the population in the state of Colorado
is on food stamps, which we're supposed to call snap
because it doesn't make them feel as bad.
Speaker 6 (49:40):
Right, but twelve percent of America's nation and.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Twelve percent nationwide, and I have the same reaction you do.
How is that possible? To me? That feels like a
failure of our nation.
Speaker 6 (49:51):
It is. It's a failure.
Speaker 7 (49:52):
It's my phrase is we've abdicated our We all have
compassion for people.
Speaker 6 (49:58):
Of who are less fortunate than us, No, we have.
Speaker 7 (50:00):
Abdicated that compassion to the government, and the government, particularly progressives.
I believe Marxists, the Democrat socialists of America who are
overtaking the Democrat party right now, have taken advantage of
our compassion and said, oh, we'll do that for you,
And so we step.
Speaker 6 (50:17):
Back and we let them do it. And now where
they have a bloated program that is making people more
and more dependent every single day.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Yeah, and unfortunately, I don't know if Republicans really have
the stomach to cut back on it. We'll have to see,
for example, with the Obamacare subsidies, what will Republicans agree to?
And I know you're a stalwart for limited government and
you know, keeping spending down and you hate the national
debt as much as I do.
Speaker 7 (50:42):
And I'd like to just caution the audience, Yeah, that
I speak very frankly, sometimes very harshly, and I try
to keep it very very real. There's no political correctness,
there's no trying to dance around an issue. I just
dive right into it because I know that people listen
to radio love you and they hate you.
Speaker 6 (51:03):
I don't care.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
As long as they're listening, I don't care. Very good, Okay, folks.
So that's Michael Brown. I'm sure you know him already,
but any in any case, starting a week from Monday,
November tenth, Michael Brown will be here on KOWA nine
am to noon. I'll be moving earlier in the day
six am to nine am, and I hope you will
all listen to all of those six hours and Mandy
and everything else on Kiowa. Thanks for coming in, Michael.
(51:25):
Good to see you you too. All right, It'll be
good to see you, you know, every single day for
a couple of hours. Yeah, we'll be right back. Hey Rod,
could you put my audio up please? So I'm just
going to do this kind of quickly. The context is
that there was an investigation done of a particular member
of the Denver School Board who some people said was
behaving inappropriately and some people were questioning whether he was
(51:48):
a racist. The report did not come back saying he
was behaving in a racist way. They said he was,
you know, rude to some people, but not rude to
people because they're Hispanic or African American or anything like that.
Just like basically the result of the report is the
guy can kind of be a jackass, but not having
anything to do with race. But of course some folks
(52:09):
really like to push this issue. And a member of
the Denver school Board made a comment, and I think
it was a pre written statement. She actually sat down
and wrote this thing. Her name is Soshi Gaetan. She
used to be chair of the school board. She's not
chair now, she's a member, and she gave a statement
that really kind of boggled my mind a little bit
(52:33):
and makes me wonder, as I often have, whether I
would want to have my kids in Denver public schools.
But as I play this for you, and as I
heard it myself, one thing that occurred to me was
a question of, well, maybe it's just she's got a
very very different background, a very different perspective, and maybe
it's not fair of me to judge, even though this
(52:55):
sounds outrageous to me. So I'm going to share this
with you again. You can text me at five six
nine zero with any of your thoughts. So, but I'm
going to share this with you, and then I'm going
to share one listener email that I got about it,
and then we're going to do something something different. So
just have a listen to this.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
And I'm still working through the findings of the report
and thinking about how thinking about how I want to
deconstruct the white privilege that I read within it and
how it's playing out. And my lens in which I
see the world is that of a Latina Mexicana, having
(53:32):
lived the undocumented, experience, the sensitivities that I have due
to the race dynamics that I experienced my whole life.
Speaker 3 (53:40):
What it feels like to live with.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
Internalized oppression due to the racism, having to live up
to standards of whiteness, and so that is the lens
in which I see and am reviewing this report and
the findings. I believe that white people never learn, never learn,
(54:03):
never had to, never will have to unless they choose
to bear witness to the pain that people of color
deal with due to racism, biases, microaggressions that impact us.
Speaker 1 (54:19):
So, speaking of biases, in the interest of sort of
not biasing the next thing I'm going to share with
you here, I'm not going to say any more about
my reaction to that at at this point. I talked
about it a little bit earlier. I would love to
know your reaction to that at five six six nine zero.
And as I asked earlier in the show, I said,
(54:41):
I would particularly like to hear from hispanics who heard
that that I just played for you, and I would
love to get your take on it, because I know
that I don't have your perspective and I don't think
I represent the world, and so I would like to
know from hispanics whether you I think that that mindset
(55:01):
that Soshi Gui Tian represented there is is on target,
off target somewhere in the middle. Do you think she
represents lots and lots of people who feel that way.
Do you think she's an outlier. I really want to
know now. I got an email from a listener that
I thought was fabulous and represents one of the things
(55:22):
I love most about this job, interacting with listeners who
are smart and thoughtful. So this is from a listener
named Alan, and he says I'm Hispanic, and I do
agree with that SoundBite. However, she makes it sound like
we're all doomed to fail, and I don't believe the
situation is that dire. Sadly, discrimination is just part of
(55:45):
being Latino in America, and I've experienced it myself, not
as often as she might have you believe, but it
happens too often in my view. I'm in financial services
and I was once told by a white supervisor for
a very large investment bank that will remain unnamed that
he didn't want me to work with Mexicans because quote,
they don't have any money. I'm also very proud to
(56:07):
be Latino, and my wife, who is white, is a teacher,
and she often describes her struggles to reach her Latino students.
My take is that the school district just doesn't know
how to connect with these students, and consequently the teachers
don't either. I don't know what the solution is, but
certainly more representation is needed, if anything, just to help
teachers who are on the front lines connect with their students.
(56:29):
That said, a lot of students struggle at home and
when there's no real support at school, these students are
facing lifelong challenges because they never get the foundational skills
to excel in the real world. And I think that's
what this sound bite can bring attention to. So there
you go. I mean, that's what I was looking for, right,
somebody to help explain that to me in a way
(56:51):
that I can at least somewhat understand, not having that
same perspective and background. And I think I'm not going
to add more of my own opinion about what Soshi
Gaiton said. You can probably guess what I think about it,
but I want to know what you think, So text
me at five six six' nine, zero all, right something
completely different. NOW i am very pleased to welcome to the.
(57:12):
Show joining me in. Studio. Tamara Ryan tamra is a
nationally recognized, speaker, author leadership, expert and THE Cores Economic
Mobility fellow for The Common Sense, institute WHERE i have
the privilege of being a fellow as well in a
slightly different. Area, Tamra, welcome it's good to see in.
Person thanks for being. Here, Yeah i'm so glad you
(57:33):
came in. Studio it's great. You along with a couple
folks From Common Sense, institute put out a report recently
called The Economic impacts Of Lost Childcare assistance In, colorado
AND i have to, say just as far as the
numbers and the costs and the scale of all, THIS
i was blown away by some of some of these,
(57:56):
numbers which is a whole different question which we will
also get into to maybe what some of the solutions.
Here but can you start us off by describing the.
Speaker 8 (58:04):
Problem, well this particular report was specifically about childcare, assistance
which is something that's available to low income, families and
about thirty thousand kids across the state are served by
this childcare. Assistance so that means that a low income
family can apply to get the subsidy and then that
(58:24):
money goes to the childcare center to help decrease the
cost that they. Pay and right, now there are some
federal mandates that have come down that have changed how
childcare centers get paid in a way that's actually good
for the childcare center and also have limited will limit
(58:44):
the amount that a family can pay to just seven
percent of their household. Income also good for families and childcare. Centers,
however these mandates came down with no additional, funding and
that's really the genesis of the report because we wanted
to look, At, okay what's the impact going to be
if we can't fund the childcare?
Speaker 1 (59:04):
Needs what are what are the main federal mandates that
are driving changes in cost of?
Speaker 8 (59:09):
Childcare, oh in a bigger, picture it's so it's when
it comes down to the cost of, childcare it's much more.
Localized so those things are related TO uh regulatory and
licensure issues at the level state and also to a
(59:31):
certain extent at local. Level because the way the way childcare,
works you Know, colorado with the way any of our benefits,
Work colorado receives federal government, money it gets distributed to
counties and then counties distributed to the.
Speaker 5 (59:48):
Individuals that's the.
Speaker 8 (59:49):
System colorado is just one of ten states in THE
us that is county based for those.
Speaker 5 (59:55):
Things so what is affecting the cost.
Speaker 8 (59:57):
Of childcare is that there are rules and regulations at
a state, level and there are rules and regulations at county,
levels but we're talking things like.
Speaker 5 (01:00:10):
Teacher to child.
Speaker 8 (01:00:11):
Ratios that's a you, know a regulatory thing that impacts
so if you can only have one In, colorado you
can have one teacher for three. Infants so when you
think about, that that's what makes it a very labor intensive.
Industry there are other quality things and safety things that
are regulated that impact. Costs where the center can be,
(01:00:35):
located what you, know what the facility has to be,
like et.
Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Cetera and just to remind, listeners With Common Sense, instituto
you can go to c S I co dot. Org
So Common Sense Institute colorado c S i C o dot.
Org if you click ON i think this is up
on the front, page but also if you click on
on research you can find it in there as. Well
a couple of bullet points camera and near the top
(01:00:59):
of your, Report i'm going to quote this change and
it's about a subsidization rate coupled with increases in childcare
costs will Increase colorado's program costs by over twenty million
dollars in the next three. Years so that's one kind
of stunning, number especially at a time when the state
budget is pretty. Squeezed and then the other one that
(01:01:19):
actually shocked me even. More with the new, requirements the
state average annual cost per child is expected to increase
from six thousand dollars to eighteen thousand. Dollars, so how
can it possibly cost eighteen thousand dollars to do childcare
per kid per? YEAR i can imagine. It, actually if
(01:01:41):
it's limited to like you can only be taken care of,
three then you get no economies of scale at. All,
Right but what are the main things that are driving
this astonishing.
Speaker 8 (01:01:51):
Number, well so the two things that we focused. On
we talked about the new mandates from the federal government,
broadly but there are really two things that are driving
that's changing. Cost one is that families will no longer
have to pay more than seven percent of their household
income if they're receiving childcare. System and so there are
(01:02:16):
instances in which families pay upwards of twenty to thirty
percent of their household income for.
Speaker 5 (01:02:21):
Childcare.
Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
Wow and so.
Speaker 8 (01:02:25):
This new mandate says a families cannot spend more than seven,
percent which The department Of health And Human services says
is what the level is for it to be. Affordable
so that's where that number comes.
Speaker 5 (01:02:37):
From and so does the sound.
Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
CRAZY i don't know if it's, perfect but it doesn't sound.
Speaker 8 (01:02:41):
Crazy, No and so the cost per kid goes up because.
Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
They might have meant the government's part of the cost
for a kid goes up because the individual is contributing
less of the.
Speaker 5 (01:02:52):
Cost and so.
Speaker 8 (01:02:54):
Now the cost for kids going, Up but the federal
government isn't has historically been about seventy one percent of
the TOTAL seacap, dollars they're not increasing those. Dollars we
know what's happening in the state right. Now the state
doesn't have more money and so now there's more money
has to be paid to childcare centers and there's no
(01:03:15):
additional dollars to do.
Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
It one of the things that has frustrated me a,
lot and this is a more macro, concept is how
many levels of state and local, government not just In,
colorado in lots of places built essentially permanent programs using
funding for it WITH i will CALL covid money The
American Rescue Plan, act, Right and there's some of that
(01:03:38):
going on here right where that was used to fund
and now that money's gone and now they're scrambling as
if they didn't know that money was going to, disappear
or Maybe i'm being too harsh about.
Speaker 5 (01:03:48):
It, WELL i think it's a combination of.
Speaker 8 (01:03:50):
Things that, money in my, view particularly related to childcare,
assistance was really important because when you look at the
majority of the parents who get childcare assistants, assistance it's.
Moms but women really led in terms of their employment
the recovery from the. Pandemic they were the most affected
(01:04:11):
at the beginning of the, pandemic but they really led
the recovery in terms of their. Employment so those dollars
feel like they were actually really well spent because they
allowed more moms to get back into the labor.
Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
Force, Okay and so just to be clear about What i'm,
saying you, know we can have different conversations about whether
the money should or shouldn't have been spent that way DURING,
Covid and you, know maybe a libertarian would like, me
would say that's not the government's. Job but that's not
really the Issue i'm raising right. Now the Issue i'm
raising right now is is why would, governments in this
(01:04:44):
project or anything, else build things that are reliant on
a funding source that they know is.
Speaker 8 (01:04:51):
Temporary, WELL i think this was a bit of a
perfect storm because what also happened in that same period
was the cost of childcare. Up and you think about
what happened in twenty, twenty because we as voters voted
on a constitutional amendment to increase MINIMUM, wag you might, recall,
well if you look at the trends in terms of
(01:05:12):
cost of, childcare they started ratcheting up at the same.
Time and so it's kind of a perfect storm of.
Problem because the costs are going up, dramatically we were
able to use THE arpa money.
Speaker 5 (01:05:24):
Temporarily now we're in a.
Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
Pickle, okay just a couple of minutes left. Here one
of the other things you talk about in the, report
and again for those joining this report for The Common
Sense institute and headed up By Tamara, ryan for this
report the economic impacts of lost Childcare assistants In. Colorado
so just give us briefly what the title says, there
(01:05:49):
the economic. Impact why is this? Important brought in the?
Speaker 8 (01:05:52):
Macro in the, macro so there have been about thirty
thousand kids served by childcare. Assistants what is happening now
is that twenty four counties across the state have either
frozen or waitlisted their new.
Speaker 5 (01:06:08):
Applicants to childcare.
Speaker 8 (01:06:10):
Assistance so if today you're in one of those counties
and you have a, baby you would not be able
to get childcare assistance if you're.
Speaker 5 (01:06:17):
A low income.
Speaker 8 (01:06:17):
Family so they're, estimating the state is estimating that we
will go from thirty thousand kids serve to ten thousand kids. Serve,
wow so it's not one to one for. Parents it's
about one point five children per. Parent and so we
looked at what happens if just twenty percent of those
parents who no longer have childcare assistance leave the labor, force,
(01:06:39):
Right and what we saw was that the economic impact
on the state would be about one point one billion
dollars with A. B.
Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
Yeah and on the other, hand if the state we're
paying you, know eighteen thousand dollars or whatever the state's, Share,
yeah the state, Share if it's going to eighteen thousand,
dollars how does that compare to the economic loss that
you just described of them leaving the?
Speaker 5 (01:07:00):
Workforce, WELL i guess, FIRST i want to save the.
Speaker 8 (01:07:03):
Gap what it would take to fill the gap of
child chursistence is about seventy, Millions.
Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
Okay so a lot less than the one money a small. Fraction,
yeah and so at six, percent.
Speaker 8 (01:07:13):
And it's about seventy three hundred jobs directly lost and
indirect jobs, lost about ten thousand jobs.
Speaker 5 (01:07:19):
Lost because you.
Speaker 8 (01:07:20):
Think about those all those families who are no longer,
working we as a state lose the disposable, income meaning
what they spend on rent and at the grocery store
and things like.
Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
That, okay so literally one minute. Left if you assume
that there's not going to be more federal, money and
if you, assume just for the sake of this, conversation
that there will not be a state tax hike to
fund any of, this and maybe or maybe not more
state money because the state budget is in trouble. Already
(01:07:52):
what are the primary things you might try to make
this problem? Better if you're not going to BE i
don't mean you are going to be able to throw
more money at.
Speaker 5 (01:08:02):
It if you're not.
Speaker 8 (01:08:04):
Going to be able to throw more money at, it
you've got to find ways to save how.
Speaker 5 (01:08:08):
WELL i think one of the ways would be to
look at the.
Speaker 8 (01:08:11):
Regulations so for, instance not necessarily for, infants but for
toddlers and older, children there might be an opportunity to
change the ratios of.
Speaker 5 (01:08:19):
Teachers and there are some studies that look at that.
Speaker 8 (01:08:23):
Difference so if you were to go from one to
four toddlers one to, five you could save. That this
study said you could save about seven thousand dollars a
year average.
Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
Cost per per. Kid. Kid that's a.
Speaker 5 (01:08:37):
Lot, yeah it adds.
Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
Up. Yeah are you getting any traction with this with state?
Government are you? Trying are you talking to politicians about
it or local? Regulators whoever's whoever's doing?
Speaker 6 (01:08:48):
This?
Speaker 8 (01:08:49):
Yeah So State Senators right And State Senator Matt ball
are actually kind of on the case and are gathering
a group they're hoping to create a task for to
look at how changes might come about regulatory or rules
that would decrease the cost and make it a more viable.
Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
INDUSTRY i wish, YOU i wish you a lot of.
LUCK i much much much prefer to have people in
the workforce than, not and this is something we should
all we should all care. About eighteen thousand dollars a
kid is simply not going to, work and they have
to find ways to save, money even if they are
going to throw more money at. It eighteen thousand dollars
(01:09:29):
a kid is not going to. Work. Tamara ryan's new,
report along With Cole anderson And Thomas young of The
Common Sense, institute is The Economic impacts Of Lost Childcare
assistance In. Colorado you can read it AT csic dot. Org,
tamra thanks so much for joining, me and thanks for
the really interesting report you.
Speaker 5 (01:09:47):
Got good to be.
Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
Here we'll be right back ON. Kowa i've got listener
text on a range of subjects because we covered a
range of subjects as always here on the, show And
i'm just going to go through some of. THESE a
listener just texted in about the cost Of Phil weiser
suing The trump administration. Again actually two listeners just texted
in about, that and let me just say a few.
(01:10:10):
Things so, FIRST i Had phil on the show while,
back AND i asked him why he seems to have
made a hobby of suing The trumpet, administration and his answer, was,
WELL i sue them WHEN i think they're breaking the.
LAW i think that's partly. TRUE i think he does
sue them when he thinks they're breaking the, Law BUT
i think his threshold for what counts as breaking the
law has dropped a dramatically where what would Be i'm
(01:10:35):
president Of Bad Analogy. Club, right so let me think
of an analogy for. You, okay how about. This how about,
this though the wide receiver is running down the field
and the cornerback just barely puts a hand on, him
doesn't even cause him, to you, know drift out of
the route that he's already. Running and yet the official
(01:10:55):
throws the, flag, right because he just seems like a
hair trigger kind of. Thing AND i think that's Where wiser.
