May 4, 2025 • 36 mins
Mark kicks off with a goodbye to Andrew Caravella, then dives into the Kentucky Derby culture clash — old school pageantry meets influencer chaos. Plus, Trump’s latest interview blitz and a debate over California launching its own NIH-style medical research center with Dr. Michael Daignault.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's May gray.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
It is May gray, and a little reminder of what
it would be like if we lived up in the
Pacific Northwest. When that sun comes out three hours a year,
they rejoice. By the way, speaking of Andrew, it is
I'm told your last day here. Yeah, at AM six.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Forty, they rolled out the red carpet.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
How could you leave the nirvana of broadcast? It's an outrage.
I know, I know what has happened. Where are you going?
Can you say or would you prefer not to?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You know, NDA's had to sign those no?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I am exploring other opportunities. It's just I'm at a
crossroad where it's time to just kind of step back
and do it. This is now my fifth year of
doing news here in La, ten years TV and radio
in Southern California, and I just I want to explore
some other opportunities in my career. It is radio, though,
(01:05):
so I'm Southern California born and raised. I'm not going anywhere,
so I'm sure I'm going to cross paths with KFI
and iHeart again one day down the road.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Oh yeah, I have no doubt. I mean, this is
the way it goes. Maybe you'll come back. I remember
when Joe Kwan left KFI, you know, Joe Kwan, Yeah,
over and the Spectrum and stuff. We had a big
kind of farewell and you know, the tears and the
hugs and oh my gosh, it was exciting. She's going
on to TV. She's gonna be reporter. I think it's
Spectrum or k CAL. I forget exactly all the details.
(01:35):
Maybe it was both. And then eight months later, I'm
listening to KFI and there's Joe quant on the on
the radio again, and it's because she, you know, dipped
her toe back into the KFI water.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
And this is what happens.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
You know, the bat beam goes up as it did
today for me, and you go, yeah, I'll come help out,
and you know, in your case, do the news. My case, yeah,
basically captain the ship as I am on short notice.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
It's a delight.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
And when it's in your blood as it is ours,
I think it's probably true.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I mean, you know, if anything, kay if I has
been like a gift for me. I have grown and
I have become a stronger person as far as you know,
storytelling and journalism goes. I mean, I can't. I can't
thank this place enough for everything that I've done here
in the last five years. So I mean, you know,
I'm nothing but fortunate and have gratitude for everything and
(02:33):
everyone that I that I've met.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Well, it's very cool that you're so gracious about this place.
And it's just a weird coincidence that you and I
would be on together on your last day.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I know, I saw that, and I'm like, oh, I
wonder if he requested that.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
It's all part of the exit package.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
All employees that leave iHeart will spend their last airshift
with Mark Thompson.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It's kind of it's kind of like a live in
real time said interview.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
We actually have a really cool configuration of people today
because Robin, Matt, Nicky and you. Now Nicky is from
Australia and New Zealand, I believe both, and she is
riding shotgun with Matt, who's been at iHeart for a
while and sort of knows all the producer ins and outs.
(03:23):
But it's you know, when you see new blood and
new people into this community of people who work at
iHeartRadio and at KFI Radio.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
It's cool. It's a great dynamic.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
So we'll get to maybe know her a little bit
later on, and of course we continue to focus on
Andrew and his fine service to this company. So did
you watch the Kentucky Derby. I don't mean to bring
this in there. I'm about to say something very Unamerican,
so I hope you'll are very un Kentucky derbysh But
(03:57):
I don't know if anybody saw the Kentucky derbut watched
Kentucky Deberty whatever it is. I'm not a huge Kentucky
Derby fanel though, I thought one of the interesting things
about the Kentucky Derby. You know, I worked with Conway
on Tuesday nights, and he's the greatest, and he's you know,
he's connected to horse racing in a way that is,
it's like in his DNA. But what I thought was
interesting is that the winner of the Kentucky Derby is
(04:23):
a descendant of Secretariat, and most of the winners of
the Kentucky Derby are descendants of Secretariat. Secretariat nineteen seventy
three and fifty years later, the I guess what would
(04:45):
you call that? The progeny, the you know, the lineage.
It continues. But that's not the un American part the
thing I'm going to say that it's on American. I'm sorry,
but I did watch. The pageantry is a big part
of the Kentucky Derby. The outfits and the women wear
these hats and they're celebrated for wearing these hats. So
(05:07):
all yesterday I'm watching and I'm seeing and again it's
this long ramp up to the actual race, and you
hear from all these handicappers and all these former winners
and all these trainers, etc. But one of the huge
things they focus on is the hat thing. That all
of these women are wearing hats. And my Instagram feed
(05:28):
is filled with all of these people who I know, performers, producers,
people who are just fans of being on Instagram. They're
all there at the Kentucky Derby and all the women
are wearing these hats.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
You can ask you a silly question. I would never
dare ask Conway, do you think it's kind of silly
that it's like as big as a super Bowl for
less than like a five minute race.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
No, I don't think that's silly. I think that the
pageantry and the anticipation and the I guess just the
overall ramp up to it is part of excitement, if
you want to call it.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It's not even like an all day thing, you know,
like there's no like pre races or anything.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
It's no, it's not like the freaquess. But I'm really
out of my depth talking about the you know, Conway
should be here to talk about the horse racing part.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
I don't really know much about horse racings.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Like halftime show, like there's none of that.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
No, But here's the way you have to look at it.
I think they're looking at it maybe the wrong way.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
There's no playoffs, like, none of that.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
You're right about that, there's no disputing what you're saying.