IS i think he has a hair trigger to Sue
trump for a couple of. Reasons one he didn't Like,
trump and two he's running for governor and he needs
to build up NAME id and he needs to build
Up think about, This think about. This Letitia james The
(01:11:20):
Attorney general of The state Of New. York she won
an election to Become Attorney general of The state Of
New york by campaigning specifically that she was going to
use her office to go After Donald. Trump now she
should have been actually disqualified from holding office for, that
but she won that. Way and this is what you
(01:11:40):
do these. Days, you especially if you are in a
blue place already where The democrat is likely to win
the general, election then the most important thing is winning the,
primary and how do you win a primary on The democrat,
side it's moved. Left on The republican, side it's move.
Right but we're talking About democrats right. Now and So
phil wh wants to show himself as a died in
(01:12:04):
the wool hater Of Donald, trump willing and able to
attack him whenever and however he, CAN i said on the.
Radio in, FACT i Saw Phil wiser at this EVENT
i was at last, night the big annual fundraiser For Jewish.
Colorado was an amazing, event And phil was there AND
i saw, him and he talked About he AND i
talked for a minute about this LAWSUIT i have said
(01:12:27):
on the. AIR i told him in private in, person
AND i told him again last night THAT i think
this is an incredibly weak lawsuit that has no chance of.
Success and his argument is That trump is Moving Space
command headquarters From colorado To alabama because he doesn't like
(01:12:47):
How colorado runs its elections and he doesn't like mail
in voting and so. On and let me just make
this clearly. Clear it's true that that's What trump. SAID
i don't know If trump meant it or. NOT i
Think trump just generally doesn't like states that he didn't.
Win but let's Take trump at his word that he's
moving space command because he doesn't like the way we
(01:13:11):
do our elections. Here and my response to that is
that is not going to be a winning argument in
court For. Colorado remember this is the state the Same
supreme court that issued that immunity ruling that basically, says
anything that is within the president's power to, do he
cannot be criminally charged, for even if even if what
(01:13:35):
he does is would otherwise be thought of as a.
Crime for, example if he told AN fbi agent or
told a member of the. Military let's say he told
a member of the military to kill a political. Opponent, okay,
yes the member of the military who killed the political
opponent could be charged with a, crime but the president couldn't.
(01:13:58):
Be the president has plenary authority to order members of
the military to do, things and so in that, case
even though it's obviously a, crime you could not charge the. President,
similarly and this was in a dissent From sonya so
to my or what about if the president took a
bribe and told, Everyone i'm Pardoning ross for his various
(01:14:24):
crimes against society Because ross gave me half a million
dollars to pardon. Him let's say he said it out,
loud you still couldn't charge him with a crime and
the pardon would still. Stand, NOW i don't like The
Supreme court's. RULING i think it went too. FAR i
think it needed to go halfway that, far but it
(01:14:46):
went too. Far but it's. Done that's WHY i Think
phil is going to lose this, lawsuit BECAUSE i think
The president has absolute authority to move space command wherever
he wants to move. It and it doesn't matter What
phil's argument, is even if it's, true it doesn't. Matter
that's my take on.
Speaker 4 (01:15:02):
That Oh.
Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
Gosha, Still i'm on a roll. Here i'm gonna have
to do this and Then i'm gonna probably take another
segment and answer and answer some more listener. Questions. Ross
did you ever decide on a license plate? Frame, YES
i decided on two license plate. FRAMES i have a
different one in the front THAN i have in the,
back And i'm trying to remember which is. WHICH i
think the front is a sort Of gadsden flag don't
(01:15:24):
tread on me license plate frame and the back the Back,
okay on the, back the top of the license plate
frame says, president and the bottom of the license plate
frame says bad analogy. Club so thanks to thanks to
you guys for suggesting that another listener, says, Hey, ROSS
(01:15:45):
i may not be able to listen to your, show
or at least not all of it in the new time.
Slot will there still be a podcast? Available absolutely exactly
what we're doing now with. Podcasts it'll be just the, same,
Right there'll be a podcast of the whole, show with
the very very very small exceptions of when we have
to cut something, out like if there's copyrighted music when
(01:16:06):
we do name that tune that cannot go in the
podcast because the, lawyers so that stuff will be, up
but basically the whole show will be. There you can
go To rosskominsky dot com Or koacolorado dot com and find,
that or just in your podcast app just subscribe to
The Ross Kominski. Show and there's also a benefit. There
and this is gonna sound, sarcastic but it's, not because
this is WHAT i. Do with, podcasts especially where the
(01:16:29):
speaker has a relatively low, voice you can often speed it,
up not just one in a quarter. Speed you could
easily probably go to one and a half speed and maybe,
more maybe one in three quarter, speed and listen to,
it and you can listen to the whole show in
a relatively short period of, Time AND i think that's pretty.
Good who pays for the lawsuits and who makes? MONEY
(01:16:50):
i think the state. GOVERNMENT i, mean it's in the
budget already of the State Attorney general to file these,
lawsuits unless they have to hire outside council for, it
in which case that costs. More BUT i don't know
how much. More let's see one listener text on the
topic we just did about the cost of. Childcare the
idea that you can't have more than three children per
(01:17:10):
care giver is crazy. Crazy how many parents have more
than three kids and make things. Work and now let
me just, SAY i think that ratio of no more
than three kids per, caregiver AS i understood What Tama ryan,
said is for, infants not for you, know toddlers or
what you might call sort of young, children but for
(01:17:32):
infants who are you, know fully, helpless you, know lying
there in a bastinet or. Whatever SO i think the
ratio changes with the age of the. Kids i'm not
expert on, that BUT i agree with the general concept
that when you set that ratio too, low you drive
you massively drive up the cost of providing the childcare
(01:17:56):
because you need so many more. EMPLOYEES i, mean, imagine
just as an, example if you, had let me just
make up some. Numbers let's say you had three hundred
kids to take care. Of and let's say in one,
circumstance the ratio is not more than three kids per childcare.
(01:18:16):
Worker and another ratio another, situation the ratio is not
more than four kids per childcare. Worker and it doesn't
sound like, much does. It but in the first case
you need one hundred, workers and in the second case
you only need seventy five. Workers that is a massive
difference when you start thinking about the availability of those,
workers and then how much you'll have to run up
(01:18:37):
the cost to pay those workers in order to get
them and try them away from the other. Place and
then then that adds into the cost of taking care of.
Kids that's part of why this is all so. Expensive all,
right thanks for the great listener. Questions we'll take a quick.
Break we'll be right. BACK i hope you get tickets
to the rest concert if you want to. Go i'm
going to The wednesday, show And i'm pretty Sure mandy
(01:18:57):
will be there with, me and depending on The broncos
schedule and some other, things Hopefully Rick lewis will be
there with us as. Well believe it or. Not even
Though rick is like the dominant RADIO dj for classic
rock In colorado for a few decades, now he's never Seen.
Rush So I'm i'm excited about. That Ross in twenty nine,
(01:19:20):
seconds can you give basic reasoning why the music licensing
is different for podcasts versus for over the. Air so
that's in response to SOMETHING i said a little bit
earlier when we do name that tune or even at
the beginning of segments where if you're listening to the
show over the, air you will hear you, know for,
example A rod plays some brilliant tune that has six
(01:19:41):
and seven in it because we're. Talking we were talking
earlier about six seven being the word of the, year
which is really. Dumb but if you're listening to podcast
you won't hear that because we can't put copyrighted music
in podcasts because of our music. License and the answer
to the question what's the, difference the difference is pretty.
Simple our license says for over the air and if you,
(01:20:01):
wanted if we wanted a license with the companies that
own the music to also be able to include the
music in a, podcast then that would have to be
an additional negotiation and more, money and probably much more
money than you can even. Imagine i'm not really expert on,
this but it wouldn't surprise me if some kind of
license like that wouldn't cost twenty million dollars a, year
(01:20:26):
or just some number THAT i think is is very
unlikely to ever get, paid. RIGHT i just don't think
we're gonna we're gonna spend, that not just to. US
i don't mean, iHeart i mean the industry, generally podcasts.
Generally it's just it's it's an immense it's an immense
amount of. MONEY i think that the difference between what
most podcasters would be willing to pay for the right to,
(01:20:49):
use you, know a few seconds or a minute of
copyrighted music in a, PODCAST i think the amount we'd
be willing to pay for that is a lot less
than the amount that the owners of the music would
want for. It, so if you're thinking about like a financial,
market let's say a stock a stock thing where there's
a bid price and an ask price for the stock
(01:21:11):
in this would be an example of where the bid
and ask price are, really, really really far. Apart and
so that's WHAT i think is going on. There let
me do maybe two minutes on a, thing and then
we're going to talk about cloud, seating like making a
rain by putting stuff in. Clouds we're going to talk
about that in the next segment of the. Show SO
i was talking a little bit. EARLIER i played twice
on the show now a statement By Denver school board
(01:21:35):
Member Soci, Geeton and basically what she said is that
white people don't, understand white people never, learn and people
of color are always subject to oppression and white. Privilege
and those are all words she. USED i am not
exaggerating or. Elaborating she said all those, things AND i
thought it was pretty over the, top AND i just
(01:21:57):
wanted to share a couple of quick listener texts with.
You ross it's your brown brother from The Deep. SOUTH
i think she's full of. BS i am in construction
on the management side of things and work with an
immensely diverse group of. People, yes racism is, everywhere but
making it seem like she has struggled more than most is.
Bs you are experiencing racism right now with the listener
(01:22:21):
who sent in that my, wife that is white, experience,
right she is almost talking About gaetanic and she is
almost creating a new sort of, privilege brown oppressed, privilege
which has no room in this. Society if we intend
to move, forward we refuse to be the victims and
have actually made a very comfortable life despite the very
low percentage of people that have shown racism towards. US i,
(01:22:42):
mean my, People mexicans are often racist against each, other
AND i see that more often than any other, race
against my. Race so there's that one. Other racism goes both.
WAYS i work in a field that supports the construction.
Industry as a white man on a site highly populated
By latino, Work i'm absolutely amazed that nobody on site
(01:23:03):
speaks Any, english nor do they have any comprehension of
what my highly specialized vehicle, does even though they have
seen it countless. Time so any attempt by me to
utilize my Limited spanglish is a complete waste of. Time
after thirty minutes on a, JOB i asked a person
face to face who owns the red truck that's in my,
way not knowing that he was the. Owner he, replied no,
(01:23:24):
hobbler AND i walked. AWAY i pulled a chain out
of my toolbox AND i walked over to the. Truck
AS i was on my, knees making it look LIKE
i was going to hook his truck up to drag.
It he came running, out speaking really Good. English back
to the first. SIDE a week, later with A latino,
TRAINEE i was again amazed at how helpful everybody. Was
(01:23:44):
neither situation was life, changing but racism does go both.
WAYS i APPRECIATE i said this. Earlier i'm gonna say it.
Again one of the great great parts of my job
is getting interactions like that with, you because my listeners
are so smart and know so many things THAT i
will never ever, know and having these interactions with you
(01:24:05):
makes the show better than my life. Richer there's a
subject that's come up on the show just a time
or two in the, past mostly out of scientific, interest
which a little more recently has generated some. Controversy i'm
not gonna say it's legit. Controversy it's just there are
some people out there who are not nearly as smart
(01:24:27):
as they think they, are and, anyway we'll get to.
That the Subject i'm talking about is cloud, seating and
there's a lot to. It the science is, fascinating the
promise for it is SOMETHING i would like to know more,
about and so joining us to help us understand it
more Is, cardwell who is chief of operations at Rain Maker,
(01:24:51):
technology WHICH i think is the biggest cloud seating tech
company in the. Country, Parker welcome TO. Koa it's good
to have you.
Speaker 9 (01:24:58):
Here, Yeah, ross thank you so much again for having
me on this. Morning, yeah that's that's. Right, so, yeah
Rain maker we are the largest cloud.
Speaker 10 (01:25:06):
Seeding company in The United states right. Now.
Speaker 9 (01:25:09):
YEAH a lot of a lot of interesting topics around cloud,
seeding a lot of very interesting history as well around
it all starting here in The United. States so happy
to dive. IN i, Mean i'm we're on the same
wavelengths in turn of the nerd and the. Nerdiness OBVIOUSLY
i will work out a company that's making it Rain
So i'll start all, Right, well we'll.
Speaker 1 (01:25:27):
Do the the controversy and politics stuff. Later, well let's
talk about the. History you brought that. UP i wasn't
even thinking of that as a, question but that sounds
awesome for a. Nerd so let's talk a little bit
about the history of cloud.
Speaker 9 (01:25:40):
Seeding, yeah history of cloud, seating so, WELL i guess
we could go we can go even further back than
even just like an actual technology, itself and we can
talk about prayer for like praying for, rain like rain.
Speaker 10 (01:25:52):
DANCES i, mean there's.
Speaker 9 (01:25:53):
Like the culture around the idea that like we would
we need more, precipitation whether it be snow or, rain
has been something ingrained in cultures across the world for,
centuries and so the, IDEA i, mean if you even
let's go Back american history with rain, making rain dances
and prank frames very rooted here as. Well but eighteen
ninety two there's Some West texas ranches that were they're
(01:26:16):
tying dynamite to weather balloons and setting them up into
the clouds.
Speaker 10 (01:26:19):
And hopes that like the explosion would basically come and
rain down the.
Speaker 9 (01:26:22):
Ranches so we've been trying to do this stuff for
like over centuries here in The United.
Speaker 10 (01:26:28):
States but, REALLY i mean that was a hope in the.
Speaker 9 (01:26:30):
Dream when it really became reality was in nineteen forty
six in Upstate New, york a couple of general electric
engineers basically were working in a cloud chamber that they
had built in their. Lab they basically built the freezer
that they injected some humidity, into and they were putting
in dry ice to see kind of what would happen
if when they were interacting with that really cold liquid.
Speaker 10 (01:26:50):
Water and what they found is when they introduced this dry, ice.
Speaker 9 (01:26:53):
Is that all of a, sudden that liquid water in
the cloud chamber converted into, snowflakes which then gave them
the idea, that, well we should try this into a live.
System and that's when in nineteen forty, six you can
see some really cool.
Speaker 10 (01:27:05):
Imagery if you can look at like.
Speaker 9 (01:27:07):
The flight tracks upset in your cloud seating nineteen forty,
six you can kind of see the effect of the
clouds that were not precipitating converge into a precipitating.
Speaker 10 (01:27:15):
Cloud so this really kick started.
Speaker 9 (01:27:18):
A huge kind of like idea of, well hold, up
we can actually we can utilize this natural resource in
a way that might be. Productive and so nineteen forty
six cloud seating the idea and the technology was. Conceived
now The United states obviously took that and ran we
were looking on how to decrease natural disaster seeing if
there was the potential to reduce hurricanes that was in
(01:27:40):
like the fifties and. Sixties the evidence of that was
very inconclusive and probably actually isn't applicable in terms of
like cloud seating as a technology to, that just because
those are large.
Speaker 10 (01:27:48):
Systems once they, start you can't really stop.
Speaker 9 (01:27:50):
Them so cloud seating obviously it couldn't intervene in a
system like.
Speaker 1 (01:27:54):
That and we'll get to some of that as part
of when we start talking about some of the, controversies
BECAUSE i THINK i think there's some people out, there
Like Marjorie Taylor, green who think that cloud seating can
cause something that it can't. Cause BUT i wanted just
to ask listeners if you've got a question about cloud,
seating a question you want to ask a real, Expert Parker,
(01:28:15):
cardwell just text those questions in to me at five
six six nine. ZERO i do not promise to ask
him every question that comes, in BUT i will ask
the good ones And. Parker just for, Fun i'm going
to share with you a listener text here WHICH i
haven't gone to, verify but you will probably know if it's.
True Ross Kurt vonnegut's older, Brother Bernard vonnegut was an
(01:28:36):
atmospheric scientist who discovered that silver iodide could be used
for cloud seating to produce rain and. Snow this invention
is the basis for the Fictional ice nine In Kurt
vonnegut's Novel Cat's. Cradle have you heard that? BEFORE i
have heard this?
Speaker 10 (01:28:50):
Before, yes all, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:28:54):
So is it? True as far as you, KNOW i
think that there.
Speaker 9 (01:28:58):
WAS i mean there's a lot of conflict between the,
brothers AND i think you can take a lot of
fictional ideas and the kind of exasperate them make fun.
Speaker 10 (01:29:05):
Stories.
Speaker 9 (01:29:06):
Right, no there's there's no way that there's like a
correlation between the, two but it's, yeah they were.
Speaker 1 (01:29:11):
Brothers did what did you major in in? COLLEGE i
was actually pre.
Speaker 10 (01:29:15):
Law, yeah pre law and entrepreneurship was the.
Speaker 1 (01:29:18):
Focus, wow how did you get to this out out
of thinking you were going to be a?
Speaker 6 (01:29:22):
Lawyer?
Speaker 9 (01:29:23):
Yeah there's actually never THOUGHT i was going to be a.
LAWYER i think you got probably far too many of those,
already BUT i. WAS i, Was SO i went to
school and then AFTERWARDS i WAS i was living In
New york at the, time and a good buddy of
mine from From Berkeley augustus was coming to visit, me
And augustus is the founder AND ceo of Rain, maker
and we were sitting down on like, Couch she's, like,
HEY i got this idea for this new. Company, like you,
(01:29:46):
know water is a huge issue in The west and
then around the, world AND i stumbled across this new
research that came out in twenty twenty one and then
in twenty twenty, three which was like The snowy campaign
done in The, states and then twenty three was the
cloud lab study done In, switzerland which basically shows that
you can make these clouds like snow and rain and
increase water. Supply AND i was like that sounds, insane,
(01:30:07):
Dude like there's no way that, Works like there's no
way this is a real, technology and like no one's
gonna let you do. That SO i was really skeptical at,
first but then he sent me the. Research he showed
me all like the kind of papers that they had,
done and then most, importantly he showed me the actual
the situation that we're dealing with as it relates to
water in The. West and then about a year LATER
(01:30:27):
i stopped by An Elsa gundo to check out the
lab saw these draunt hanging from the, raptors saw this
an incredible team of young folks that were just on
fire kind of like around this. Mission and then, he you,
know he asked me to, join AND i WAS i
was super fired up to kind of actually be a
part of this mission and do something that's, important do something.
TANGIBLE i think we live in a world of software
(01:30:48):
and apps and like on the.
Speaker 10 (01:30:49):
Online doing something in physical reality was really.
Speaker 1 (01:30:52):
Exciting that's a that's a great. Story all, Right so
let's let's talk about cloud. Seating what exactly is it
and how does it?