But you have to look at all the pageantry, the analysis,
and the world that they build for you, the world
of anticipation. You have to look at that as all
the things that you just mentioned. You have to look
at it as the playoffs. You have to look at
it as the halftime show. It's all wrapped into the
ramp up in the pregame show. I could say, boy,
(07:00):
super Bowl, don't you think it's kind of silly? I mean,
it only lasts two and a half three hours, and
there is two weeks of stuff leading up to it.
Don't you think you know what I mean, I can
play that game with anything. I think, you know, Christmas,
we lead up to it for two and a half
months and then it's all over in, you know, one day.
So it's not to me the length of time that
(07:22):
the event takes. It's more sort of the significance that
the event has wrapped itself in. And that's where you
could say, you know, to me, it doesn't hit or
it doesn't land or whatever. But what really doesn't hit
and land in Kentucky Derby Land for me is the hats. Sorry,
I think they look silly. I think they it's not
a good look. Now, this is maybe modern person looking
(07:45):
back at a wonderful tradition. And I'm not saying the
tradition shouldn't still exist. I'm just saying it doesn't land.
For I don't go, wow, look at all those glorious hats.
I think, boy, these are really some of them lovely people,
most of them all lovely people, and they have these
hats that are pinned onto the side of their head
and stuff. It's weird. It just doesn't work yet clearly
(08:11):
that's all part of the pageantry. It's not going anywhere.
So in a way, this is a confession. I feel
guilty as an American for somehow rejecting this part of
the pageantry that I guess is Americana. But it just
show me one of these people with a hat, yellow, purple,
(08:32):
they're all pinned to the side, big small. I love hats,
but I don't love the derby hats.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Like what if you're ending, like like, who were it better?
What if you're matching somebody? Like does that ruin it
for you?
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Yeah? Well that's I mean, that's a total faux pas.
That's a fashion faux pas.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Anyway, Well we've all come down to earth. And who
won again? Which horse Stow won?
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Was it? Anybody? They beat?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Journalism?
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Journalism law? I think finished third? Right?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
And oh my god, isn't that crazy just happened yesterday. Sovereignty,
Thank you very much, sovereignty. Sovereignty the big winner.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Thank god. Matthew's here. Gosh, he's terrific not checking everything.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, he's probably bumming out that I haven't gotten any
of the Trump sat down with Kristen Welker from Meet
the Press, Matthew's bumming that I haven't even mentioned it yet,
but I just mentioned it and.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
We will get into it with audio.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Next it's KFI AM six forty Mark Thompson here on
Sunday afternoon. Glad you could hang out with us Andrew's
last day and we will. We have two guests coming
up actually bottom of the hour, a doctor who will
talk about some of the things that happened, things that
are happening in California to pick up the slack because
the lack of funding at the federal level for our
medical research. Will talk about that and more with him.
(09:54):
And then my mentee stops by and she has a
new podcast that is fascinating. I think you'll be into
that too. So a lot to do.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Follow up to what we were talking about at the Derby.
Apparently one of the things that was an issue, and
this is sort of old school meeting new school, like
the classic history of Southern attendees of the Kentucky Derby
meeting the influence driven world of contemporary America. Apparently everybody's
(10:29):
complaining from the old school about various influencers who showed
up and didn't kind of play by the fashion rules
of Kentucky Derby and the only reason this is really
sun is turned into a bit of a standoff. And
there is an influencer named Gabriella Mora who's on TikTok.
She's pretty big, and apparently she was wearing inappropriate and
(10:54):
revealing attire to this prestigious event of the Kentucky Derby.
That is them of many who both attend and worship
the Kentucky Derby and the traditions she apparently has. She
(11:14):
has large breasts and they are much on display. I
haven't seen pictures of it, but these are the complaints.
She wore a dress that kind of showcase them, is
what we're hearing, and that's what been the complaint she said.
And others have defended her saying, hey, look do they
(11:36):
have a dress code there? I mean, this is her
first time going, she doesn't know. Others say, wow, it's
a way to cheapify the Derby. The Kentucky Derby shouldn't
be an influencer event. And she's saying, you're boob shaming.
(11:57):
Nobody in their right mind is going to stand for that.
You can criticize this all you want, She said, quote,
I'm getting ready for Kentucky Derby day too, And I
saw a couple of comments on my last video. I
don't know if you're going to misunderstand what I'm saying
in this video, but big boo girls are going to
understand what I'm saying. And she's saying, there's no way
(12:20):
to hide it, like honestly she said somebody else said,
and more importantly, why would you want to hide them? Well,
there are ways to dress tastefully, and there are ways
to dress provocatively, and apparently at the Kentucky Derby they
want you to lean toward tastefully. Look, it's old school South,
(12:40):
but the influencer world is getting into everything, even at Coachella.
Did you see what they were writing about Coachella. This
is an outrage that has kicked up around Coachella because
they say that influencers have room in that event. There
(13:03):
is a sense of unattainable luxury that has swept over
the festival's reputation, with well known creators Charlie Tomalio attending
the event, posting a photo with a lace top that
appeared to be from Chloe and is priced at sixteen
hundred and ninety dollars, while Kylie Jenner roamed the crowd
(13:26):
with her actor boyfriend Timothy Challome during Charlie XCX's performance.
Kendall Jenner hosted a tent at the Coachella Festival promoting
her eight P one eight tequila brand. She was at
the festival in a butter dress next to her fellow
celebrity bestie, as they say here, Hayley Bieber. So the
(13:48):
overwhelming presence of these well known trendsetters and influencers has
made the festival appear not to be about the music
as much as it is about a fashion parade and
about influencer market And the demand for Coachella this year
was so great the first weekend general admission tickets for
(14:08):
Coachella were going around six hundred and fifty bucks apiece.