Speaker 9 (01:30:58):
Work, yeah so clouds seeing essentially is just mimicking the
natural process of. Precipitation so the way it rains or
snows in The, west And i'll preface by saying we're
a rain, maker, right so you kind of think that
we do, Rain we actually primarily almost only do. Snow
we operate Between october And may every winter to try
and increase snowpack in the.
Speaker 10 (01:31:18):
Mountains if it's warm enough on the, ground it'll falls.
Speaker 9 (01:31:20):
Rain but, anyways in The, west the way that it
precipitates is you get these natural clouds that come across The,
pacific right they're super, cold they're super saturated with a
lot of liquid water in, them and so when they're
very cold and there's a lot of, liquid we call
this super cool liquid. Water so this is, like you,
know water droplets that are existing at below freezing and,
(01:31:40):
temperature and the reason that they don't they need something
to attach onto in order to.
Speaker 10 (01:31:45):
Freeze so what happens is.
Speaker 9 (01:31:47):
Dust, pollen, sand some particle from the ground will gazally
kick up into the clouds and then act as that
centerpiece for a snowflake for the new water droplets to
attach onto it become heavy enough and then fall as.
Precipitation so we do is we basically just mimic this
process by introducing a mineral that has the same shape
as ice that makes it really easy for water droplets
to basically attach onto it and then kickstart that. Process
(01:32:10):
so it's fairly it's modest in scope on a case
by case, basis you're getting you, know if it's not,
snowing you're going from no snow to maybe a light.
Flurry so it's like you, know ten to twenty percent
over the course of the, season which you, know a
flurry on a day to day basis doesn't sound like
a lot when you're talking about accumulating water as in
snow and the.
Speaker 10 (01:32:28):
Mountains over, time you produce a lot of meaningful water that.
Way so that's how it. Works we use drones for our,
Operations so we build our own.
Speaker 9 (01:32:35):
UAVs they fly up into the, clouds you, know directly in,
them and then we can kind of run that.
Speaker 10 (01:32:39):
Operation they, land and then we let nature kind of
run its course that.
Speaker 1 (01:32:43):
Way, okay got so many. Questions i'll try to remember
as many of them AS i. Can For, OH i
remember from seventh grade a term in earth science called condensation.
Nuclei is that what we're talking, About that's exactly.
Speaker 9 (01:32:56):
What We're, oh so it's actually so cloud condensation nuclei
is what's going to actually allow these clouds to form
and then create like the puffy white things that we've
seen the. Sky we use what's called the ice nuculating
particles or ice nuculating. Agents so this is what you're
seeing the soil in the, ground and this is basically
what's going to allow.
Speaker 10 (01:33:12):
That water droplet to attach onto it and then. Freeze
AND i was very.
Speaker 1 (01:33:15):
Similar, yeah, okay SO i was wondering AND i think
you already answered the. QUESTION i was wondering why silver iod,
eyed AND i think you said the answer is the molecule.
Speaker 9 (01:33:23):
Shape, yeah the molecule shape makes it very conducive for
water to basically attach onto, it and we need a
very small, amount about ten skills. Worth it's like fifty
grams in a single kind of run of. Things and
so because nature once it kind of you can kick
started a little, bit and then it really does its
own job and then will precipitate where it wants. To
because really the biggest thing that causes ran and snow
(01:33:47):
in The west as well is our. Mountains so we
operate we only operate very closely to these mountain ranges
because one of our goal is to produce very valuable
and usable fresh, water and so largely this is stored
as snow, pack which then you, know melts off in
the spring and summer flows into our lakes and our
rivers and our blow ground the aquifers like in our.
(01:34:07):
Wells that allows that usable water to kind of be.
Speaker 1 (01:34:11):
Utilized, YEAH i was wondering if your customers are governments
and utilities and so on that are dealing with, uh you,
know large scale water issues or if your customers are
veil In Beaver, creek the whole.
Speaker 10 (01:34:26):
The whole swath of.
Speaker 9 (01:34:26):
THEM i mean really the water districts in the iri
irrigation districts at the local level that we're really partnering
with because like the idea of how we set up
these programs is understanding where does drought and issue whether
we're like our farmers are not getting the water rights
that they they have that you, know they're legally obligated. To,
uh the soil is not being saturated in a degree
(01:34:47):
that allows for conducive agricultural. Production our rivers are running,
low so our hydro is not producing.
Speaker 10 (01:34:53):
Enough so we do as we partner with these local.
Speaker 9 (01:34:55):
Municipalities to develop kind of a system and where that
water is going to be the most. Valuable then usually
this state will come, in whether it be the state Of,
utah who's been our closest, partner will kind of provide
some project funding and then coordination for those efforts because you,
know for the kind of the way that we see
is that in the interior of The United, states so
non coastal, areas there's really no way to produce new fresh,
(01:35:18):
water AND i think that the way that we like
to frame this is that water and drought not as
a crisis BECAUSE i, MEAN i think the more that
we fear, things the less like we're willing to actually
push forward and.
Speaker 10 (01:35:29):
Innovate but more is like water is a catalyst for.
Speaker 9 (01:35:32):
Growth like so if we if we can produce more
water and move away from this like fearful state of
like the preservation and like having to reduce our, consumption
but more so increase the amount where it's, usable then
we can grow our, Communities we can grow our, agriculture
we can grow our energy. Production so this is kind
of the effort that we do with the local and state.
Speaker 1 (01:35:50):
GOVERNMENTS i have a lot of listener, questions so give
me fairly short answers and we'll plow through some of
them because these are mostly technology. Questions and THEN I
i want to have a few minutes to talk with
you about kind of some of the politics that has
popped up around this. Lately can Cloud i'm Gonna i'm gonna,
Paraphrase can cloud seating and causing rain at some point
(01:36:15):
result in there being less rain than there are otherwise
would have been as the clouds drift to wherever they're
going to. Go great.
Speaker 9 (01:36:24):
Question so short answer is, no that we've not seen
through the decades of research that we're Robbing peter to Pay.
Paul in, fact producing precipitation In utah will basically create
enough humidity in the soils then refill the clouds as
they pass by, again which is going to end up
producing more rain downwind of.
Speaker 10 (01:36:43):
That so it's really stabilizing the hydraul the water.
Speaker 1 (01:36:46):
Cycle let's see what. Else there's a term out there
called geo. Engineering what does That how does that term
relate to cloud? Seating, yeah so two very different.
Speaker 9 (01:36:56):
Technologies so we have cloud, seeding which is going to
operate at fifteen than feet in, below and this is
the idea that you go into naturally existing clouds and
then increase their encourage them to precipitate a little bit.
More gew engineering is altogether at different technology at far
different elevations and kind of. Realm so gew engineering is
the idea that you can spread particulate or like these
(01:37:17):
materials in the upper, atmosphere so sixty to one hundred
thousand feet and it's basically the intention of like putting
a layer of sunscreen over the atmosphere to reduce the
intensity of the.
Speaker 10 (01:37:27):
Sunlight it's kind of the idea that you can cool
or regulate the global.
Speaker 9 (01:37:31):
Temperature so cloudsting has nothing to do with temperature or
like large scale environmental. Systems it's very small scale geo
engineering global geo engineering. Change it's really modifying the global,
environment whatever the intention of that may.
Speaker 1 (01:37:44):
Be AND i think this next question kind of relates
to those two things being different from each. Other this listener,
question does cloud seating make the sky appear hazier or?
Whiter and guessing the answer is probably not much on
this because the cloud's seating scale is really quite. Small
but geoengineering if a whatever to happen the way some
people are talking about, IT i mean that would almost
(01:38:08):
be a, feature not a, buve of. Geoengineering, yeah AND
i think this is a good topic that we'll probably
want to touch on here in a bit. Too is
like the haziness that they're referring to is probably the
contrails that they're seeing behind. Aircraft and so this is the,
idea get dissipating clouds is gonna kind of blur out the.
Days what we like to say is like on a sunny,
Day like sunny days are for, sunglasses not cloud, seeing
(01:38:29):
like we're gonna go those, dark gloomy natural clouds that come.
Speaker 10 (01:38:32):
Over we need those clouds to be there in order to.
Speaker 9 (01:38:34):
Operate and the contrails is really what you're seeing is
like humidity or exhaust coming behind aircraft and that's going
to create a small scale. Cloud not to say that
there's like you, know we can go into all the
ideas behind chemtrails or, contrails but, yeah geoengineering at upper,
altitudes if done at, scale could reduce a little bit
of like kind of a little bit of, haziness but
it's so high up, there it would probably still appear
(01:38:56):
like fairly blue.
Speaker 1 (01:38:57):
If you were an evil. Genius would there be a
way to use current, level current cloud seating technology to
do anything? Harmful, No i'd say.
Speaker 9 (01:39:07):
THAT i, mean LIKE i said, earlier cloud seating is
very modest in the scope that it can actually operate.
Within so we're talking ten to twenty percent increases in
precipitation over a six month time time.
Speaker 1 (01:39:17):
Period, so LIKE.
Speaker 9 (01:39:18):
I, said going from a like not like no precipitation
to a light drizzle if it's rain or a light
floory if it's snow or maybe like going a little,
bit like you, know it's lightly, drizzling maybe getting a
little bit of a healthier. Precipitation so you're not gonna
we don't have the ability to increase large amounts of.
Precipitation it's just by the laws of, physics we're limited
in the scope that we can actually go and do.
Speaker 1 (01:39:39):
That let's, see are there more effective things than silver
iod eyde for this? Purpose, YEAH i think.
Speaker 9 (01:39:47):
SO i, mean like dry, ice it works fairly well at,
like but it's harder to.
Speaker 10 (01:39:52):
USE i think there's a number of things that we're
we're looking into.
Speaker 9 (01:39:55):
THAT i, mean LIKE i, said like, soil, dust, Pollen
there's all these like organic things that exist naturally the
earth that might be worked really well if you're able
to kind of like use them in the right.
Speaker 10 (01:40:05):
Way so we're looking to a number of.
Speaker 9 (01:40:07):
Ways to not LIKE i, think just always see how
we can use things that are more efficient at what we're.
Doing but silver ide aded works, well has been proven
to be. Safe we have a lot of really good
research around that because we want to use you, know
safe materials that are going to produce the water the
most valuable way we.
Speaker 1 (01:40:21):
Can all, right so let's talk about we got a
few minutes. Left we want to talk about some politics
and controversy and stuff like. That so there was some
cloud seating, ACTIVITY i, guess In texas just before that horrific,
storm and all these kids got killed with the, flooding
and then the dumbest member Of, congress or at least
the Dumbest republican member Of, Congress Marjorie Taylor, green decided
(01:40:43):
to strongly imply that the cloud seating had something to
do with all those. Deaths so my first question for
you is very straightforward, one AND i need you to
be absolutely as honest as a thousand percent. Honest is
that even theoretically?
Speaker 9 (01:40:57):
Possible oh, no it's absolutely, not especially in the configuration
of our operator we. Were we stopped operating days before
that storm ever came into.
Speaker 1 (01:41:07):
Plays was that you? Guys and was that your? Company? Yeah,
okay those rain?
Speaker 9 (01:41:12):
Makers that was, like so we operated out In, texas
but days before and then there was a we aren't
even the storm that had was developing off of the
golf hadn't even come within miles of of where.
Speaker 10 (01:41:21):
We, were even being days in.
Speaker 9 (01:41:23):
Advance so, no the stuff that we were, using we
were only seated two clouds forty eight hours, prior and
that would have never stayed, around it wouldn't have. Existed
and even, then cloud, seating LIKE i, said cannot increase
precipitations an amount of, volumes and we can produce you,
know tens of, thousands hundreds of thousands of. Gallons that
was producing trillions of gallons of water in a very
very short time. Speriod, so LIKE i, said very limited,
(01:41:45):
scope did not have any involvement in.
Speaker 10 (01:41:46):
Whatsoever, so you.
Speaker 1 (01:41:48):
Know there's a lot of stuff going on in the
world In america right now where people are, doing you,
know causing people to be skeptical of vaccines and, this
that and the other. Thing and your technology is getting
caught up in this a little, bit and then it'll
it'll make some states take their own. ACTIONS a listener,
notes AND i don't know if this is, true but
that The florida has done something to limit this kind
(01:42:09):
of this sort of. Thing so you, know what's your
take on regulations regarding cloud seating right? Now and and
you know, what even if you think they're, dumb it's
going to be incumbent on you to convince people that,
hey this is. Fine so we've got about ninety seconds,
here how do you take that?
Speaker 9 (01:42:29):
On, Yeah, so first Of i'll started that almost every
state in The United states right now has some sort
of licensing and regulating framework around cloud. Seating you need a,
pertmit you need a, license you need approval to, operate
and then you need a partner that's going to do
that with. You as it relates TO i, mean we
should be talking about, Regulation we should talk about using technology,
responseily whether IT'S ai or cloud seating or cars like
(01:42:51):
it doesn't it's across the.
Speaker 10 (01:42:53):
Board and SO i.
Speaker 9 (01:42:53):
Think the issue that we're running into is it's a
it's a new technology to most, people and you, know
there's a lot of controversy around like some of the
conspiracy onlines like what you see.
Speaker 10 (01:43:03):
Like on the on the sunny days with the white.
Speaker 9 (01:43:05):
Lines people are conflating that with some of these, technologies
and they have a right to be.
Speaker 10 (01:43:09):
Concerned people are untrusting of the government right. Now but
as it relates.
Speaker 9 (01:43:14):
To what we're doing and what the intention, is which
is produce new fresh, water it's altogether.
Speaker 10 (01:43:18):
Different so it's just an education aspect.
Speaker 9 (01:43:21):
Of what are we, doing how is it, used and
what's the safe and effective and proper way to be
regulated around.
Speaker 10 (01:43:27):
This we're all for effective.
Speaker 9 (01:43:29):
Regulation as long as we know that we're growing into
producing something that is important to our natural, interest our national,
interest in our national, security which is increased fresh water.
Speaker 1 (01:43:38):
Supply, okay last very quick question for. You my understanding
is that in order for cloud seeding to, work you
have to have certain conditions in place already that are
at least kind of conducive to. Rain so my, understanding
and tell me If i'm, wrong, is let's say there's
an area where you'd really like to have more fresh,
water but it's an area that almost never gets, clouds,
right maybe them ahave desert ors? Something? Right it would
(01:44:02):
it be correct to say that you can't just create
rain or snow anywhere you want. To you're kind of
dependent on pre existing. Conditions is that?
Speaker 10 (01:44:10):
Right, yep exactly.
Speaker 9 (01:44:13):
Correct we have a very close partnership With god And
Mother nature on that.
Speaker 10 (01:44:18):
Side we need clouds to be.
Speaker 9 (01:44:20):
There, now what you can say is, like you, know
we can go to where there are clouds because we
need clouds to be. There they need to be about
negative six Degrees, celsius which is about twenty one degrees.
Fahrenheit there needs to be a large liquid water volume in,
there so the very specific kind of climate that we
need to be operating in the.
Speaker 10 (01:44:35):
Cloud but we can go, upstream.
Speaker 9 (01:44:37):
Like in Say, colorado where there are a lot of
clouds and where the water For california, starts for, example
then increase the snow up there so that you get
more water in the, river and then you can supply.
Downstream so there's a lot of ways that we can
steward our own natural resources in one state by collaborating,
together which is.
Speaker 10 (01:44:52):
Exactly water is incredibly.
Speaker 9 (01:44:54):
Political it's one of the most regularly one of the
most like the most lawsuits in the country are around.
Water so we're wasting taxpayer dollars by issuing the. States
we're wasting taxpayer dollars on a high a dollar figure
infrastructure that takes ten years to. Build and so we
can immediately employ a cheap and viable solution to produce
new fresh. Water we can start to dissolve these political
(01:45:15):
boundaries around.
Speaker 10 (01:45:16):
Water where water doesn't abide.
Speaker 9 (01:45:18):
By state boundaries, Anyways so let's just produce more of
it and we can collaborate that.
Speaker 1 (01:45:22):
WAY i don't know if you're old enough to have
heard a, line but a very common thing in The,
west back in the. Day whiskey is for drinking and
water is for. Fighting parker Card well is chief of
operations At Rainmaker. Technology the website is rainmaker dot. Com
this is a great. Conversation thanks for your, Time, parker appreciate.
Speaker 10 (01:45:41):
It, ross thank you so much for having me. On
looking forward to chatting again.
Speaker 1 (01:45:44):
Soon all, right glad to do. It, Hello, MANDYA i
need you wa what you got coming?
Speaker 11 (01:45:49):
Up all kinds of. Stuff we're going to talk To
Aurora Police Chief Todd chamberlain, today pretty excited about. That
we've got that Scallywag Michael brown popping. In he thinks
he's coming into a measure of the. DRAPES i say.
No and we're also going to talk to an attorney
from The Goldwater. Institute there was A wyoming mom who
was trying to push back against some school board stuff
and the school board retaliated against her and accused her of.
(01:46:11):
Stalking and The Goldwater institute has been helping her through this.
Speaker 1 (01:46:15):
Process it's a crazy. Story it. Is, wow that's all
that and so much more.
Speaker 11 (01:46:19):
Everybody and we got to talk about the nutty school
board meeting last.
Speaker 1 (01:46:22):
NIGHT i played that soci gi. THING i didn't play
any of the. Others oh, oh it.
Speaker 10 (01:46:29):
Is a target rich.
Speaker 11 (01:46:30):
Environment that's board meeting last.
Speaker 1 (01:46:31):
Night everybody stick around For mandy's fabulous. Show i'll talk
to you. Tomorrow
So six seven, Yeah, six seven it's too dumb. We'll
get back to six seven later. But feel free A
Rod just for fun to inject six seven throughout the show.
If you whenever you feel, whenever you feel it's inappropriate,
actually say no more would probably be the best. A
Rod has his Friday the thirteenth hoodie on. It's actually
(00:21):
a pretty good looking hoodie. I have to say, I
kind of like it. I kind of like it. So
we had a lot to do today. I got some
very interesting guests on a huge range of topics. We'll
get to all of that. I want to just mention
briefly an event I went to last night was a
big annual fundraiser for Jewish Colorado. It's actually called the
Men's Event. For many years it was only for men,
(00:43):
but for some number of years now it's been open
to everybody, and lots and lots and lots of women there.