Second weekend kicked off at six hundred dollars apiece, and
then you have to pay one hundred dollars for access
to the shuttle. The IP prices started about fourteen hundred dollars,
and the prices only included an entry, so you have
to get to food, lodging, travel. So Coachella has become
(14:33):
something else that has the complaint is gotten out of
the reach of a lot of people who are just
there for the music. Like the grassroots aspects of Coachella
have been lost, so the Kentucky Derby people would say, yeah,
and the grassroots parts of this storied Southern event have
been spoiled by all of you influencers with your dresses
(14:56):
that are all too exposing of the human form. And
Anna Nicole Smith's daughter stepped out of the Kentucky Derby
with her father, Larry Birkhead and with her controversy about
she wore her mom's black halter gown. This is the daughter,
the eighteen year old daughter of Anna Nicole Smith. She's
(15:18):
all grown up.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I thought that was a nice tribute wearing it. It's
an appropriate looking dress.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yeah, and she says, quote, this is the closest I'll
ever be getting to a hug from her.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Oh my god, that's so sad. I want to cry.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
It is sort of sin. She turned to eighteen late
last year, and what an interesting world she steps into,
I mean, with the legacy of her mother, etc. But
she was there at the Kentucky Derby as well. Donald
Trump spoke to Kristin Welker about the economy. It was
(15:55):
a pretty far reaching sit down interview, and it's good economy,
bad economy with Donald Trump.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Here's a little bit and I really mean this.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
I think the good parts of the Trump economy and
the bad parts of the Biden economy because he's.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Done a terrible job.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
He did a terrible job and everything.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
I actually love that take. If you feel the economy
works in some places, that's my stuff. Yeah, the stuff
that's not working for you, that's his stuff. There is
nothing that Trump did better, which is why he was
such a great campaigner, than trolling the competition, and indeed
(16:36):
he did that. In the interview he talked about he
took almost most questions to somehow dumping on Biden and
the Democrats. Here was a piece of sort of that world.
Looking at the Democratic Party and.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
You know what, I can't name I can't name one Democrat.
I mean, I look at the Democrats. They're in total
this array. They have a new person named Crockett. I
watched her speak the other day. He's definitely a low
IQ person and they said she's the future of the party.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
I said, you have to be kidding.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
I don't know what they're going to do. And I
really believe in the two party system because it's good
to be challenged. It's really good to have a two
party you know, it's good being challenge is okay, it
keeps you sharp. I don't know what they're going to do.
They have nobody. Bernie's eighty seven years old or something.
And you know, Biden is the worst thing that ever
(17:29):
happened to old people.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
You know, I have to say this.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
He's never as comfortable as he is bagging on Biden.
I mean that is just for him. All roads lead
to smearing Biden.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
And you know, Biden is the worst thing that ever
happened to old people because he was grossly incompetent. And
I think maybe for artificial reasons, you know, at Operation something,
so maybe that's an artificial But I know people that
are unbelievably sharp and they're older than eighty seven. But
I watched Bernie Sanders. He's a nuts job, but he's
(18:03):
still sharp.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
He's sharp. He's the same guy who was.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
He hasn't gone down. But Biden is really he's the
worst thing to happen to old people.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Yeah, you know, look, I will say this.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I know many an old person who is older than
eighty seven or eighty five or whatever.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
My mom's ninety five. She's sharp.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
He's attending two university classes right now, and so it
does happen. There are plenty of very sharp people. Again,
taking this entire conversation as he was having toward dumping
on Biden is something that he has sort of made
a reflexive move of his. It is something of a
(18:44):
distraction from the conversations around things that are contemporary policy,
you know, deportations, tariffs, et cetera. Now he did get
into some of that, but again he really ascribes the
negatives in the economy and any of the nation's ills
right now to Biden and his view is and that
was sort of, you know, the additional piling on with
(19:07):
how bad Biden was and how the Democrats are in trouble,
and you know, Biden was just out of it. And
there may be truth to the fact that Biden was
out of it, and there may be truth to the
fact that he inherited an economy, but there's definitely a
lot that he has to account for because of the
herky jerky nature of economic policy right now. The tariff policy,
(19:31):
which is a bit unclear the adversarial footing that we're
on with China and what is the future of that.
He did remark on some of that, so we'll get
to those clips from that interview a little bit later on. Next,
we talk to a doctor about the fact that federal
funding is leaving California when it comes to medical research.
(19:56):
In fact, federal funding is leaving the United States when
it comes to medical research. NIH CDC all being sapped
of funding across the board. It's not just the vaccines
with RFK junior, it's cancer research, it's Alzheimer's research, et cetera.
So might the future of some of that research be
(20:20):
California funding that research here in the Golden State.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
We'll talk to a doctor about that. Next.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Huge cuts at the federal level when it comes to
medical research. The National Institutes of Health and Science cut dramatically.
And it's a weird thing because we do a lot
of that research, the federally funded research here in California.
When we say when I say we, I don't mean myself,
of course you'll be relieved to know, but very smart
(20:55):
researchers exist with super Big Brain program here in California
doing critical medical research to talk to us about the
fact that we might be able to fund our own
NIHE here in California, to essentially replace a lot of
the federal funding that would have come to California. Is
(21:17):
doctor Michael Daniel. Hello there, sir David. I say, Michael David,
how are you, sir?
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Good?
Speaker 6 (21:26):
How's it going.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I'm well, nice to have you on board. You've seen
doctor Daniel on Fox eleven. He's a regular on my podcast,
The Mark Thompson Show, and so cool to have you
here to talk about this. So, first of all, we
do a lot of medical research here in California, do
we know, as.
Speaker 6 (21:46):
You mentioned, Yeah, yeah, and those are the major institutions there, UCSF, Berkeley,
u CLA, you see, San Diego, Stanford, And if you
look at the cuts from the Trump administration in DOGE,
it was about a forty percent reduction to NIH, which
is about eighteen billion dollars less, and a lot of
(22:07):
that funding from NAH just then gets parsed out to
the universities, as you mentioned, particularly in California. So right
now they're looking at about one hundred research grants totally
approximately three hundred and two, three undred and twelve million
that have been canceled, and that's disrupting ongoing research studies,
leading to a lot of hiring freezes and potential layoffs.
(22:29):
And so what State Senator Scott Weener had come up
with was, as you mentioned, a California NIH and he
wants to call it the California Institute for Scientific Research.
And basically, it would be a state level agency that
provides these grants or re implements the grants to fund
these research studies that have been disrupted. And you know,
(22:51):
as you mentioned, a lot of the science and the
research and the medical research comes out of California from
our university. So this would, you know, sort of prevent
that disruption. And I think it's a great initiative, and
it's scheduled for a legislative hearing tomorrow actually, so we'll
have to really pay close attention to what happens.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
And when we look at you know, it's funny we're
we're talking to doctor Michael Daniel about the fact that
maybe funding within the state of California could replace a
lot of these research grants that were coming from the
federal government. And one of the things that's interesting to
me anyway, is that a lot of this research grant
money comes back in a multiplier to the state. Like
it's not just outlay for medical research. There's actually huge
(23:37):
revenue generated from these original outlays of research money.
Speaker 6 (23:43):
Yeah, and you look at you know, nationwide, California accounts
for I think forty seven percent of US biotech research
R and P and generates fifty three percent of the
nation's biotech revenue. So you know, it's not, as you mentioned,
just a a fund and see you later. I mean,
a lot of this will come back to us. And
(24:03):
then you know it's not even just the funding coming back.
You look at the dividends that get paid as far
as public health.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Oh s and the other.
Speaker 6 (24:11):
Yeah. The other interesting thing that's part of this bill
is that Senator Wnor wants to authorize cal RX to
develop partnerships and contracts to maintain our supply and distribution
of vaccines, which you know, as you and I have
discussed multiple times on your podcast, is you know those
(24:32):
vaccines are a threat now too from you know RK
Junior at HHS and everything. And so the bill is
actually you know this bill tomorrow it's too pronged. It's
to develop that California NIH and also to protect our
state's vaccine supply.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Yeah, it's interesting. I'm so glad you mentioned I was
talking about the return on investment essentially. You know, when
there's five point one billion that is awarded to California
universities just last year and thirteen point eight billion dollars
worth of jobs and services and scientific discovery, are it
come back?
Speaker 4 (25:05):
So that's huge ROI.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
But you're right to also point out the fact that
it's not just money, it's real medical research. They're gonna
be breakthroughs and Alzheimer's in cancer and you know, these
are very important studies. And what's happened as they've yanked
the funding these studies just stop right in mid study
or is there some kind of de escalation of research
(25:28):
or you know, slow uh wrapping up of research. And
I hate to think that a lot of these programs
are they have timelines that are two, three, even five years.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
Yes, you're you know, you hit the nail right on
the head. And a lot of these projects are going
to be these research studies are going to be in
various stages and you know a lot of them the
well done randomized control trials include a placebo arm of
the study, and then the arm of the study that
involves the new intervention, whether that's a new drug for cancer,
(26:01):
a treatment for Alzheimer's, a new vaccine. And so you
stop that mid study and you know you're going to
lose so much data, You're going to lose so many
potential new innovations that will eventually benefit a large number
of us in the future. And I really think this
would be a great way for the state, with you know,
(26:23):
the fourth largest economy in the world, to send a
message to Washington that you know, we're not going to
stand for this roadblocking of science and public health and
medicine that needs to continue.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I mean, it's just everything from the safety of drugs
you know that comes out of the FDA, and all
of this is out of HHS and biomedicine, as you say,
and with sort of critical research and aging population, there
are a bunch of baby boomers are desperate for some
kind of treatment for everything from cancer to Alzheimer's. It
appears that you know, a lot of this research is
(26:57):
so very critical, Doctor Daniel, Can you just over the break.
I've just also a question about the emergence of bird
flu et cetera. And so I want to talk to you.
We'll just wrap up with doctor Daniel in a minute.
You can find him on Fox eleven. He regularly makes
appearances there and he also is a regular on my podcast,
The Mark Thompson Show, which is on the YouTube and
across the podcast universe, including iHeartRadio. So more with doctor
(27:21):
Daniel as we continue.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Mark Thompson here, and we're talking to doctor Michael Daniel
about We began the conversation with essentially a conversation about
filling in the gaps that are being left by federal
research money leaving the American medical system. Meaning all of
the federal research that is funded here in California at UCLA,
(27:47):
at US at major universities and beyond that is stopping
a lot of it because of I'd say the lion's
share of it, because of the plug being pulled from Washington.