But it's still called the Men's Event because it's got
that history. And it was a It was at Wings
over the Rockies, which is an amazing venue, and there
were probably, I don't know exactly how many people, probably
a couple thousand people there, and it's obviously a place
(01:04):
that people want to go and be seen. Among the
people I saw there yesterday were multiple members of the
state legislature, Governor Jared Polis, Attorney General Phil Wiser, and
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. Now, of course Jared and Phil
are Jewish, Johnston is not Jewish. Among the members of
(01:26):
the legislature who were there somewhere and some warrants, Oh,
Barb Kirkmeyer was there. She is one of a handful,
a large handful of Republican candidates for governor. To me,
she's the most likely Republican nominee, and at this point
I think she's the best Republican nominee. But she was
(01:47):
there as well. Had a chance to talk with her
a little bit, and it was a great event. And
I just wanted to take a moment and talk about
the guest speaker at the event, and I got to see. Know,
I don't want to get his name wrong, so I'm
not even gonna say his name yet. I'm gonna look
for his name. But he's the former editor in chief
of the Jerusalem Post, which is the major English language
(02:09):
news outlet in Israel, and he recently former so he
was editor in chief of the of the Jerusalem Post
during October seventh and for a year or two before
that as well, and just the remarks he made just
so powerful. I thought, talking about what it was like
(02:29):
for him on that day, and I'm not going to
go into this in great detail, but just talking about
and you can imagine what it would what it would
be like when you're going into bomb shelters every few
minutes and so on. And he didn't even live that.
He was in Jerusalem, right and of course the terrible
destruction in Israel was much further south, down by Gaza,
but still there were a lot more rockets being fired
(02:51):
toward toward him, and that was a fascinating story. But
then what he what he really got to was how
it it unified country that was divided in a way
that even Americans might find difficult to understand, as divided
as our country feels right now. You know, Trump lovers,
Trump haters, Bernie bros Well, you know whatever I mean,
(03:13):
just people in the streets rioting against Ice and then
other people protesting against those rioters, and you know, it
feels like our country feels more divided than it's felt
in a long time, maybe maybe since the sixties, not
that I was very politically conscious in the sixties, but
in any case, Israel before the October seventh thing was
(03:37):
being absolutely torn apart, in particular by some moves towards
what is loosely called judicial reform, but wanting to change
the way that nation's supreme court works, and that nation
supreme court does not work like ours. It is very political.
The members of it are chosen in a way that
is very political. Obviously, we have presidents nominated our own
(03:58):
Supreme Court justices, but that feels even more political there
than here. And it was really shredding the country. And
then October seventh happened, and everybody unified. Everybody, even people
who were protesting aggressively against the net Nyahu government just
a day before. Everybody unified, and it really changed Israel,
(04:23):
at least for some time for the better. And one
of the things that really construct me was when he
talked about some of these young adults who were in
the military and taken captive by Hamas on that day.
A few of them just came back a couple weeks ago,
(04:45):
and some of the others, especially the females, came back
a few months ago, and he said there were five
female members of the IDF who were taken from one
base that was overrun by Hamas, taken hostage and released
a few months ago, and all five of them, all
five of them said that they said immediately they want
(05:09):
to go right back into the military. And there was
a guy who was just released two weeks ago, was
kept hostage for two years, two years in hamas dungeons
and tunnels and so on, and he met with the
Army chief of staff. According to the story, this guy
told he met with the Army chief of staff and said,
I want to go back into combat right away. I
guess the Army chief of staff told him, you know,
(05:30):
take a breath. We're in a ceasefire right now anyway.
But thank you. And it's just it's a wonderful it's
a wonderful thing to think about, that level of American spirit.
And he also told some really horrendous stories about some
of the stuff that happened, you know, on October seventh,
(05:51):
and I'm not going to repeat it is just too
graphic and gruesome and horrible. And that part of the
converse just reminded me of how disappointing, and that's a
very mild word. The proper word would probably be a
lot stronger than that. Disappointing, moving towards infuriating, it has
(06:12):
been since October seventh to have so many folks on
the political left in the United States be unable to
tell the difference between who are the good guys and
who are the bad guys, and separate from members of Congress,
for all these years of having college students propagandized and
brain damaged by their professors who tell them that Israel
(06:35):
or a bunch of settler colonialists as a term they
like to use, or committing genocide, one anti Semitic lie
after another, and then you know, you're reminded of the
real stories of what happened to those people on that
day and the fact that the people who did it
would do it again if they could. And then you think,
(06:58):
how can there be anybody in America who has any
confusion at all about who's right, who's wrong, who's good,
who's bad? And just because somebody isn't perfect doesn't mean
they're not good. But everything about Hamas is bad. And
yet we seem to have many people in the United States,
(07:19):
including apparently the guy who's likely to be the next
mayor of New York who cannot tell the difference. The
first thing I want to mention is that, while I'm
not a religious person, I experienced or or witnessed perhaps
a miracle a couple of days ago, and I want
to share it with you. So, my younger kid, teenager,
(07:47):
he's just got this huge amount of light brown hair
I guess like brown, and he's very picky about his haircuts,
and of course I'm not very picky about my haircuts,
so I'll just like, wait until there's a cupeon it,
great clips, and then I'll go there. And you know, actually,
the last time I got a haircut, I made sure
(08:08):
to go back to the to the lady who did
my haircut the previous time because she was so good.
But normally I'm not like that. Normally, I just you know, whatever,
just get it. I feel the same way about getting
a haircut that I feel about doing my laundry. Right
It's it's annoying and it's got to get done every
once in a while. So that's how I feel about
about that. But my kid is much more particular, and
(08:30):
time after time after time, And I'm sure if you
are or know or own a teenager, then you know
that they get real picky and they you know, they
get a haircut and then they look at themselves in the
mirror and they don't like it, or they're embarrassed, or
they don't want to go to school after and it's annoying.
So here's what happened. I found a place that was
(08:52):
just sort of digging around online looking for a place
that wasn't one of these big chains where my kid
could get a haircut, and he went and got a haircut.
Now this is like two months ago. He got a
haircut and he liked it, and I thought, all right,
that's good. And so a few days ago he said, hey,
(09:13):
I need another haircut, and I said, well, here's I
reminded him of the name of the place, the name
of the haircutting guy, and he went again and came
back again and said, oh my gosh, that guy's that
guy's really good. I'm just going to keep going to him.
I really like my haircut. And it's a miracle. It's
(09:35):
an absolute miracle. And if you are the parents of
a teenager, you probably know what I'm talking about. To
have him come home and say I really like that haircut.
I didn't think those words would ever come out of
his mouth. So that was the miracle that I witnessed.
And I hope you're all. I hope you're all pleased
for me. There was a piece over at KDIVR dot com,
(09:56):
our news partners at Fox thirty one. The headline is
investigation finds that DPS board member was likely quote belittling, dismissive,
and condescending. So this is an investigation into John young Quist,
who actually is one of the guys who has the
most experienced in education, who is on the school board.
He is a recently elected member of the school board
(10:18):
and politically, I would say, a bit to the right
of many of the other members of the school board.
And I guess he treated some people in a way
that they didn't like. And the investigation was set off
after the superintendent, Alex Morrero, who I think young Quist
(10:38):
doesn't like very much, and I think young Quist wanted
and maybe still wants, although he denies it, the job
of superintendent, but he did want it. But Morrero said
that mister young Quist consistently demonstrated a pattern of hostility,
policy violations, racial insensitivity, and unethical conduct that has created
a toxic working environment. Now, look, I don't really necessarily
(11:00):
take Morrero at his word because these two don't like
each other very much, especially after young Quist had suggested
that maybe Morero's contract should be bought out and he
should move on and they should hire somebody else. So
they did this report, and I guess some people who
work in the district are perhaps African American or Hispanic
(11:21):
or whatever. And the report says that young Quist engaged
in belittling, dismissive, and condescending behavior and that he has
not changed his behavior. A couple of those people, though,
quote unquote, both people of color, said that they were
wondering whether, essentially whether young Quist was being racist, and
(11:41):
the report said there is not evidence that young Quist
is being racist. Is basically they're saying he's rude to
everybody and you shouldn't take it as if it's a
racist thing. Now, what I wanted to share with this
with you, and I think I have time to do
this right now, is some truly insane audio. And I
have to thank Rob Dawson from our Kawa newsdesk for
(12:04):
getting this to me. Truly insane audio from soci Ga Tan,
who was the past chair person and still a member
of the Denver School Board. I just want you to
understand that this is the kind of person making the
most important decisions about your children's education if your children
(12:25):
are in public school in Denver. And let's see, I'm
going to back this up to this part and go
from here.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And I'm still working through the findings of the report
and thinking about how thinking about how I want to
deconstruct the white privilege that I read within it and
how it's playing out. And my lens in which I
see the world is that of a Latina Mexicana, having
(12:51):
lived the undocumented, experience, the sensitivities that I have due
to the race dynamics that I experienced my whole life,
what it feels like to live with internalized oppression due
to the racism, having to live up to standards of whiteness.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
And so that is the lens in which.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I see and am reviewing this report and the findings.
I believe that white people never learn never learned, never
had to, never will have to unless they choose to
bear witness to the pain.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
That people of color deal with.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Due to racism, biases, microaggressions that impact us.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
That my friends that person was the chair of the
Denver school Board, still a member of the Denver school Board,
and I have a question for you, actually, I have
a very specific question. I would like to hear at
five six six nine zero right now from any folks
of Hispanic descent who listen to them at and get
(14:01):
your take on it. Because I don't share her history.
I don't know her history. I am not, as she
put it, a Hispanic Mahicana. I'm not, never have been,
don't play one on TV, so I don't know that perspective.
I would like to know from you, if you are
a Hispanic person, whether you think what she said is
(14:21):
sensible or the kind of nonsense that should cause people
to be running very far from Denver public schools. When
we come back Buffalo, let me just talk briefly about
Donald Trump's President Trump's meeting yesterday with Chinese presidents Shijinping.
This is hugely important. I know it's a little bit
(14:41):
in the weeds, but it's just so important I need
to talk about it for a few minutes. So there's
a lot going on between these two countries. There are
a lot of issues between the two countries, issues including
trade balance, overall rare earth minerals, the TikTok deal, Chinese
fentanyl precursors being exported to Mexico where they get turned
(15:04):
into actual fentanyl that then ends up coming into the
United States of America. These are some really really big issues.
And Trump and President She met face to face in
person for the first time in I think six years
or something yesterday, Right, They've had phone calls and such,
(15:25):
but they met in person and they got some things done.
President Trump was asked from one to ten, with ten
being the best, how would you rate this meeting? And
he said it was a twelve. That's very trumpy. I'll
call it a six, but that's fine. That's better than
a zero or a one or a two. And I
(15:46):
think one of the things that has happened, and I
think it's a useful thing, is that at the beginning
of this trade war stuff, President Trump was constantly saying,
and his Treasury secretary was constantly saying, that we have
all the leverage over China because we buy so much
more from them than they buy from us, that if
(16:06):
we put tariffs on them that make it more difficult
for them to sell stuff to us, that we're going
to have an incredible amount of leverage, and we're going
to be able to get done everything that we need
and want to get done. And the Chinese said, ah,
not so fast. Sure, we buy less from you than
(16:27):
you buy from us. But the thing is, Americans, the
thing is that a lot of what you buy from
us you can't get anywhere else, and a lot of
what we buy from you we can get other places.
So you have to look at a lot more than
just who's buying how much in total. You have to
look at, well, what are your alternatives? And America, you
(16:50):
don't have as many alternatives as we do. And they
were right about that. And so the negotiations, which I'll
just move ahead. The negotiations are, I think are much
more of an equal basis between the US and China
than between the US and any other country where the
US absolutely has escalation dominance to one degree over or
(17:13):
another over all these other countries. So they met yesterday
and they agreed on a few things. So China has
agreed to hold off on their most aggressive restraint on
the export of rare earths for a year. And that's
a big deal because a lot of absolutely critical industries
(17:33):
rely on these things, especially to make magnets, so electric vehicles,
a lot of power generation, especially so called renewable power generation,
A lot of weapons systems need these things. So they
agreed to delay those restrictions for a year. China has
said that they're going to start buying at least some
quantity of American soybeans, and there are some numbers floating
(17:54):
around out there, like twelve million metric tons, but we
don't really know, and we don't really know whether they
will do what they say they're going to do, but
they probably will buy some. So those were some good things.
The TikTok issue, I think it came up, but it
was not resolved, so and I actually don't know what's
(18:17):
still left to be resolved there. We know the framework,
but I guess the Chinese government hasn't necessarily agreed to
it yet. And then President Trump agreed to cut tariffs
on Chinese stuff by ten percent, which is modest. Right,
the average Chinese tariff rate going into the meeting was
(18:37):
fifty seven percent and now it'll be forty seven percent.
So eh, you know, all of this, all of this
is better than nothing, and I think it's a good meeting,
and I think it was fairly successful. It wasn't a
twelve out of ten, but it was good enough for
(18:57):
their first meeting. And we'll just have to see how
this plays out. Hey, Rod, can I do this thing now?
All right? We're gonna I'm gonna hit this button. This
is uh yeah, hold on. Let me let me just
make sure I get everything going properly here in our
efforts at semi professional radio. Here on KOA, I'm getting
(19:21):
a zoom thing going. If you're wondering what I'm doing
while I'm talking to you here, all right, there she is.
I've been looking forward to this conversation for quite some
time since I saw an article at the CSU website
entitled Home Again and it's about bison. The subtitle the
subhead of the article is from Petri Dish to Prairie
(19:42):
the Laramie Foothills Bison Conservation herd restores bison and invigorates
Native American culture. And a lot of this article is
cultural right and about the significance for different Native American
peoples u having the opportunity to bring bison sometimes called buffalo,
(20:04):
back to where they live and back integrating them into
their cultures again. But of course in order to get
that done. There's a lot of science behind this. How
do you rebuild, how do you restore, how do you preserve?
How do you expand these herds of buffalo? I'll use
the term buffalo in when you're starting from a relatively
(20:26):
small population and when you're also dealing with a species
of animal that is sometimes sometimes at risk of some
diseases that make it so that you couldn't send the
buffalo out into the world if they catch these diseases.
So how do you deal with all of that? It's
all really complicated, so joining us to talk about it.
(20:47):
Jennifer Barfield. She's a PhD. Associate professor at the College
of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at CSU and I've
been working on setting up this interview for probably a month,
so we finally got it done. Jenks for being here.
It's good to see you.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Okay, before we get into the nuts and bolts of
the science, Uh, talk about the goals of this project.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Well, you know, I mean, for me as a reproductive physiologist,
I was really interested in the scientific question of using
reproductive technologies to mitigate disease, let's say. And so you know,
when we established the herd ten years ago now, which
is amazing to me, all of the project partners had
(21:37):
different goals. So the city and the county are our
partners as land managers and land owners, and so they
really wanted to help bring the vison back into that
ecosystem and get the benefit of them there. And so
we had other researchers who were coming in to study
the ecological side of things, and we were on the
reproductive side of things. And then I think the idea
(21:59):
of the herd was that it could be a seed
herd to do exactly what you've just described, where we
could share these animals with other people who may want
them in their herds for their genetic value. So there
were a lot of different reasons to do this project.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
All right, one question that's outside of your lane, and
you can just tell me you don't know the answer,
although I bet you do, and then we'll and then
we'll get back to your lane. But you were just
talking about the benefits to the land and then to
the land owners, the city and the county of having
bison on that land. What are the benefits to the
(22:33):
land and the perceived benefits to the land owners of
having those animals on that land, if you know.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
Sure, I mean, I can speak a little bit to that. So,
I mean, bison are often called gardeners of the prairie,
so just having them on the landscape can create habitat
for other species. They push seeds into the ground, so
they really help keep the landscape healthy. And all grazers
can do that to some extent. You know, bison were
(23:00):
historically in these ranges, but you know, cattle can do
that too, And I think, you know, I have always
really been interested in conservation and kind of larger landscale
land management that benefits everyone who is on that land,
you know, whether it's the bison and the other animals
there and the grasses itself, or even you know, the
(23:21):
ranchers who are right across the fence. You know, if
we have healthy animals, they can have healthy animals. It's
all connected and it's all important.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So I'm not a scientist, although I sometimes try to
play one on the radio because I love science and
I'm real I'm a real nerd, And I can think
of two things and I touched on them both before.
There's probably a lot more than two. That would be
big challenges for you on the reproductive side for these
bison to be able to build the herds big enough
(23:50):
to be able to then distribute them out to Native
American tribes or who knows, to wherever else you might
want bison in the future. Right, it doesn't have to
be just that. But I can think of two major things,
and then you can tell me what other things there are.
One is resistance to disease, and I want to talk
to you about brucellosis. And the other is starting with
(24:11):
a with a relatively small population of bison, certainly compared
to what it was one hundred and fifty years ago,
how do you build a big population of bison without
some of the problems you can get from mammalian in breeding.
Speaker 4 (24:29):
Sure, yeah, those are both great questions. So, you know,
I think it's you know, when we are doing the
work that we're doing with our herd, we are not
necessarily making these animals resistant to disease. What we were
trying to do is to bring them back to the
landscape and ensure that they weren't bringing particular in particular
(24:50):
brucellosis with them back onto the landscape. So just to
give you a little bit of background, I mean, you know,
bruscellosis came from cattle at some point probably cross over
into bison. And now you know in the greater Yellowstone area,
that's really the only place that we have to worry
about brucellosis and by some populations. But because that population
(25:11):
is really valuable, people want to move those genetics out.
They want to move those animals out for conservation purposes,
but it's really risky with the disease, right, So what
we do is we use the reproductive technologies to essentially
help establish a herd where you don't have to worry
about the risk of brucellosis in the same way that
you would if you were just moving ma animals directly
(25:32):
from the park and having to test and go through
You can quarantine them, you can move them out of
the park, but it takes time and testing and all that.
So we were developing a new tool really. But what's
kind of cool about the tool that we are using,
the reproductive technologies is that it goes right to your
second question, where when you have a small population, you
(25:52):
worry about things like inbreeding. Right, an inbred herd can
be susceptible to a lot of challenges, is from disease
standpoints or you know, dramatic climactic events, those types of things.
Sometimes these small populations are less resilient. So one of
the things we can do with the reproductive technologies is
bring in new genetics in the form of you know,
(26:16):
spermer eggs or embryos, and we can ensure one that
they are bringing in disease with them, but we are
bringing in new genetics in a pretty safe way. And
so that's kind of how we have helped build our herd.