So might there be a possibility to self fund essentially
and make up that gap, kind of start our own
NIH here in California. And doctor Daniel was saying, yeah,
(28:09):
that's very much possible, and so off of that, I
wonder doctor if you could talk about those things that
are being researched in so many ways in California. I
know there's a lot of research being done even on
the spread of bird flu. I mean, you know there's
sort of contemporary disease control research monitoring going on.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Can you speak to some of that.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
Yeah, as we talked multiple times on your podcast, I mean,
bird flu is definitely one of those things that just
keeps me awake at and I just feel, especially with
the new administration trying to downplay you know, COVID, other
infectious disease, reduce funding to infectious disease. They canceled a
lot of workshops that were planned around bird flu. They
(28:58):
canceled a simulation project to train multiple labs across the
country for how to identify it. So, you know, I
think right now we're really flying blind, and by that,
I just don't think we have a good handle and
probably don't really have an accurate assessment of how many
cases there are. You know, we know that there's been
(29:20):
a significant impact in dairy cows and poultry and wild birds,
and you know, there's only been about seventy confirmed human
cases of H five and one, which is the bird flu,
and most of those were related to infected dairy cows
and infected poultry, and for the most part, most of
the cases have been mild. There was only one death
(29:40):
of a worker in Louisiana. So, but you know, looking
right now at the number is I just don't feel
like what's available is to us publicly from CDC is
an accurate number. And as I mentioned to you multiple times,
with any kind of virus, I just worry that the
more unrestrained replication that we allow, whether it's in the
(30:05):
dairy cows, in the poultry, the virus will find a
way to ultimately be able to spread from human to human,
and once that happens, we're in big trouble.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Yeah, I guess I'm listening to you and trying to
be encouraged by some of what you've said.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Maybe the low numbers encourage me.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
I mean, obviously I'm discouraged by the fact that there
are no numbers that are really reliable based on what
you're saying that they're essentially looking the other way on
bird flu. But is there at the end of the
bird flu mutation that might actually jump into a human
population how severe is it? I mean, how big a
(30:45):
is there a threat of a lot of fatalities or
the threat of does it diminish you? And what are
the effects of bird flu? I guess you would ask, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
I mean right now, as I mentioned, if you're a
poultry a farm worker and you get infected with bird flu,
the symptoms are mild and there's only been one, you know,
fatality for somebody with severe illness. But in that one
patient in Louisiana, we learned a lot. This patient had
severe disease and looking at the actual genome structure of
(31:16):
the virus of the bird flu strain that this patient had,
the virus was already exhibiting the ability to infect the
upper airway of humans. And that kind of thing makes
me nervous because that is how viruses spread very easily.
It's from an upper airway infection. And you know, as
(31:36):
we saw with COVID, the original strain was very good
at getting into the lungs and causing severe disease, pneumonia,
low oxygen rates, high ICU utilization. But fortunately through the
course of the COVID pandemic, the virus lost that ability
to get into the lungs. And preferred a more upper
airway infect ability to and that's why we saw, you know,
(32:01):
higher numbers of people getting infected, but less severe disease,
less hospitalization, less death as we went through the pandemic. Fortunately,
but I think with bird flu, we just we just
don't know what's going to happen. And in previous cases
of bird flu around the world, the fatality rate has
been pretty high. It's been around forty fifty. So that's
(32:22):
another Yeah, that's another thing that makes me nervous. And
so we just need to, uh, we need to pay
better attention. And you know, we can't really count in
the federal government, and that's one of the reasons why,
you know, at my er little company, Mary and Torrents,
we created our own protocol for just screening for bird flu,
you know, adults that come into the ear with flu
(32:43):
like illness. We asked one simple question, and what kind
of work do you do. Do you work on a
poultry farm? Do you work with livestock? Because that would
trigger for us additional testing. And so I think that's
what hospitals and ers you know, need to do around
the country. They need to do their own upfront surveillance
and that's usually to be in the er.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Our last minute with doctor Michael Daniel, who is an
er doctor, I want to ask, what is the most
common thing that you see every day in the er?
What's the general common malady or accident or other thing
that comes into the er when you're there under your watch.
Speaker 6 (33:22):
That's a great question, you know, in my own experience,
and this is supported by research, the most common reason
that people go to the er is abdominal pain. By
far across the country, that's the one, and that can
be a variety of things. I mean that could be appendicitis,
could be a stone in your gallbladder, a kidney stone,
(33:43):
but you know, oftentimes abdominal pain. People that are having
heart attacks can present with atypical pain and it can
sometimes be a dominal pain. So we usually cast a
very wide net when we're working up those patients.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
How many times on what percentage of those abdominal pain
patients who come to you in the er have something
that's actually legitimately serious?
Speaker 6 (34:07):
Oh, very I see a very small number. The vast
majority are sent home.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (34:13):
No, The interesting thing is the vast majority are sent
home without a diagnosis. Yeah, you know, and that's The
thing that frustrates patients is they come to the er
looking for answers. But as I always tell my patients,
in the emergency room, we're trained to rule out the
worst case scenario, sure, the worst possible thing that could
be contributing to your Donald Paine, such that when we
(34:34):
send you home, we're confident that you're going to be fine.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
My dad wouldn't take us to the emergency room as
kids under any circumstances. I remember breaking my ankle once
and my dad would not take me, and I knew
the ankle was broken. It was crazy. It was just
like it was a different even like he was like
a fifties, sixties kind of dad, where you just like
tough it out, you know what I mean. But finally,
(34:57):
I remember we did have to go to the hospital
and they had to give me a cast and everything
on that in that particular instance. But I know that
now I feel like people go to urgent care in
the er a little more frequently than they might have
in the past, you know, yeah.
Speaker 6 (35:11):
Just because of ease of access, especially to urgent care.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
Exactly easy of access.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Michael Daniel, The Great Doctor can be found on Fox eleven.
You can also be found on my podcast and Mark
Thompson Show. But also you are a real er doctor,
and I don't know if you know you may run
into him in the where what is your er that you.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Work out of?
Speaker 6 (35:33):
I work at Providence Little Company and Mary down in Torrance.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Love it, Love it the best place to get sick
if you can see doctor Michael Daniel. My god, I
hope I get sick and Torrance if I need to.
So appreciate your input. All kidding aside, Thank you for
bringing some light to this emerging issue with the medical
funding and research funding that may happen in California and
talking to us about bird fluid. Thanks a lot, Doctor Daniel,
(36:00):
pleasure all right, talk soon. He's terrific and really just
a window on so very much. When we come back,
I have more of the interview that Donald Trump did
with Kristin Welker from Meet the Press. Talked about the border,
deportations and the Constitution. We'll get to all of that
in the next hour. And my mentee stops in. She
(36:22):
has a new podcast. It's fascinating. It's very related to
her world as a foster child. We'll hear more about
that in the next hour as well
Speaker 1 (36:33):
KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's May gray.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
It is May gray, and a little reminder of what
it would be like if we lived up in the
Pacific Northwest. When that sun comes out three hours a year,
they rejoice. By the way, speaking of Andrew, it is
I'm told your last day here. Yeah, at AM six.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Forty, they rolled out the red carpet.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
How could you leave the nirvana of broadcast? It's an outrage.
I know, I know what has happened. Where are you going?
Can you say or would you prefer not to?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You know, NDA's had to sign those no?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I am exploring other opportunities. It's just I'm at a
crossroad where it's time to just kind of step back
and do it. This is now my fifth year of
doing news here in La, ten years TV and radio
in Southern California, and I just I want to explore
some other opportunities in my career. It is radio, though,
(01:05):
so I'm Southern California born and raised. I'm not going anywhere,
so I'm sure I'm going to cross paths with KFI
and iHeart again one day down the road.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Oh yeah, I have no doubt. I mean, this is
the way it goes. Maybe you'll come back. I remember
when Joe Kwan left KFI, you know, Joe Kwan, Yeah,
over and the Spectrum and stuff. We had a big
kind of farewell and you know, the tears and the
hugs and oh my gosh, it was exciting. She's going
on to TV. She's gonna be reporter. I think it's
Spectrum or k CAL. I forget exactly all the details.
(01:35):
Maybe it was both. And then eight months later, I'm
listening to KFI and there's Joe quant on the on
the radio again, and it's because she, you know, dipped
her toe back into the KFI water.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
And this is what happens.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
You know, the bat beam goes up as it did
today for me, and you go, yeah, I'll come help out,
and you know, in your case, do the news. My case, yeah,
basically captain the ship as I am on short notice.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
It's a delight.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
And when it's in your blood as it is ours,
I think it's probably true.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I mean, you know, if anything, kay if I has
been like a gift for me. I have grown and
I have become a stronger person as far as you know,
storytelling and journalism goes. I mean, I can't. I can't
thank this place enough for everything that I've done here
in the last five years. So I mean, you know,
I'm nothing but fortunate and have gratitude for everything and
(02:33):
everyone that I that I've met.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Well, it's very cool that you're so gracious about this place.
And it's just a weird coincidence that you and I
would be on together on your last day.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I know, I saw that, and I'm like, oh, I
wonder if he requested that.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
It's all part of the exit package.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
All employees that leave iHeart will spend their last airshift
with Mark Thompson.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
It's kind of it's kind of like a live in
real time said interview.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
We actually have a really cool configuration of people today
because Robin, Matt, Nicky and you. Now Nicky is from
Australia and New Zealand, I believe both, and she is
riding shotgun with Matt, who's been at iHeart for a
while and sort of knows all the producer ins and outs.
(03:23):
But it's you know, when you see new blood and
new people into this community of people who work at
iHeartRadio and at KFI Radio.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
It's cool. It's a great dynamic.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
So we'll get to maybe know her a little bit
later on, and of course we continue to focus on
Andrew and his fine service to this company. So did
you watch the Kentucky Derby. I don't mean to bring
this in there. I'm about to say something very Unamerican,
so I hope you'll are very un Kentucky derbysh But
(03:57):
I don't know if anybody saw the Kentucky derbut watched
Kentucky Deberty whatever it is. I'm not a huge Kentucky
Derby fanel though, I thought one of the interesting things
about the Kentucky Derby. You know, I worked with Conway
on Tuesday nights, and he's the greatest, and he's you know,
he's connected to horse racing in a way that is,
it's like in his DNA. But what I thought was
interesting is that the winner of the Kentucky Derby is
(04:23):
a descendant of Secretariat, and most of the winners of
the Kentucky Derby are descendants of Secretariat. Secretariat nineteen seventy
three and fifty years later, the I guess what would
(04:45):
you call that? The progeny, the you know, the lineage.