We have had some animals that we've introduced that we've
gone through the quarantine process with. But also, you know,
we bring in these new genetics and help kind of
(26:38):
make the herd more resilient through the reproductive technology. So
we're doing kind of both at the same time.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
So with the second thing, effectively, you can create bison
babies as if one of the parents, well with one
of the biological parents being five hundred or thousand miles
not actually part of that particular breeding herd, to expand
the genetics of that breeding herd, right, that seems pretty simple.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Yeah, absolutely, And I can give you a great example
We have a bull calf on campus here who was
the product of an artificial insemination. So the sperm that
we used to inseeminate his mother was frozen ten years
prior to the insemination from a bull from Yellowstone National Park,
and so I don't know where that bull is now,
(27:29):
but his genetics are now here and can potentially be
represented in our population in just that way.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Do you think that the bulls that have genetics or
the bison doesn't have to be the male bisons. Do
you think the bison that have genetics that trace too
Yellowstone National Park consider themselves slightly superior, like some Americans
who can trace their genealogy back to the mayflower. Do
you think they think about it that way?
Speaker 4 (27:56):
You know, I'm not really an expert on bison psychology,
but they all seem to get along pretty well unless
it's breeding season, and then you start to see some
of the fools try to establish some superiority or dominance
is the word we normally use.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Okay, Another equally scientific question for you, because I am
a scientist at heart, is how do you think, for example,
that that bison that you just described, how does he
feel about Kevin Costner?
Speaker 4 (28:28):
You know, that's a question. I'll have to ask him
when I go out and see him later today. I'll
just you know, kind of wave him over and be like, hey, Bud,
what do you think?
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Yeah, I want to I want to just go back
briefly to the brucellosis thing, because I've heard of it
for a long time and I know it's bad, but
I don't really know what it is and what it does.
So can you just edumacate me on that a.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Bit sure thing? So, brucellosis is a disease called caused
by a bacteria and in animals, particularly you know hoofstock, cattle, bison,
you know, it will kind of can stay dormant in
the body. When a female gets pregnant, you know, it
gets activated and it goes into the placenta and really replicates.
(29:12):
So what it causes in females is that they will
abort their calf, usually fairly late term, or sometimes they
have a weak calf that dies soon after. And then
the other animals, because bison are super curious, they'll come up,
they'll sniff, they'll lick that calf, whether it's alive or not,
and they get the disease. And that's kind of how
it perpetuates through the herd. It can be transmitted to
(29:34):
other species, so it is zoonotic. You know, Elk cavet
cattle can get it, and so people can actually get
it too. The result isn't the same as far as
symptoms it can cause, kind of like a long term flu.
You have to take antibiotics for a really long time
if you have underlying health conditions, that can be really
bad and potentially deadly, you know, And so you know,
(29:56):
there's been a real effort to kind of get rid
of it from our cattle population for all of those reasons.
And so, yeah, it's a nasty disease. It doesn't always
kill the animal or kill a person if they get it,
but it's you know, it's pretty undesirable.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
And how easy or difficult is it. Let's just stick
with the bison population here to test for it and
to treat for it.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
So you can test for it, but there really isn't
a treatment for it.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Well, even though it's bacterial, there's not bison antibiotics that
are highly effective against it.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
That's right. It has to do with kind of where
that bacteria goes when it gets into the animal itself.
It goes to places where it's really hard for the
antibiotics to attack it. So that's why even in people,
you have to take these really long term antibiotic schedules.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
So if a female test positive for it, does that
mean that you then would remove that female from the
breeding stock.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Well, with our technologies, we could still potentially use her
for breeding purposes. Now we wouldn't put her out in
our conservation herd. We would keep her in a facility
where she is contained and cannot potentially spread this to
other animals. But we don't have any animals like that
currently in our hands, so we are really just working
with animals that do not have brucellosis at this point.
(31:21):
And in all honesty, once the animals go out into
our conservation herd, we let them breed naturally, and we
only use these reproductive technologies when we need to when
we need new genetics. And so you know, in that way,
we're kind of minimally applying these technologies and just kind
of letting the bison do the rest because they breed
really well on their own. So the thirty adult females
(31:44):
in our herd and we have twenty nine calves this year. Wow,
so they're doing really well.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
We're doing great. Yeah, they should be able to have
some fun too. A couple of listener questions. Are bison
raised in captivity smaller than bison and that are out
in the wild. Are they same size?
Speaker 4 (32:05):
I guess I don't have any say to to support
my answer, but I don't believe they're different.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Okay, for some reason I care different say.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
That for sure.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
I don't know. Okay, I don't think they're different either.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
I mean, they're being well fed, they're being kind of
protected from things that might challenge them, and so I
would think in captivity they would be the same size.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Listener question, are you involved with the bison that live
near the Pawnee power station north of Wellington?
Speaker 4 (32:33):
I am not. So we are just to the northwest
of that herd, and I think they're talking about the
Platte River power plant up there, and that they have
a separate herd that they manage. They're beautiful animals and
we've been over there, we've visited them. So yeah, they
have bison out there doing kind of the same thing
(32:53):
that ours are doing, being gardeners of the prairie.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
So listener asks, did your guests grow up a ranch girl.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
That's a great question. No, my mother was a she
was a secretary at elementary school. My dad was a luthier.
He's a musician at night. He fixed the string instruments
in the day. And I grew up around Fort Bragg,
North Carolina, or Fort Liberty, So you know, I know
I was not a range girl, but I don't know.
(33:24):
I've been drawn to it for a long time.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
They renamed Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, if I
remember correctly, But I think what they did. If I
remember this right, you're gonna have to go look it up.
I think they named it after a different Brag because
you know, this administration kind of wanted to go back
to the old names. They thought Liberty and all that
was a little bit woke, even though I liked Liberty.
But I think they made it Brag again, but for
(33:47):
a different guy, if I remember right, So check it out.
I know they did that with one of them. I
know they did that with one of the fots. Okay,
last quick thing, Just give me a few seconds on
ten years of of this herd and anything you want
to say about that.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Oh man, this herd has been so rewarding to work
with for me and the staff, and I think what's
really been such an important part that I, you know,
I didn't really anticipate is the connection within the community,
not only with our Native American community here in Northern Colorado,
but the students at the university, and then all the
people we've met and touched across this country that we've
(34:26):
gotten to work with, and we send animals to other places,
and you know, it's just been kind of this all
encompassing good thing that I want to share with other people.
I hope people go out and see the herd. I
hope they join us this weekend for some of our
celebration events.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Oh yeah, what are those? Tell us about those and
how to find out more.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
Sure on our Facebook page. We have a poster that
lines all the events. But on Saturday, which is National
Bison Day, We're going to have an open house at Soapstone,
So I will be there with my team and our
partners from the city and county to answer questions. We're
going to try to encourage the bison to be in
a viewing area. I can never promise that. That afternoon
is the powwow at CSU that starts at one, and
(35:08):
then on Sunday we're going to be an old town
square of Fort Collins from noon to two. We are
going to have the Iron Family doing drumming and singing.
They were the ones who did the blessing for the
herd on the day we released them, and we will
the project partners will also be out there too at
that time.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
All right, what's the Facebook page called so I can
put into my blog and listeners can find it.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
Laramiefoothills Bison dot com.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Laramie Yeah face bills or Laramie Bison has its own
web page, Laramiefoothills Bison dot com. Does that work?
Speaker 4 (35:40):
It's a Facebook page?
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Okay, Facebook page? All right, I got it. I found it.
I'll put it on my blog and listeners you can
go to Facebook type in Laramie Foothills Bison and you'll
find it and you can check out all the events
coming up. Congratulations on ten years, and thanks so much
for spending some time with us today.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
Thanks so much. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
All right, that was a great conversation. That's doctor Jennifer
Barfield from CSU. Thanks Jen, all right, that was great.
I love that little biology nerding out. It's not always
physics nerding out on the Roskiminski Show. It can be
biology as well. All Right, when we come back, you know,
well you might know, unless you didn't hear, in which
(36:18):
case you don't know. My show is moving from my
current timeslot to Morning Drive six am to nine am,
starting Monday, November tenth, the week from next Monday, and
this time slot nine to noon will be taken over
by Michael Brown, who many of you know very very well,
either from listening to him on our sister station ka
(36:39):
how or from as many years here on KOWA. Michael
Brown's going to join me in studio talk about it
a little bit right after this. We're making some changes here,
and that is that my show currently nine to noon,
we'll be moving to what we in the radio business
called Morning Drive, and that'll be six am to nine am,
and Michael will be coming over or i should say
(37:02):
coming back to KOA, and he will be taking over
this current time slot of nine am to noon for
Colorado morning news listeners. What you need to know is
that five am to six am will be the same
as it is now Colorado's morning News. Gina's going to
do the news. It's all news, all the time for
(37:22):
that hour, really get caught up on all that. And
then starting at six is going to be Ross Kaminski
on the News with Gina Gondek, and it's going to
be a show that's very similar to what I do
right now nine to noon. Gina will be much more
of a participant though than if you ever hear my
crossovers with Gina that we do usually at eight fifty
(37:43):
eight in the morning, I think you get a sense
of why I'm so excited to have Gina much more
involved in the show. So anyway, that's what's going to be.
That's what's going to be six am to nine am,
and we're going to bring you news four times an hour.
We'll still be bringing you traff weather and all that,
and then we're gonna you know, we're gonna talk more, right,
(38:04):
And I really hope that you find that for those
people who live who listen during that kind of morning
drive thing, who used to Colorado's Morning News, I hope
that you will find it fun and interesting to have
some talk as well as news there. And you know,
we hear at KOA hope that that's gonna be that
that's gonna be something you enjoy. A listener did send
(38:27):
a text here, Ross, I'm concerned that you're gonna get
burnt out and we'll be retiring soon having to work
that early. And let me just tell you that's absolutely
not a thing you need to worry about. So before
I did this job, I did the job that Michael
Brown is doing right now. Was that six seven, hey, Rod?
Was that unintentional sixty seven I did? I did morning
(38:50):
Drive on our sister station KJOW four hour show from
six am to ten am for six years, and I'm
used to it. I woke up at four fifteen today
without an alarm. I just got up, and usually I
am up before five am anyway, without an alarm. And
(39:10):
so it's absolutely no problem for me. I will I
will not have to really change my own lifestyle very
much in order to do this. So for me, I
am really really excited about this change. For those people
who are asking, Ross, was it your idea or their idea,
management's idea to move my show to earlier in the morning,
(39:33):
Here's how I'll put it to you. It was their idea,
but it would have been my idea if I knew
it was possible. I'm very very excited for this. I
think it'll be great for the station, great for listeners,
and excellent for me too, which is also important. So
you know, for those people who are texting in wondering
if I'm upset about this or sad about this, absolutely not.
(39:56):
I cannot think of anything more that I would want
in radio than Kaway Morning Drive. And now it's happening,
and I hope you will enjoy the new project as
much as I'm sure I will and Gina will. Uh. Okay,
So we expect Michael Brown to show up in just
a couple of minutes here, so someone hit a quick
break and then when when we come back, we'll have
(40:16):
Michael with us. I want to take a moment here
because I got a really really interesting email. I'm not
gonna play the audio. Uh oh is he walking in
right now? All right? All right, all right, I'll hold
off on that email because I want to give it
a more more as much time as it deserves while
(40:37):
we wait for Michael to come in, and he should
be here momentarily.
Speaker 6 (40:40):
Now.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
I just want to let you know that five more
people have been arrested in this Louvra heist thing. So
they've got they've got a total of seven people now
arrested in this in this jewel heist, but they haven't
found any of the jewels yet, so we'll we'll have
to see what happens. And I don't know whether they'll
find any of this stuff before somebody gets to cutting
(41:01):
them all up in the little pieces and destroying all
that history. All right, Michael Brown just arrived with his
dark sunglasses, putting on his other glasses. Good to see you.
Speaker 6 (41:13):
What's with the chair here?
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Oh? This is ihearts So we have really cheap chair,
flimsy chairs.
Speaker 6 (41:19):
I thought I was moving up in the world.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
You might still have maybe the chair in the k
House studio that I bought for myself years ago.
Speaker 6 (41:27):
That's the one that I still use.
Speaker 7 (41:28):
Uh huh.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
It's a decent chair.
Speaker 6 (41:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
When do you bring it with you, you get a little.
Speaker 7 (41:31):
Up great actually, because I actually prefer those taller chairs.
Speaker 6 (41:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
I do like the taller chair too.
Speaker 6 (41:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
So I wasn't gonna say welcome, but really I should
say welcome back, you know, to Koa. You are here
way before I.
Speaker 7 (41:46):
Was all right, this is I'm in my start of
my twentieth year wow, and I started.
Speaker 6 (41:50):
I started on this station, gosh back in maybe two.
Speaker 7 (41:53):
Thousand and six, I think, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
So a lot of folks we've told if you're just
joining now, okay, So here's what's going on. My show,
which is currently nine to noon, is going to move
six to nine, and Michael's coming over from K HOW
and he's going to be nine to noon, Mandy stand
everything else stay in the same, Mandy stay in twelve'
to three. Everything else is staying the same.
Speaker 7 (42:14):
And as far as KA How is concern, they're gonna
they're going to audition people and you know, maybe by
the first of the year, how somebody replaced me, yeah,
which I mean replaceable, but you know they'll they'll they'll
search and find some such some idiot.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
I'm sure you're aware that I follow the exact same
path as you K How Morning drive over here to
KOA and for me, one of the greatest things beyond
just the fact that you know, I do love K Well,
I loved k HOW too. It's both great. But going
from a four hour show to a three hour show.
Oh and you've done both now for what a difference?
Speaker 7 (42:44):
Well, I do a nationally syndicated program on the weekend
for Premiere three hundred and fifty stations across the country.
It's a three hour show and it's some Saturdays, and
it goes by like that.
Speaker 6 (42:55):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (42:56):
In fact, today it's I'm looking at the clock in
the king Oh, I'd be done, I'd be done.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
I imagine it's a long time. I imagine that the
vast majority of people listening to us right now already
know when you and know your show. But for those
who maybe don't, tell us a little about you and
the Michael Brown Show.
Speaker 7 (43:17):
Well, I came back from working for President Bush in
two thousand and five and two thousand and six, I
got asked by Peter Boyles of all people, to go
on his public Affairs TV Easton program.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Oh didn't even know he had one.
Speaker 6 (43:33):
Yeah, he had one.
Speaker 7 (43:34):
And I, you know, I kind of knew of Peter,
but not a lot about him. So I is a
week before Thanksgiving, I drive down to the studios down
at PBS somewhere, and I'm thinking about canceling because it's
snowy and nasty and everything else.
Speaker 6 (43:47):
But I think, no, I made the commitment. I'm going
to do it.
Speaker 7 (43:50):
So I go in and I think Pete was having
me on simply because he wanted to rip George W.
Bush apart. Which, fine, you want to have that debate,
all have debate.
Speaker 6 (44:00):
Sure? Was he perfect?
Speaker 5 (44:01):
No?
Speaker 6 (44:01):
Did he do things I liked? Yes? Did he do
things I didn't like? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Yeah, So all presidents are like that, yes, some degree.
Speaker 7 (44:07):
So I get into this debate and unbecombs to me.
When I get done, he calls our then market manager,
Chris Ollinger and says, hey.
Speaker 6 (44:17):
This guy was really good. You have to have him
on the radio. So I don't know.
Speaker 7 (44:21):
A few weeks later, I get a call from Chris
Allinger that said, hey, we got this opening on Saturday
on KOA.
Speaker 6 (44:27):
You want to do that? Yeah, of course I want
to do that.
Speaker 7 (44:30):
And then next thing I know, I'm doing evenings on KOA,
and then I'm doing drive time on k HOW. Then
I'm doing morning drive, and the I'm right back in
KOA again.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
You know, it's funny. I have a sort of a
Chris Olinger story. So you you did weekends here on
KOA and then you moved to a weekday job, right,
I was doing weekends on a different station on not
even in this building. I won't bother naming it. And
I went to Chris olinger or and said, hey, would
you think about me for weekend? She wouldn't listen to
(45:01):
she wouldn't even give me the time of day. And
then Greg Foster came in and a long story short,
he gave me k away weekend. So I had no
after you that after you it's it's it's quite a world.
What do you like to talk about? How do you
describe yourself? I do. I have to say I love
the taxpayer protection shot pay taxpayer relief shot, relief shot, Yeah,
(45:24):
relief tax paryl one of.
Speaker 7 (45:26):
They will continue on Friday's in the from eleven to twelve,
and that whole segment is I don't think that. I mean, look,
you know, someone defends their home with a gun locally
or baseball bat or anything. I don't care what it is,
but they defend themselves from home invaders, and it might
get local coverage. But there's a mass shooting somewhere and
(45:47):
that gets national coverage. Nobody ever talks about the use
of self defense, a god given natural right of self defense.
So we collect those stories. We have a guy in
New Jersey, of all places, that collects all these stories
for us, sends them to us, and then we spend
an hour every week just playing those stories because it's
(46:08):
it's good for people to hear that we still have
the Second Amendment, which the story, the segment's not really
about the Second Amendment. It's about the god given right
of self defense. Yeah, and sometimes it involves a gun,
sometimes it does not. And sometimes they're funny. Sometimes they're
really like shocking because you stop and think about, holy cow,
that could be me, you know, So people learn to
(46:31):
think in terms of, oh, yeah, there's a local home
invasion here. That's actually something that ought to be a
national story because an individual defended their family, their property, whatever,
and we have a right to do that in this country,
and we're slowly losing that right.
Speaker 1 (46:46):
I'm talking with Michael Brown, who will as of November tenth,
be on KOA in this very time slot, nine am
to noon as I moved to six am to nine
a m And I want to mention that one of
the things I've always appreciated about Michael is that, unique
among the hosts we have here, he's got serious experience
(47:08):
inside government and really can talk about the operations of
government with a perspective that even someone like me who
reads a lot about it or talks to a lot
of politicians or whatever, doesn't have.
Speaker 7 (47:22):
You can talk about having a baby. You and I
can talk about that. Yeah, but we've never had a baby.
Mm hm. I, however, have served at the highest levels
of the government that it for almost six years, five
years and ten months or so, and really good experience,
really bad experience, good, bad, ugly everything. So you ask earlier,
what's how would I describe my show? It's culture and politics,
(47:45):
because I believe culture is ahead of politics. It's culture
and politics. But when we get into the politics, the
political side. I tried to explain to people nationally, state
and locally, here's what's really going on, Here's what's really
happening behind the scenes, here's what you really need to
think about it, and here's what the media. The media
does as much by co mission as they do by omission.
(48:08):
And I try to fill in the omission part. It's
we can all watch the television, we can all see
what the news is, or we can listen to the
news even on KOA or k how and hear what
they're telling us. I like to tell you what they're
not telling.