It continues. But that's not the un American part the
thing I'm going to say that it's on American. I'm sorry,
but I did watch. The pageantry is a big part
of the Kentucky Derby. The outfits and the women wear
these hats and they're celebrated for wearing these hats. So
(05:07):
all yesterday I'm watching and I'm seeing and again it's
this long ramp up to the actual race, and you
hear from all these handicappers and all these former winners
and all these trainers, etc. But one of the huge
things they focus on is the hat thing. That all
of these women are wearing hats. And my Instagram feed
(05:28):
is filled with all of these people who I know, performers, producers,
people who are just fans of being on Instagram. They're
all there at the Kentucky Derby and all the women
are wearing these hats.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
You can ask you a silly question. I would never
dare ask Conway, do you think it's kind of silly
that it's like as big as a super Bowl for
less than like a five minute race.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
No, I don't think that's silly. I think that the
pageantry and the anticipation and the I guess just the
overall ramp up to it is part of excitement, if
you want to call it.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It's not even like an all day thing, you know,
like there's no like pre races or anything.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
It's no, it's not like the freaquess. But I'm really
out of my depth talking about the you know, Conway
should be here to talk about the horse racing part.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
I don't really know much about horse racings.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Like halftime show, like there's none of that.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
No, But here's the way you have to look at it.
I think they're looking at it maybe the wrong way.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
There's no playoffs, like, none of that.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
You're right about that, there's no disputing what you're saying.
But you have to look at all the pageantry, the analysis,
and the world that they build for you, the world
of anticipation. You have to look at that as all
the things that you just mentioned. You have to look
at it as the playoffs. You have to look at
it as the halftime show. It's all wrapped into the
ramp up in the pregame show. I could say, boy,
(07:00):
super Bowl, don't you think it's kind of silly? I mean,
it only lasts two and a half three hours, and
there is two weeks of stuff leading up to it.
Don't you think you know what I mean, I can
play that game with anything. I think, you know, Christmas,
we lead up to it for two and a half
months and then it's all over in, you know, one day.
So it's not to me the length of time that
(07:22):
the event takes. It's more sort of the significance that
the event has wrapped itself in. And that's where you
could say, you know, to me, it doesn't hit or
it doesn't land or whatever. But what really doesn't hit
and land in Kentucky Derby Land for me is the hats. Sorry,
I think they look silly. I think they it's not
a good look. Now, this is maybe modern person looking
(07:45):
back at a wonderful tradition. And I'm not saying the
tradition shouldn't still exist. I'm just saying it doesn't land.
For I don't go, wow, look at all those glorious hats.
I think, boy, these are really some of them lovely people,
most of them all lovely people, and they have these
hats that are pinned onto the side of their head
and stuff. It's weird. It just doesn't work yet clearly
(08:11):
that's all part of the pageantry. It's not going anywhere.
So in a way, this is a confession. I feel
guilty as an American for somehow rejecting this part of
the pageantry that I guess is Americana. But it just
show me one of these people with a hat, yellow, purple,
(08:32):
they're all pinned to the side, big small. I love hats,
but I don't love the derby hats.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Like what if you're ending, like like, who were it better?
What if you're matching somebody? Like does that ruin it
for you?
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Yeah? Well that's I mean, that's a total faux pas.
That's a fashion faux pas.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Anyway, Well we've all come down to earth. And who
won again? Which horse Stow won?
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Was it? Anybody? They beat?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Journalism?
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Journalism law? I think finished third? Right?
Speaker 3 (09:04):
And oh my god, isn't that crazy just happened yesterday. Sovereignty,
Thank you very much, sovereignty. Sovereignty the big winner.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Thank god. Matthew's here. Gosh, he's terrific not checking everything.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, he's probably bumming out that I haven't gotten any
of the Trump sat down with Kristen Welker from Meet
the Press, Matthew's bumming that I haven't even mentioned it yet,
but I just mentioned it and.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
We will get into it with audio.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Next it's KFI AM six forty Mark Thompson here on
Sunday afternoon. Glad you could hang out with us Andrew's
last day and we will. We have two guests coming
up actually bottom of the hour, a doctor who will
talk about some of the things that happened, things that
are happening in California to pick up the slack because
the lack of funding at the federal level for our
medical research. Will talk about that and more with him.
(09:54):
And then my mentee stops by and she has a
new podcast that is fascinating. I think you'll be into
that too. So a lot to do.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Follow up to what we were talking about at the Derby.
Apparently one of the things that was an issue, and
this is sort of old school meeting new school, like
the classic history of Southern attendees of the Kentucky Derby
meeting the influence driven world of contemporary America. Apparently everybody's
(10:29):
complaining from the old school about various influencers who showed
up and didn't kind of play by the fashion rules
of Kentucky Derby and the only reason this is really
sun is turned into a bit of a standoff. And
there is an influencer named Gabriella Mora who's on TikTok.
She's pretty big, and apparently she was wearing inappropriate and
(10:54):
revealing attire to this prestigious event of the Kentucky Derby.
That is them of many who both attend and worship
the Kentucky Derby and the traditions she apparently has. She
(11:14):
has large breasts and they are much on display. I
haven't seen pictures of it, but these are the complaints.
She wore a dress that kind of showcase them, is
what we're hearing, and that's what been the complaint she said.
And others have defended her saying, hey, look do they
(11:36):
have a dress code there? I mean, this is her
first time going, she doesn't know. Others say, wow, it's
a way to cheapify the Derby. The Kentucky Derby shouldn't
be an influencer event. And she's saying, you're boob shaming.
(11:57):
Nobody in their right mind is going to stand for that.
You can criticize this all you want, She said, quote,
I'm getting ready for Kentucky Derby day too, And I
saw a couple of comments on my last video. I
don't know if you're going to misunderstand what I'm saying
in this video, but big boo girls are going to
understand what I'm saying. And she's saying, there's no way
(12:20):
to hide it, like honestly she said somebody else said,
and more importantly, why would you want to hide them? Well,
there are ways to dress tastefully, and there are ways
to dress provocatively, and apparently at the Kentucky Derby they
want you to lean toward tastefully. Look, it's old school South,
(12:40):
but the influencer world is getting into everything, even at Coachella.