Speaker 6 (48:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
I love that perspective. And like I say, Michael has
he knows how it works. Plus he knows people is
access to people that you know many of us don't
have access to. We've only got about a minute left here, Michael,
I'd like to ask you to give me an example
of a cultural thing that's on your mind today, or
maybe it was on your show yesterday. You know, some
cultural thing that you think is ahead of the politics,
(48:42):
that you think is important.
Speaker 7 (48:43):
Well, it's what we talked about today, was the Snap
program and the food stamp issue. Because we are developing
and we don't think about this, but we're developing, and
the government closure is exposing it. How we're developing a
culture of dependence, dependence on the government, whereas that's truly
(49:04):
a private sector function. Church, charitable organizations, Feed America, all
the different organizations that can feed poor people and make
that If my wife's going to buy some shoes for
some kids that need shoes for winter, let's say she
spends twenty dollars, but we now expect the government to
be compassionate for us. They'll spend forty dollars for that
(49:25):
same pair of shoes and be less effective in getting
it to the kids that really need it.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
I couldn't believe it when I learned that something around
ten percent of the population in the state of Colorado
is on food stamps, which we're supposed to call snap
because it doesn't make them feel as bad.
Speaker 6 (49:40):
Right, but twelve percent of America's nation and.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Twelve percent nationwide, and I have the same reaction you do.
How is that possible? To me? That feels like a
failure of our nation.
Speaker 6 (49:51):
It is. It's a failure.
Speaker 7 (49:52):
It's my phrase is we've abdicated our We all have
compassion for people.
Speaker 6 (49:58):
Of who are less fortunate than us, No, we have.
Speaker 7 (50:00):
Abdicated that compassion to the government, and the government, particularly progressives.
I believe Marxists, the Democrat socialists of America who are
overtaking the Democrat party right now, have taken advantage of
our compassion and said, oh, we'll do that for you,
And so we step.
Speaker 6 (50:17):
Back and we let them do it. And now where
they have a bloated program that is making people more
and more dependent every single day.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Yeah, and unfortunately, I don't know if Republicans really have
the stomach to cut back on it. We'll have to see,
for example, with the Obamacare subsidies, what will Republicans agree to?
And I know you're a stalwart for limited government and
you know, keeping spending down and you hate the national
debt as much as I do.
Speaker 7 (50:42):
And I'd like to just caution the audience, Yeah, that
I speak very frankly, sometimes very harshly, and I try
to keep it very very real. There's no political correctness,
there's no trying to dance around an issue. I just
dive right into it because I know that people listen
to radio love you and they hate you.
Speaker 6 (51:03):
I don't care.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
As long as they're listening, I don't care. Very good, Okay, folks.
So that's Michael Brown. I'm sure you know him already,
but any in any case, starting a week from Monday,
November tenth, Michael Brown will be here on KOWA nine
am to noon. I'll be moving earlier in the day
six am to nine am, and I hope you will
all listen to all of those six hours and Mandy
and everything else on Kiowa. Thanks for coming in, Michael.
(51:25):
Good to see you you too. All right, It'll be
good to see you, you know, every single day for
a couple of hours. Yeah, we'll be right back. Hey Rod,
could you put my audio up please? So I'm just
going to do this kind of quickly. The context is
that there was an investigation done of a particular member
of the Denver School Board who some people said was
behaving inappropriately and some people were questioning whether he was
(51:48):
a racist. The report did not come back saying he
was behaving in a racist way. They said he was,
you know, rude to some people, but not rude to
people because they're Hispanic or African American or anything like that.
Just like basically the result of the report is the
guy can kind of be a jackass, but not having
anything to do with race. But of course some folks
(52:09):
really like to push this issue. And a member of
the Denver school Board made a comment, and I think
it was a pre written statement. She actually sat down
and wrote this thing. Her name is Soshi Gaetan. She
used to be chair of the school board. She's not
chair now, she's a member, and she gave a statement
that really kind of boggled my mind a little bit
(52:33):
and makes me wonder, as I often have, whether I
would want to have my kids in Denver public schools.
But as I play this for you, and as I
heard it myself, one thing that occurred to me was
a question of, well, maybe it's just she's got a
very very different background, a very different perspective, and maybe
it's not fair of me to judge, even though this
(52:55):
sounds outrageous to me. So I'm going to share this
with you again. You can text me at five six
nine zero with any of your thoughts. So, but I'm
going to share this with you, and then I'm going
to share one listener email that I got about it,
and then we're going to do something something different. So
just have a listen to this.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
And I'm still working through the findings of the report
and thinking about how thinking about how I want to
deconstruct the white privilege that I read within it and
how it's playing out. And my lens in which I
see the world is that of a Latina Mexicana, having
(53:32):
lived the undocumented, experience, the sensitivities that I have due
to the race dynamics that I experienced my whole life.
Speaker 3 (53:40):
What it feels like to live with.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
Internalized oppression due to the racism, having to live up
to standards of whiteness, and so that is the lens
in which I see and am reviewing this report and
the findings. I believe that white people never learn, never learn,
(54:03):
never had to, never will have to unless they choose
to bear witness to the pain that people of color
deal with due to racism, biases, microaggressions that impact us.
Speaker 1 (54:19):
So, speaking of biases, in the interest of sort of
not biasing the next thing I'm going to share with
you here, I'm not going to say any more about
my reaction to that at at this point. I talked
about it a little bit earlier. I would love to
know your reaction to that at five six six nine zero.
And as I asked earlier in the show, I said,
(54:41):
I would particularly like to hear from hispanics who heard
that that I just played for you, and I would
love to get your take on it, because I know
that I don't have your perspective and I don't think
I represent the world, and so I would like to
know from hispanics whether you I think that that mindset
(55:01):
that Soshi Gui Tian represented there is is on target,
off target somewhere in the middle. Do you think she
represents lots and lots of people who feel that way.
Do you think she's an outlier. I really want to
know now. I got an email from a listener that
I thought was fabulous and represents one of the things
(55:22):
I love most about this job, interacting with listeners who
are smart and thoughtful. So this is from a listener
named Alan, and he says I'm Hispanic, and I do
agree with that SoundBite. However, she makes it sound like
we're all doomed to fail, and I don't believe the
situation is that dire. Sadly, discrimination is just part of
(55:45):
being Latino in America, and I've experienced it myself, not
as often as she might have you believe, but it
happens too often in my view. I'm in financial services
and I was once told by a white supervisor for
a very large investment bank that will remain unnamed that
he didn't want me to work with Mexicans because quote,
they don't have any money. I'm also very proud to
(56:07):
be Latino, and my wife, who is white, is a teacher,
and she often describes her struggles to reach her Latino students.
My take is that the school district just doesn't know
how to connect with these students, and consequently the teachers
don't either. I don't know what the solution is, but
certainly more representation is needed, if anything, just to help
teachers who are on the front lines connect with their students.
(56:29):
That said, a lot of students struggle at home and
when there's no real support at school, these students are
facing lifelong challenges because they never get the foundational skills
to excel in the real world. And I think that's
what this sound bite can bring attention to. So there
you go. I mean, that's what I was looking for, right,
somebody to help explain that to me in a way
(56:51):
that I can at least somewhat understand, not having that
same perspective and background. And I think I'm not going
to add more of my own opinion about what Soshi
Gaiton said. You can probably guess what I think about it,
but I want to know what you think, So text
me at five six six' nine, zero all, right something
completely different. NOW i am very pleased to welcome to the.
(57:12):
Show joining me in. Studio. Tamara Ryan tamra is a
nationally recognized, speaker, author leadership, expert and THE Cores Economic
Mobility fellow for The Common Sense, institute WHERE i have
the privilege of being a fellow as well in a
slightly different. Area, Tamra, welcome it's good to see in.
Person thanks for being. Here, Yeah i'm so glad you
(57:33):
came in. Studio it's great. You along with a couple
folks From Common Sense, institute put out a report recently
called The Economic impacts Of Lost Childcare assistance In, colorado
AND i have to, say just as far as the
numbers and the costs and the scale of all, THIS
i was blown away by some of some of these,
(57:56):
numbers which is a whole different question which we will
also get into to maybe what some of the solutions.
Here but can you start us off by describing the.
Speaker 8 (58:04):
Problem, well this particular report was specifically about childcare, assistance
which is something that's available to low income, families and
about thirty thousand kids across the state are served by
this childcare. Assistance so that means that a low income
family can apply to get the subsidy and then that
(58:24):
money goes to the childcare center to help decrease the
cost that they. Pay and right, now there are some
federal mandates that have come down that have changed how
childcare centers get paid in a way that's actually good
for the childcare center and also have limited will limit
(58:44):
the amount that a family can pay to just seven
percent of their household. Income also good for families and childcare. Centers,
however these mandates came down with no additional, funding and
that's really the genesis of the report because we wanted
to look, At, okay what's the impact going to be
if we can't fund the childcare?
Speaker 1 (59:04):
Needs what are what are the main federal mandates that
are driving changes in cost of?
Speaker 8 (59:09):
Childcare, oh in a bigger, picture it's so it's when
it comes down to the cost of, childcare it's much more.
Localized so those things are related TO uh regulatory and
licensure issues at the level state and also to a
(59:31):
certain extent at local. Level because the way the way childcare,
works you Know, colorado with the way any of our benefits,
Work colorado receives federal government, money it gets distributed to
counties and then counties distributed to the.
Speaker 5 (59:48):
Individuals that's the.
Speaker 8 (59:49):
System colorado is just one of ten states in THE
us that is county based for those.
Speaker 5 (59:55):
Things so what is affecting the cost.
Speaker 8 (59:57):
Of childcare is that there are rules and regulations at
a state, level and there are rules and regulations at county,
levels but we're talking things like.
Speaker 5 (01:00:10):
Teacher to child.
Speaker 8 (01:00:11):
Ratios that's a you, know a regulatory thing that impacts
so if you can only have one In, colorado you
can have one teacher for three. Infants so when you
think about, that that's what makes it a very labor intensive.
Industry there are other quality things and safety things that
are regulated that impact. Costs where the center can be,
(01:00:35):
located what you, know what the facility has to be,
like et.
Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Cetera and just to remind, listeners With Common Sense, instituto
you can go to c S I co dot. Org
So Common Sense Institute colorado c S i C o dot.
Org if you click ON i think this is up
on the front, page but also if you click on
on research you can find it in there as. Well
a couple of bullet points camera and near the top
(01:00:59):
of your, Report i'm going to quote this change and
it's about a subsidization rate coupled with increases in childcare
costs will Increase colorado's program costs by over twenty million
dollars in the next three. Years so that's one kind
of stunning, number especially at a time when the state
budget is pretty. Squeezed and then the other one that
(01:01:19):
actually shocked me even. More with the new, requirements the
state average annual cost per child is expected to increase
from six thousand dollars to eighteen thousand. Dollars, so how
can it possibly cost eighteen thousand dollars to do childcare
per kid per? YEAR i can imagine. It, actually if
(01:01:41):
it's limited to like you can only be taken care of,
three then you get no economies of scale at. All,
Right but what are the main things that are driving
this astonishing.
Speaker 8 (01:01:51):
Number, well so the two things that we focused. On
we talked about the new mandates from the federal government,
broadly but there are really two things that are driving
that's changing. Cost one is that families will no longer
have to pay more than seven percent of their household
income if they're receiving childcare. System and so there are
(01:02:16):
instances in which families pay upwards of twenty to thirty
percent of their household income for.
Speaker 5 (01:02:21):
Childcare.
Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
Wow and so.
Speaker 8 (01:02:25):
This new mandate says a families cannot spend more than seven,
percent which The department Of health And Human services says
is what the level is for it to be. Affordable
so that's where that number comes.
Speaker 5 (01:02:37):
From and so does the sound.
Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
CRAZY i don't know if it's, perfect but it doesn't sound.
Speaker 8 (01:02:41):
Crazy, No and so the cost per kid goes up because.
Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
They might have meant the government's part of the cost
for a kid goes up because the individual is contributing
less of the.
Speaker 5 (01:02:52):
Cost and so.
Speaker 8 (01:02:54):
Now the cost for kids going, Up but the federal
government isn't has historically been about seventy one percent of
the TOTAL seacap, dollars they're not increasing those. Dollars we
know what's happening in the state right. Now the state
doesn't have more money and so now there's more money
has to be paid to childcare centers and there's no
(01:03:15):
additional dollars to do.
Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
It one of the things that has frustrated me a,
lot and this is a more macro, concept is how
many levels of state and local, government not just In,
colorado in lots of places built essentially permanent programs using
funding for it WITH i will CALL covid money The
American Rescue Plan, act, Right and there's some of that
(01:03:38):
going on here right where that was used to fund
and now that money's gone and now they're scrambling as
if they didn't know that money was going to, disappear
or Maybe i'm being too harsh about.
Speaker 5 (01:03:48):
It, WELL i think it's a combination of.
Speaker 8 (01:03:50):
Things that, money in my, view particularly related to childcare,
assistance was really important because when you look at the
majority of the parents who get childcare assistants, assistance it's.
Moms but women really led in terms of their employment
the recovery from the. Pandemic they were the most affected
(01:04:11):
at the beginning of the, pandemic but they really led
the recovery in terms of their. Employment so those dollars
feel like they were actually really well spent because they
allowed more moms to get back into the labor.
Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
Force, Okay and so just to be clear about What i'm,
saying you, know we can have different conversations about whether
the money should or shouldn't have been spent that way DURING,
Covid and you, know maybe a libertarian would like, me
would say that's not the government's. Job but that's not
really the Issue i'm raising right. Now the Issue i'm
raising right now is is why would, governments in this
(01:04:44):
project or anything, else build things that are reliant on
a funding source that they know is.
Speaker 8 (01:04:51):
Temporary, WELL i think this was a bit of a
perfect storm because what also happened in that same period
was the cost of childcare. Up and you think about
what happened in twenty, twenty because we as voters voted
on a constitutional amendment to increase MINIMUM, wag you might, recall,
well if you look at the trends in terms of
(01:05:12):
cost of, childcare they started ratcheting up at the same.
Time and so it's kind of a perfect storm of.
Problem because the costs are going up, dramatically we were
able to use THE arpa money.
Speaker 5 (01:05:24):
Temporarily now we're in a.
Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
Pickle, okay just a couple of minutes left. Here one
of the other things you talk about in the, report
and again for those joining this report for The Common
Sense institute and headed up By Tamara, ryan for this
report the economic impacts of lost Childcare assistants In. Colorado
so just give us briefly what the title says, there
(01:05:49):
the economic. Impact why is this? Important brought in the?
Speaker 8 (01:05:52):
Macro in the, macro so there have been about thirty
thousand kids served by childcare. Assistants what is happening now
is that twenty four counties across the state have either
frozen or waitlisted their new.
Speaker 5 (01:06:08):
Applicants to childcare.
Speaker 8 (01:06:10):
Assistance so if today you're in one of those counties
and you have a, baby you would not be able
to get childcare assistance if you're.
Speaker 5 (01:06:17):
A low income.
Speaker 8 (01:06:17):
Family so they're, estimating the state is estimating that we
will go from thirty thousand kids serve to ten thousand kids. Serve,
wow so it's not one to one for. Parents it's
about one point five children per. Parent and so we
looked at what happens if just twenty percent of those
parents who no longer have childcare assistance leave the labor, force,
(01:06:39):
Right and what we saw was that the economic impact
on the state would be about one point one billion
dollars with A. B.
Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
Yeah and on the other, hand if the state we're
paying you, know eighteen thousand dollars or whatever the state's, Share,
yeah the state, Share if it's going to eighteen thousand,
dollars how does that compare to the economic loss that
you just described of them leaving the?
Speaker 5 (01:07:00):
Workforce, WELL i guess, FIRST i want to save the.
Speaker 8 (01:07:03):
Gap what it would take to fill the gap of
child chursistence is about seventy, Millions.
Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
Okay so a lot less than the one money a small. Fraction,
yeah and so at six, percent.
Speaker 8 (01:07:13):
And it's about seventy three hundred jobs directly lost and
indirect jobs, lost about ten thousand jobs.
Speaker 5 (01:07:19):
Lost because you.
Speaker 8 (01:07:20):
Think about those all those families who are no longer,
working we as a state lose the disposable, income meaning
what they spend on rent and at the grocery store
and things like.
Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
That, okay so literally one minute. Left if you assume
that there's not going to be more federal, money and
if you, assume just for the sake of this, conversation
that there will not be a state tax hike to
fund any of, this and maybe or maybe not more
state money because the state budget is in trouble. Already
(01:07:52):
what are the primary things you might try to make
this problem? Better if you're not going to BE i
don't mean you are going to be able to throw
more money at.
Speaker 5 (01:08:02):
It if you're not.
Speaker 8 (01:08:04):
Going to be able to throw more money at, it
you've got to find ways to save how.
Speaker 5 (01:08:08):
WELL i think one of the ways would be to
look at the.
Speaker 8 (01:08:11):
Regulations so for, instance not necessarily for, infants but for
toddlers and older, children there might be an opportunity to
change the ratios of.
Speaker 5 (01:08:19):
Teachers and there are some studies that look at that.
Speaker 8 (01:08:23):
Difference so if you were to go from one to
four toddlers one to, five you could save. That this
study said you could save about seven thousand dollars a
year average.
Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
Cost per per. Kid. Kid that's a.
Speaker 5 (01:08:37):
Lot, yeah it adds.
Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
Up. Yeah are you getting any traction with this with state?
Government are you? Trying are you talking to politicians about
it or local? Regulators whoever's whoever's doing?
Speaker 6 (01:08:48):
This?
Speaker 8 (01:08:49):
Yeah So State Senators right And State Senator Matt ball
are actually kind of on the case and are gathering
a group they're hoping to create a task for to
look at how changes might come about regulatory or rules
that would decrease the cost and make it a more viable.
Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
INDUSTRY i wish, YOU i wish you a lot of.
LUCK i much much much prefer to have people in
the workforce than, not and this is something we should
all we should all care. About eighteen thousand dollars a
kid is simply not going to, work and they have
to find ways to save, money even if they are
going to throw more money at. It eighteen thousand dollars
(01:09:29):
a kid is not going to. Work. Tamara ryan's new,
report along With Cole anderson And Thomas young of The
Common Sense, institute is The Economic impacts Of Lost Childcare
assistance In. Colorado you can read it AT csic dot. Org,
tamra thanks so much for joining, me and thanks for
the really interesting report you.
Speaker 5 (01:09:47):
Got good to be.
Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
Here we'll be right back ON. Kowa i've got listener
text on a range of subjects because we covered a
range of subjects as always here on the, show And
i'm just going to go through some of. THESE a
listener just texted in about the cost Of Phil weiser
suing The trump administration. Again actually two listeners just texted
in about, that and let me just say a few.
(01:10:10):
Things so, FIRST i Had phil on the show while,
back AND i asked him why he seems to have
made a hobby of suing The trumpet, administration and his answer, was,
WELL i sue them WHEN i think they're breaking the.
LAW i think that's partly. TRUE i think he does
sue them when he thinks they're breaking the, Law BUT
i think his threshold for what counts as breaking the
law has dropped a dramatically where what would Be i'm
(01:10:35):
president Of Bad Analogy. Club, right so let me think
of an analogy for. You, okay how about. This how about,
this though the wide receiver is running down the field
and the cornerback just barely puts a hand on, him
doesn't even cause him, to you, know drift out of
the route that he's already. Running and yet the official
(01:10:55):
throws the, flag, right because he just seems like a
hair trigger kind of. Thing AND i think that's Where wiser.
IS i think he has a hair trigger to Sue
trump for a couple of. Reasons one he didn't Like,
trump and two he's running for governor and he needs
to build up NAME id and he needs to build
Up think about, This think about. This Letitia james The
(01:11:20):
Attorney general of The state Of New. York she won
an election to Become Attorney general of The state Of
New york by campaigning specifically that she was going to
use her office to go After Donald. Trump now she
should have been actually disqualified from holding office for, that
but she won that. Way and this is what you
(01:11:40):
do these. Days, you especially if you are in a
blue place already where The democrat is likely to win
the general, election then the most important thing is winning the,
primary and how do you win a primary on The democrat,
side it's moved. Left on The republican, side it's move.
Right but we're talking About democrats right. Now and So
phil wh wants to show himself as a died in
(01:12:04):
the wool hater Of Donald, trump willing and able to
attack him whenever and however he, CAN i said on the.
Radio in, FACT i Saw Phil wiser at this EVENT
i was at last, night the big annual fundraiser For Jewish.
Colorado was an amazing, event And phil was there AND
i saw, him and he talked About he AND i
talked for a minute about this LAWSUIT i have said
(01:12:27):
on the. AIR i told him in private in, person
AND i told him again last night THAT i think
this is an incredibly weak lawsuit that has no chance of.
Success and his argument is That trump is Moving Space
command headquarters From colorado To alabama because he doesn't like
(01:12:47):
How colorado runs its elections and he doesn't like mail
in voting and so. On and let me just make
this clearly. Clear it's true that that's What trump. SAID
i don't know If trump meant it or. NOT i
Think trump just generally doesn't like states that he didn't.
Win but let's Take trump at his word that he's
moving space command because he doesn't like the way we
(01:13:11):
do our elections. Here and my response to that is
that is not going to be a winning argument in
court For. Colorado remember this is the state the Same
supreme court that issued that immunity ruling that basically, says
anything that is within the president's power to, do he
cannot be criminally charged, for even if even if what
(01:13:35):
he does is would otherwise be thought of as a.
Crime for, example if he told AN fbi agent or
told a member of the. Military let's say he told
a member of the military to kill a political. Opponent, okay,
yes the member of the military who killed the political
opponent could be charged with a, crime but the president couldn't.
(01:13:58):
Be the president has plenary authority to order members of
the military to do, things and so in that, case
even though it's obviously a, crime you could not charge the. President,
similarly and this was in a dissent From sonya so
to my or what about if the president took a
bribe and told, Everyone i'm Pardoning ross for his various
(01:14:24):
crimes against society Because ross gave me half a million
dollars to pardon. Him let's say he said it out,
loud you still couldn't charge him with a crime and
the pardon would still. Stand, NOW i don't like The
Supreme court's. RULING i think it went too. FAR i
think it needed to go halfway that, far but it
(01:14:46):
went too. Far but it's. Done that's WHY i Think
phil is going to lose this, lawsuit BECAUSE i think
The president has absolute authority to move space command wherever
he wants to move. It and it doesn't matter What
phil's argument, is even if it's, true it doesn't. Matter
that's my take on.
Speaker 4 (01:15:02):
That Oh.
Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
Gosha, Still i'm on a roll. Here i'm gonna have
to do this and Then i'm gonna probably take another
segment and answer and answer some more listener. Questions. Ross
did you ever decide on a license plate? Frame, YES
i decided on two license plate. FRAMES i have a
different one in the front THAN i have in the,
back And i'm trying to remember which is. WHICH i
think the front is a sort Of gadsden flag don't
(01:15:24):
tread on me license plate frame and the back the Back,
okay on the, back the top of the license plate
frame says, president and the bottom of the license plate
frame says bad analogy. Club so thanks to thanks to
you guys for suggesting that another listener, says, Hey, ROSS
(01:15:45):
i may not be able to listen to your, show
or at least not all of it in the new time.
Slot will there still be a podcast? Available absolutely exactly
what we're doing now with. Podcasts it'll be just the, same,
Right there'll be a podcast of the whole, show with
the very very very small exceptions of when we have
to cut something, out like if there's copyrighted music when
(01:16:06):
we do name that tune that cannot go in the
podcast because the, lawyers so that stuff will be, up
but basically the whole show will be. There you can
go To rosskominsky dot com Or koacolorado dot com and find,
that or just in your podcast app just subscribe to
The Ross Kominski. Show and there's also a benefit. There
and this is gonna sound, sarcastic but it's, not because
this is WHAT i. Do with, podcasts especially where the
(01:16:29):
speaker has a relatively low, voice you can often speed it,
up not just one in a quarter. Speed you could
easily probably go to one and a half speed and maybe,
more maybe one in three quarter, speed and listen to,
it and you can listen to the whole show in
a relatively short period of, Time AND i think that's pretty.
Good who pays for the lawsuits and who makes? MONEY
(01:16:50):
i think the state. GOVERNMENT i, mean it's in the
budget already of the State Attorney general to file these,
lawsuits unless they have to hire outside council for, it
in which case that costs. More BUT i don't know
how much. More let's see one listener text on the
topic we just did about the cost of. Childcare the
idea that you can't have more than three children per
(01:17:10):
care giver is crazy. Crazy how many parents have more
than three kids and make things. Work and now let
me just, SAY i think that ratio of no more
than three kids per, caregiver AS i understood What Tama ryan,
said is for, infants not for you, know toddlers or
what you might call sort of young, children but for
(01:17:32):
infants who are you, know fully, helpless you, know lying
there in a bastinet or. Whatever SO i think the
ratio changes with the age of the. Kids i'm not
expert on, that BUT i agree with the general concept
that when you set that ratio too, low you drive
you massively drive up the cost of providing the childcare
(01:17:56):
because you need so many more. EMPLOYEES i, mean, imagine
just as an, example if you, had let me just
make up some. Numbers let's say you had three hundred
kids to take care. Of and let's say in one,
circumstance the ratio is not more than three kids per childcare.
(01:18:16):
Worker and another ratio another, situation the ratio is not
more than four kids per childcare. Worker and it doesn't
sound like, much does. It but in the first case
you need one hundred, workers and in the second case
you only need seventy five. Workers that is a massive
difference when you start thinking about the availability of those,
workers and then how much you'll have to run up
(01:18:37):
the cost to pay those workers in order to get
them and try them away from the other. Place and
then then that adds into the cost of taking care of.
Kids that's part of why this is all so. Expensive all,
right thanks for the great listener. Questions we'll take a quick.
Break we'll be right. BACK i hope you get tickets
to the rest concert if you want to. Go i'm
going to The wednesday, show And i'm pretty Sure mandy
(01:18:57):
will be there with, me and depending on The broncos
schedule and some other, things Hopefully Rick lewis will be
there with us as. Well believe it or. Not even
Though rick is like the dominant RADIO dj for classic
rock In colorado for a few decades, now he's never Seen.
Rush So I'm i'm excited about. That Ross in twenty nine,
(01:19:20):
seconds can you give basic reasoning why the music licensing
is different for podcasts versus for over the. Air so
that's in response to SOMETHING i said a little bit
earlier when we do name that tune or even at
the beginning of segments where if you're listening to the
show over the, air you will hear you, know for,
example A rod plays some brilliant tune that has six
(01:19:41):
and seven in it because we're. Talking we were talking
earlier about six seven being the word of the, year
which is really. Dumb but if you're listening to podcast
you won't hear that because we can't put copyrighted music
in podcasts because of our music. License and the answer
to the question what's the, difference the difference is pretty.
Simple our license says for over the air and if you,
(01:20:01):
wanted if we wanted a license with the companies that
own the music to also be able to include the
music in a, podcast then that would have to be
an additional negotiation and more, money and probably much more
money than you can even. Imagine i'm not really expert on,
this but it wouldn't surprise me if some kind of
license like that wouldn't cost twenty million dollars a, year
(01:20:26):
or just some number THAT i think is is very
unlikely to ever get, paid. RIGHT i just don't think
we're gonna we're gonna spend, that not just to. US
i don't mean, iHeart i mean the industry, generally podcasts.
Generally it's just it's it's an immense it's an immense
amount of. MONEY i think that the difference between what
most podcasters would be willing to pay for the right to,
(01:20:49):
use you, know a few seconds or a minute of
copyrighted music in a, PODCAST i think the amount we'd
be willing to pay for that is a lot less
than the amount that the owners of the music would
want for. It, so if you're thinking about like a financial,
market let's say a stock a stock thing where there's
a bid price and an ask price for the stock
(01:21:11):
in this would be an example of where the bid
and ask price are, really, really really far. Apart and
so that's WHAT i think is going on. There let
me do maybe two minutes on a, thing and then
we're going to talk about cloud, seating like making a
rain by putting stuff in. Clouds we're going to talk
about that in the next segment of the. Show SO
i was talking a little bit. EARLIER i played twice
on the show now a statement By Denver school board
(01:21:35):
Member Soci, Geeton and basically what she said is that
white people don't, understand white people never, learn and people
of color are always subject to oppression and white. Privilege
and those are all words she. USED i am not
exaggerating or. Elaborating she said all those, things AND i
thought it was pretty over the, top AND i just
(01:21:57):
wanted to share a couple of quick listener texts with.
You ross it's your brown brother from The Deep. SOUTH
i think she's full of. BS i am in construction
on the management side of things and work with an
immensely diverse group of. People, yes racism is, everywhere but
making it seem like she has struggled more than most is.
Bs you are experiencing racism right now with the listener
(01:22:21):
who sent in that my, wife that is white, experience,
right she is almost talking About gaetanic and she is
almost creating a new sort of, privilege brown oppressed, privilege
which has no room in this. Society if we intend
to move, forward we refuse to be the victims and
have actually made a very comfortable life despite the very
low percentage of people that have shown racism towards. US i,
(01:22:42):
mean my, People mexicans are often racist against each, other
AND i see that more often than any other, race
against my. Race so there's that one. Other racism goes both.
WAYS i work in a field that supports the construction.
Industry as a white man on a site highly populated
By latino, Work i'm absolutely amazed that nobody on site
(01:23:03):
speaks Any, english nor do they have any comprehension of
what my highly specialized vehicle, does even though they have
seen it countless. Time so any attempt by me to
utilize my Limited spanglish is a complete waste of. Time
after thirty minutes on a, JOB i asked a person
face to face who owns the red truck that's in my,
way not knowing that he was the. Owner he, replied no,
(01:23:24):
hobbler AND i walked. AWAY i pulled a chain out
of my toolbox AND i walked over to the. Truck
AS i was on my, knees making it look LIKE
i was going to hook his truck up to drag.
It he came running, out speaking really Good. English back
to the first. SIDE a week, later with A latino,
TRAINEE i was again amazed at how helpful everybody. Was
(01:23:44):
neither situation was life, changing but racism does go both.
WAYS i APPRECIATE i said this. Earlier i'm gonna say it.
Again one of the great great parts of my job
is getting interactions like that with, you because my listeners
are so smart and know so many things THAT i
will never ever, know and having these interactions with you
(01:24:05):
makes the show better than my life. Richer there's a
subject that's come up on the show just a time
or two in the, past mostly out of scientific, interest
which a little more recently has generated some. Controversy i'm
not gonna say it's legit. Controversy it's just there are
some people out there who are not nearly as smart
(01:24:27):
as they think they, are and, anyway we'll get to.
That the Subject i'm talking about is cloud, seating and
there's a lot to. It the science is, fascinating the
promise for it is SOMETHING i would like to know more,
about and so joining us to help us understand it
more Is, cardwell who is chief of operations at Rain Maker,
(01:24:51):
technology WHICH i think is the biggest cloud seating tech
company in the. Country, Parker welcome TO. Koa it's good
to have you.
Speaker 9 (01:24:58):
Here, Yeah, ross thank you so much again for having
me on this. Morning, yeah that's that's. Right, so, yeah
Rain maker we are the largest cloud.
Speaker 10 (01:25:06):
Seeding company in The United states right. Now.
Speaker 9 (01:25:09):
YEAH a lot of a lot of interesting topics around cloud,
seeding a lot of very interesting history as well around
it all starting here in The United. States so happy
to dive. IN i, Mean i'm we're on the same
wavelengths in turn of the nerd and the. Nerdiness OBVIOUSLY
i will work out a company that's making it Rain
So i'll start all, Right, well we'll.
Speaker 1 (01:25:27):
Do the the controversy and politics stuff. Later, well let's
talk about the. History you brought that. UP i wasn't
even thinking of that as a, question but that sounds
awesome for a. Nerd so let's talk a little bit
about the history of cloud.
Speaker 9 (01:25:40):
Seeding, yeah history of cloud, seating so, WELL i guess
we could go we can go even further back than
even just like an actual technology, itself and we can
talk about prayer for like praying for, rain like rain.
Speaker 10 (01:25:52):
DANCES i, mean there's.
Speaker 9 (01:25:53):
Like the culture around the idea that like we would
we need more, precipitation whether it be snow or, rain
has been something ingrained in cultures across the world for,
centuries and so the, IDEA i, mean if you even
let's go Back american history with rain, making rain dances
and prank frames very rooted here as. Well but eighteen
ninety two there's Some West texas ranches that were they're
(01:26:16):
tying dynamite to weather balloons and setting them up into
the clouds.
Speaker 10 (01:26:19):
And hopes that like the explosion would basically come and
rain down the.
Speaker 9 (01:26:22):
Ranches so we've been trying to do this stuff for
like over centuries here in The United.
Speaker 10 (01:26:28):
States but, REALLY i mean that was a hope in the.
Speaker 9 (01:26:30):
Dream when it really became reality was in nineteen forty
six in Upstate New, york a couple of general electric
engineers basically were working in a cloud chamber that they
had built in their. Lab they basically built the freezer
that they injected some humidity, into and they were putting
in dry ice to see kind of what would happen
if when they were interacting with that really cold liquid.
Speaker 10 (01:26:50):
Water and what they found is when they introduced this dry, ice.
Speaker 9 (01:26:53):
Is that all of a, sudden that liquid water in
the cloud chamber converted into, snowflakes which then gave them
the idea, that, well we should try this into a live.
System and that's when in nineteen forty, six you can
see some really cool.
Speaker 10 (01:27:05):
Imagery if you can look at like.
Speaker 9 (01:27:07):
The flight tracks upset in your cloud seating nineteen forty,
six you can kind of see the effect of the
clouds that were not precipitating converge into a precipitating.
Speaker 10 (01:27:15):
Cloud so this really kick started.
Speaker 9 (01:27:18):
A huge kind of like idea of, well hold, up
we can actually we can utilize this natural resource in
a way that might be. Productive and so nineteen forty
six cloud seating the idea and the technology was. Conceived
now The United states obviously took that and ran we
were looking on how to decrease natural disaster seeing if
there was the potential to reduce hurricanes that was in
(01:27:40):
like the fifties and. Sixties the evidence of that was
very inconclusive and probably actually isn't applicable in terms of
like cloud seating as a technology to, that just because
those are large.
Speaker 10 (01:27:48):
Systems once they, start you can't really stop.
Speaker 9 (01:27:50):
Them so cloud seating obviously it couldn't intervene in a
system like.
Speaker 1 (01:27:54):
That and we'll get to some of that as part
of when we start talking about some of the, controversies
BECAUSE i THINK i think there's some people out, there
Like Marjorie Taylor, green who think that cloud seating can
cause something that it can't. Cause BUT i wanted just
to ask listeners if you've got a question about cloud,
seating a question you want to ask a real, Expert Parker,
(01:28:15):
cardwell just text those questions in to me at five
six six nine. ZERO i do not promise to ask
him every question that comes, in BUT i will ask
the good ones And. Parker just for, Fun i'm going
to share with you a listener text here WHICH i
haven't gone to, verify but you will probably know if it's.
True Ross Kurt vonnegut's older, Brother Bernard vonnegut was an
(01:28:36):
atmospheric scientist who discovered that silver iodide could be used
for cloud seating to produce rain and. Snow this invention
is the basis for the Fictional ice nine In Kurt
vonnegut's Novel Cat's. Cradle have you heard that? BEFORE i
have heard this?
Speaker 10 (01:28:50):
Before, yes all, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:28:54):
So is it? True as far as you, KNOW i
think that there.
Speaker 9 (01:28:58):
WAS i mean there's a lot of conflict between the,
brothers AND i think you can take a lot of
fictional ideas and the kind of exasperate them make fun.
Speaker 10 (01:29:05):
Stories.
Speaker 9 (01:29:06):
Right, no there's there's no way that there's like a
correlation between the, two but it's, yeah they were.
Speaker 1 (01:29:11):
Brothers did what did you major in in? COLLEGE i
was actually pre.
Speaker 10 (01:29:15):
Law, yeah pre law and entrepreneurship was the.
Speaker 1 (01:29:18):
Focus, wow how did you get to this out out
of thinking you were going to be a?
Speaker 6 (01:29:22):
Lawyer?
Speaker 9 (01:29:23):
Yeah there's actually never THOUGHT i was going to be a.
LAWYER i think you got probably far too many of those,
already BUT i. WAS i, Was SO i went to
school and then AFTERWARDS i WAS i was living In
New york at the, time and a good buddy of
mine from From Berkeley augustus was coming to visit, me
And augustus is the founder AND ceo of Rain, maker
and we were sitting down on like, Couch she's, like,
HEY i got this idea for this new. Company, like you,
(01:29:46):
know water is a huge issue in The west and
then around the, world AND i stumbled across this new
research that came out in twenty twenty one and then
in twenty twenty, three which was like The snowy campaign
done in The, states and then twenty three was the
cloud lab study done In, switzerland which basically shows that
you can make these clouds like snow and rain and
increase water. Supply AND i was like that sounds, insane,
(01:30:07):
Dude like there's no way that, Works like there's no
way this is a real, technology and like no one's
gonna let you do. That SO i was really skeptical at,
first but then he sent me the. Research he showed
me all like the kind of papers that they had,
done and then most, importantly he showed me the actual
the situation that we're dealing with as it relates to
water in The. West and then about a year LATER
(01:30:27):
i stopped by An Elsa gundo to check out the
lab saw these draunt hanging from the, raptors saw this
an incredible team of young folks that were just on
fire kind of like around this. Mission and then, he you,
know he asked me to, join AND i WAS i
was super fired up to kind of actually be a
part of this mission and do something that's, important do something.
TANGIBLE i think we live in a world of software
(01:30:48):
and apps and like on the.
Speaker 10 (01:30:49):
Online doing something in physical reality was really.
Speaker 1 (01:30:52):
Exciting that's a that's a great. Story all, Right so
let's let's talk about cloud. Seating what exactly is it
and how does it?
Speaker 9 (01:30:58):
Work, yeah so clouds seeing essentially is just mimicking the
natural process of. Precipitation so the way it rains or
snows in The, west And i'll preface by saying we're
a rain, maker, right so you kind of think that
we do, Rain we actually primarily almost only do. Snow
we operate Between october And may every winter to try
and increase snowpack in the.
Speaker 10 (01:31:18):
Mountains if it's warm enough on the, ground it'll falls.
Speaker 9 (01:31:20):
Rain but, anyways in The, west the way that it
precipitates is you get these natural clouds that come across The,
pacific right they're super, cold they're super saturated with a
lot of liquid water in, them and so when they're
very cold and there's a lot of, liquid we call
this super cool liquid. Water so this is, like you,
know water droplets that are existing at below freezing and,
(01:31:40):
temperature and the reason that they don't they need something
to attach onto in order to.
Speaker 10 (01:31:45):
Freeze so what happens is.
Speaker 9 (01:31:47):
Dust, pollen, sand some particle from the ground will gazally
kick up into the clouds and then act as that
centerpiece for a snowflake for the new water droplets to
attach onto it become heavy enough and then fall as.
Precipitation so we do is we basically just mimic this
process by introducing a mineral that has the same shape
as ice that makes it really easy for water droplets
to basically attach onto it and then kickstart that. Process
(01:32:10):
so it's fairly it's modest in scope on a case
by case, basis you're getting you, know if it's not,
snowing you're going from no snow to maybe a light.
Flurry so it's like you, know ten to twenty percent
over the course of the, season which you, know a
flurry on a day to day basis doesn't sound like
a lot when you're talking about accumulating water as in
snow and the.
Speaker 10 (01:32:28):
Mountains over, time you produce a lot of meaningful water that.
Way so that's how it. Works we use drones for our,
Operations so we build our own.
Speaker 9 (01:32:35):
UAVs they fly up into the, clouds you, know directly in,
them and then we can kind of run that.
Speaker 10 (01:32:39):
Operation they, land and then we let nature kind of
run its course that.
Speaker 1 (01:32:43):
Way, okay got so many. Questions i'll try to remember
as many of them AS i. Can For, OH i
remember from seventh grade a term in earth science called condensation.
Nuclei is that what we're talking, About that's exactly.
Speaker 9 (01:32:56):
What We're, oh so it's actually so cloud condensation nuclei
is what's going to actually allow these clouds to form
and then create like the puffy white things that we've
seen the. Sky we use what's called the ice nuculating
particles or ice nuculating. Agents so this is what you're
seeing the soil in the, ground and this is basically
what's going to allow.
Speaker 10 (01:33:12):
That water droplet to attach onto it and then. Freeze
AND i was very.
Speaker 1 (01:33:15):
Similar, yeah, okay SO i was wondering AND i think
you already answered the. QUESTION i was wondering why silver iod,
eyed AND i think you said the answer is the molecule.
Speaker 9 (01:33:23):
Shape, yeah the molecule shape makes it very conducive for
water to basically attach onto, it and we need a
very small, amount about ten skills. Worth it's like fifty
grams in a single kind of run of. Things and
so because nature once it kind of you can kick
started a little, bit and then it really does its
own job and then will precipitate where it wants. To
because really the biggest thing that causes ran and snow
(01:33:47):
in The west as well is our. Mountains so we
operate we only operate very closely to these mountain ranges
because one of our goal is to produce very valuable
and usable fresh, water and so largely this is stored
as snow, pack which then you, know melts off in
the spring and summer flows into our lakes and our
rivers and our blow ground the aquifers like in our.
(01:34:07):
Wells that allows that usable water to kind of be.
Speaker 1 (01:34:11):
Utilized, YEAH i was wondering if your customers are governments
and utilities and so on that are dealing with, uh you,
know large scale water issues or if your customers are
veil In Beaver, creek the whole.
Speaker 10 (01:34:26):
The whole swath of.
Speaker 9 (01:34:26):
THEM i mean really the water districts in the iri
irrigation districts at the local level that we're really partnering
with because like the idea of how we set up
these programs is understanding where does drought and issue whether
we're like our farmers are not getting the water rights
that they they have that you, know they're legally obligated. To,
uh the soil is not being saturated in a degree
(01:34:47):
that allows for conducive agricultural. Production our rivers are running,
low so our hydro is not producing.
Speaker 10 (01:34:53):
Enough so we do as we partner with these local.
Speaker 9 (01:34:55):
Municipalities to develop kind of a system and where that
water is going to be the most. Valuable then usually
this state will come, in whether it be the state Of,
utah who's been our closest, partner will kind of provide
some project funding and then coordination for those efforts because you,
know for the kind of the way that we see
is that in the interior of The United, states so
non coastal, areas there's really no way to produce new fresh,
(01:35:18):
water AND i think that the way that we like
to frame this is that water and drought not as
a crisis BECAUSE i, MEAN i think the more that
we fear, things the less like we're willing to actually
push forward and.
Speaker 10 (01:35:29):
Innovate but more is like water is a catalyst for.
Speaker 9 (01:35:32):
Growth like so if we if we can produce more
water and move away from this like fearful state of
like the preservation and like having to reduce our, consumption
but more so increase the amount where it's, usable then
we can grow our, Communities we can grow our, agriculture
we can grow our energy. Production so this is kind
of the effort that we do with the local and state.
Speaker 1 (01:35:50):
GOVERNMENTS i have a lot of listener, questions so give
me fairly short answers and we'll plow through some of
them because these are mostly technology. Questions and THEN I
i want to have a few minutes to talk with
you about kind of some of the politics that has
popped up around this. Lately can Cloud i'm Gonna i'm gonna,
Paraphrase can cloud seating and causing rain at some point
(01:36:15):
result in there being less rain than there are otherwise
would have been as the clouds drift to wherever they're
going to. Go great.
Speaker 9 (01:36:24):
Question so short answer is, no that we've not seen
through the decades of research that we're Robbing peter to Pay.
Paul in, fact producing precipitation In utah will basically create
enough humidity in the soils then refill the clouds as
they pass by, again which is going to end up
producing more rain downwind of.
Speaker 10 (01:36:43):
That so it's really stabilizing the hydraul the water.
Speaker 1 (01:36:46):
Cycle let's see what. Else there's a term out there
called geo. Engineering what does That how does that term
relate to cloud? Seating, yeah so two very different.
Speaker 9 (01:36:56):
Technologies so we have cloud, seeding which is going to
operate at fifteen than feet in, below and this is
the idea that you go into naturally existing clouds and
then increase their encourage them to precipitate a little bit.
More gew engineering is altogether at different technology at far
different elevations and kind of. Realm so gew engineering is
the idea that you can spread particulate or like these
(01:37:17):
materials in the upper, atmosphere so sixty to one hundred
thousand feet and it's basically the intention of like putting
a layer of sunscreen over the atmosphere to reduce the
intensity of the.
Speaker 10 (01:37:27):
Sunlight it's kind of the idea that you can cool
or regulate the global.
Speaker 9 (01:37:31):
Temperature so cloudsting has nothing to do with temperature or
like large scale environmental. Systems it's very small scale geo
engineering global geo engineering. Change it's really modifying the global,
environment whatever the intention of that may.
Speaker 1 (01:37:44):
Be AND i think this next question kind of relates
to those two things being different from each. Other this listener,
question does cloud seating make the sky appear hazier or?
Whiter and guessing the answer is probably not much on
this because the cloud's seating scale is really quite. Small
but geoengineering if a whatever to happen the way some
people are talking about, IT i mean that would almost
(01:38:08):
be a, feature not a, buve of. Geoengineering, yeah AND
i think this is a good topic that we'll probably
want to touch on here in a bit. Too is
like the haziness that they're referring to is probably the
contrails that they're seeing behind. Aircraft and so this is the,
idea get dissipating clouds is gonna kind of blur out the.
Days what we like to say is like on a sunny,
Day like sunny days are for, sunglasses not cloud, seeing
(01:38:29):
like we're gonna go those, dark gloomy natural clouds that come.
Speaker 10 (01:38:32):
Over we need those clouds to be there in order to.
Speaker 9 (01:38:34):
Operate and the contrails is really what you're seeing is
like humidity or exhaust coming behind aircraft and that's going
to create a small scale. Cloud not to say that
there's like you, know we can go into all the
ideas behind chemtrails or, contrails but, yeah geoengineering at upper,
altitudes if done at, scale could reduce a little bit
of like kind of a little bit of, haziness but
it's so high up, there it would probably still appear
(01:38:56):
like fairly blue.
Speaker 1 (01:38:57):
If you were an evil. Genius would there be a
way to use current, level current cloud seating technology to
do anything? Harmful, No i'd say.
Speaker 9 (01:39:07):
THAT i, mean LIKE i said, earlier cloud seating is
very modest in the scope that it can actually operate.
Within so we're talking ten to twenty percent increases in
precipitation over a six month time time.
Speaker 1 (01:39:17):
Period, so LIKE.
Speaker 9 (01:39:18):
I, said going from a like not like no precipitation
to a light drizzle if it's rain or a light
floory if it's snow or maybe like going a little,
bit like you, know it's lightly, drizzling maybe getting a
little bit of a healthier. Precipitation so you're not gonna
we don't have the ability to increase large amounts of.
Precipitation it's just by the laws of, physics we're limited
in the scope that we can actually go and do.
Speaker 1 (01:39:39):
That let's, see are there more effective things than silver
iod eyde for this? Purpose, YEAH i think.
Speaker 9 (01:39:47):
SO i, mean like dry, ice it works fairly well at,
like but it's harder to.
Speaker 10 (01:39:52):
USE i think there's a number of things that we're
we're looking into.
Speaker 9 (01:39:55):
THAT i, mean LIKE i, said like, soil, dust, Pollen
there's all these like organic things that exist naturally the
earth that might be worked really well if you're able
to kind of like use them in the right.
Speaker 10 (01:40:05):
Way so we're looking to a number of.
Speaker 9 (01:40:07):
Ways to not LIKE i, think just always see how
we can use things that are more efficient at what we're.
Doing but silver ide aded works, well has been proven
to be. Safe we have a lot of really good
research around that because we want to use you, know
safe materials that are going to produce the water the
most valuable way we.
Speaker 1 (01:40:21):
Can all, right so let's talk about we got a
few minutes. Left we want to talk about some politics
and controversy and stuff like. That so there was some
cloud seating, ACTIVITY i, guess In texas just before that horrific,
storm and all these kids got killed with the, flooding
and then the dumbest member Of, congress or at least
the Dumbest republican member Of, Congress Marjorie Taylor, green decided
(01:40:43):
to strongly imply that the cloud seating had something to
do with all those. Deaths so my first question for
you is very straightforward, one AND i need you to
be absolutely as honest as a thousand percent. Honest is
that even theoretically?
Speaker 9 (01:40:57):
Possible oh, no it's absolutely, not especially in the configuration
of our operator we. Were we stopped operating days before
that storm ever came into.
Speaker 1 (01:41:07):
Plays was that you? Guys and was that your? Company? Yeah,
okay those rain?
Speaker 9 (01:41:12):
Makers that was, like so we operated out In, texas
but days before and then there was a we aren't
even the storm that had was developing off of the
golf hadn't even come within miles of of where.
Speaker 10 (01:41:21):
We, were even being days in.
Speaker 9 (01:41:23):
Advance so, no the stuff that we were, using we
were only seated two clouds forty eight hours, prior and
that would have never stayed, around it wouldn't have. Existed
and even, then cloud, seating LIKE i, said cannot increase
precipitations an amount of, volumes and we can produce you,
know tens of, thousands hundreds of thousands of. Gallons that
was producing trillions of gallons of water in a very
very short time. Speriod, so LIKE i, said very limited,
(01:41:45):
scope did not have any involvement in.
Speaker 10 (01:41:46):
Whatsoever, so you.
Speaker 1 (01:41:48):
Know there's a lot of stuff going on in the
world In america right now where people are, doing you,
know causing people to be skeptical of vaccines and, this
that and the other. Thing and your technology is getting
caught up in this a little, bit and then it'll
it'll make some states take their own. ACTIONS a listener,
notes AND i don't know if this is, true but
that The florida has done something to limit this kind
(01:42:09):
of this sort of. Thing so you, know what's your
take on regulations regarding cloud seating right? Now and and
you know, what even if you think they're, dumb it's
going to be incumbent on you to convince people that,
hey this is. Fine so we've got about ninety seconds,
here how do you take that?
Speaker 9 (01:42:29):
On, Yeah, so first Of i'll started that almost every
state in The United states right now has some sort
of licensing and regulating framework around cloud. Seating you need a,
pertmit you need a, license you need approval to, operate
and then you need a partner that's going to do
that with. You as it relates TO i, mean we
should be talking about, Regulation we should talk about using technology,
responseily whether IT'S ai or cloud seating or cars like
(01:42:51):
it doesn't it's across the.
Speaker 10 (01:42:53):
Board and SO i.
Speaker 9 (01:42:53):
Think the issue that we're running into is it's a
it's a new technology to most, people and you, know
there's a lot of controversy around like some of the
conspiracy onlines like what you see.
Speaker 10 (01:43:03):
Like on the on the sunny days with the white.
Speaker 9 (01:43:05):
Lines people are conflating that with some of these, technologies
and they have a right to be.
Speaker 10 (01:43:09):
Concerned people are untrusting of the government right. Now but
as it relates.
Speaker 9 (01:43:14):
To what we're doing and what the intention, is which
is produce new fresh, water it's altogether.
Speaker 10 (01:43:18):
Different so it's just an education aspect.
Speaker 9 (01:43:21):
Of what are we, doing how is it, used and
what's the safe and effective and proper way to be
regulated around.
Speaker 10 (01:43:27):
This we're all for effective.
Speaker 9 (01:43:29):
Regulation as long as we know that we're growing into
producing something that is important to our natural, interest our national,
interest in our national, security which is increased fresh water.
Speaker 1 (01:43:38):
Supply, okay last very quick question for. You my understanding
is that in order for cloud seeding to, work you
have to have certain conditions in place already that are
at least kind of conducive to. Rain so my, understanding
and tell me If i'm, wrong, is let's say there's
an area where you'd really like to have more fresh,
water but it's an area that almost never gets, clouds,
right maybe them ahave desert ors? Something? Right it would
(01:44:02):
it be correct to say that you can't just create
rain or snow anywhere you want. To you're kind of
dependent on pre existing. Conditions is that?
Speaker 10 (01:44:10):
Right, yep exactly.
Speaker 9 (01:44:13):
Correct we have a very close partnership With god And
Mother nature on that.
Speaker 10 (01:44:18):
Side we need clouds to be.
Speaker 9 (01:44:20):
There, now what you can say is, like you, know
we can go to where there are clouds because we
need clouds to be. There they need to be about
negative six Degrees, celsius which is about twenty one degrees.
Fahrenheit there needs to be a large liquid water volume in,
there so the very specific kind of climate that we
need to be operating in the.
Speaker 10 (01:44:35):
Cloud but we can go, upstream.
Speaker 9 (01:44:37):
Like in Say, colorado where there are a lot of
clouds and where the water For california, starts for, example
then increase the snow up there so that you get
more water in the, river and then you can supply.
Downstream so there's a lot of ways that we can
steward our own natural resources in one state by collaborating,
together which is.
Speaker 10 (01:44:52):
Exactly water is incredibly.
Speaker 9 (01:44:54):
Political it's one of the most regularly one of the
most like the most lawsuits in the country are around.
Water so we're wasting taxpayer dollars by issuing the. States
we're wasting taxpayer dollars on a high a dollar figure
infrastructure that takes ten years to. Build and so we
can immediately employ a cheap and viable solution to produce
new fresh. Water we can start to dissolve these political
(01:45:15):
boundaries around.
Speaker 10 (01:45:16):
Water where water doesn't abide.
Speaker 9 (01:45:18):
By state boundaries, Anyways so let's just produce more of
it and we can collaborate that.
Speaker 1 (01:45:22):
WAY i don't know if you're old enough to have
heard a, line but a very common thing in The,
west back in the. Day whiskey is for drinking and
water is for. Fighting parker Card well is chief of
operations At Rainmaker. Technology the website is rainmaker dot. Com
this is a great. Conversation thanks for your, Time, parker appreciate.
Speaker 10 (01:45:41):
It, ross thank you so much for having me. On
looking forward to chatting again.
Speaker 1 (01:45:44):
Soon all, right glad to do. It, Hello, MANDYA i
need you wa what you got coming?
Speaker 11 (01:45:49):
Up all kinds of. Stuff we're going to talk To
Aurora Police Chief Todd chamberlain, today pretty excited about. That
we've got that Scallywag Michael brown popping. In he thinks
he's coming into a measure of the. DRAPES i say.
No and we're also going to talk to an attorney
from The Goldwater. Institute there was A wyoming mom who
was trying to push back against some school board stuff
and the school board retaliated against her and accused her of.
(01:46:11):
Stalking and The Goldwater institute has been helping her through this.
Speaker 1 (01:46:15):
Process it's a crazy. Story it. Is, wow that's all
that and so much more.
Speaker 11 (01:46:19):
Everybody and we got to talk about the nutty school
board meeting last.
Speaker 1 (01:46:22):
NIGHT i played that soci gi. THING i didn't play
any of the. Others oh, oh it.
Speaker 10 (01:46:29):
Is a target rich.
Speaker 11 (01:46:30):
Environment that's board meeting last.
Speaker 1 (01:46:31):
Night everybody stick around For mandy's fabulous. Show i'll talk
to you. Tomorrow
The Ross Kaminsky Show News
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