Did you see what they were writing about Coachella. This
is an outrage that has kicked up around Coachella because
they say that influencers have room in that event. There
(13:03):
is a sense of unattainable luxury that has swept over
the festival's reputation, with well known creators Charlie Tomalio attending
the event, posting a photo with a lace top that
appeared to be from Chloe and is priced at sixteen
hundred and ninety dollars, while Kylie Jenner roamed the crowd
(13:26):
with her actor boyfriend Timothy Challome during Charlie XCX's performance.
Kendall Jenner hosted a tent at the Coachella Festival promoting
her eight P one eight tequila brand. She was at
the festival in a butter dress next to her fellow
celebrity bestie, as they say here, Hayley Bieber. So the
(13:48):
overwhelming presence of these well known trendsetters and influencers has
made the festival appear not to be about the music
as much as it is about a fashion parade and
about influencer market And the demand for Coachella this year
was so great the first weekend general admission tickets for
(14:08):
Coachella were going around six hundred and fifty bucks apiece.
Second weekend kicked off at six hundred dollars apiece, and
then you have to pay one hundred dollars for access
to the shuttle. The IP prices started about fourteen hundred dollars,
and the prices only included an entry, so you have
to get to food, lodging, travel. So Coachella has become
(14:33):
something else that has the complaint is gotten out of
the reach of a lot of people who are just
there for the music. Like the grassroots aspects of Coachella
have been lost, so the Kentucky Derby people would say, yeah,
and the grassroots parts of this storied Southern event have
been spoiled by all of you influencers with your dresses
(14:56):
that are all too exposing of the human form. And
Anna Nicole Smith's daughter stepped out of the Kentucky Derby
with her father, Larry Birkhead and with her controversy about
she wore her mom's black halter gown. This is the daughter,
the eighteen year old daughter of Anna Nicole Smith. She's
(15:18):
all grown up.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
I thought that was a nice tribute wearing it. It's
an appropriate looking dress.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yeah, and she says, quote, this is the closest I'll
ever be getting to a hug from her.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Oh my god, that's so sad. I want to cry.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
It is sort of sin. She turned to eighteen late
last year, and what an interesting world she steps into,
I mean, with the legacy of her mother, etc. But
she was there at the Kentucky Derby as well. Donald
Trump spoke to Kristin Welker about the economy. It was
(15:55):
a pretty far reaching sit down interview, and it's good economy,
bad economy with Donald Trump.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Here's a little bit and I really mean this.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
I think the good parts of the Trump economy and
the bad parts of the Biden economy because he's.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Done a terrible job.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
He did a terrible job and everything.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
I actually love that take. If you feel the economy
works in some places, that's my stuff. Yeah, the stuff
that's not working for you, that's his stuff. There is
nothing that Trump did better, which is why he was
such a great campaigner, than trolling the competition, and indeed
(16:36):
he did that. In the interview he talked about he
took almost most questions to somehow dumping on Biden and
the Democrats. Here was a piece of sort of that world.
Looking at the Democratic Party and.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
You know what, I can't name I can't name one Democrat.
I mean, I look at the Democrats. They're in total
this array. They have a new person named Crockett. I
watched her speak the other day. He's definitely a low
IQ person and they said she's the future of the party.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
I said, you have to be kidding.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
I don't know what they're going to do. And I
really believe in the two party system because it's good
to be challenged. It's really good to have a two
party you know, it's good being challenge is okay, it
keeps you sharp. I don't know what they're going to do.
They have nobody. Bernie's eighty seven years old or something.
And you know, Biden is the worst thing that ever
(17:29):
happened to old people.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
You know, I have to say this.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
He's never as comfortable as he is bagging on Biden.
I mean that is just for him. All roads lead
to smearing Biden.
Speaker 5 (17:41):
And you know, Biden is the worst thing that ever
happened to old people because he was grossly incompetent. And
I think maybe for artificial reasons, you know, at Operation something,
so maybe that's an artificial But I know people that
are unbelievably sharp and they're older than eighty seven. But
I watched Bernie Sanders. He's a nuts job, but he's
(18:03):
still sharp.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
He's sharp. He's the same guy who was.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
He hasn't gone down. But Biden is really he's the
worst thing to happen to old people.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Yeah, you know, look, I will say this.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I know many an old person who is older than
eighty seven or eighty five or whatever.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
My mom's ninety five. She's sharp.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
He's attending two university classes right now, and so it
does happen. There are plenty of very sharp people. Again,
taking this entire conversation as he was having toward dumping
on Biden is something that he has sort of made
a reflexive move of his. It is something of a
(18:44):
distraction from the conversations around things that are contemporary policy,
you know, deportations, tariffs, et cetera. Now he did get
into some of that, but again he really ascribes the
negatives in the economy and any of the nation's ills
right now to Biden and his view is and that
was sort of, you know, the additional piling on with
(19:07):
how bad Biden was and how the Democrats are in trouble,
and you know, Biden was just out of it. And
there may be truth to the fact that Biden was
out of it, and there may be truth to the
fact that he inherited an economy, but there's definitely a
lot that he has to account for because of the
herky jerky nature of economic policy right now. The tariff policy,
(19:31):
which is a bit unclear the adversarial footing that we're
on with China and what is the future of that.
He did remark on some of that, so we'll get
to those clips from that interview a little bit later on. Next,
we talk to a doctor about the fact that federal
funding is leaving California when it comes to medical research.
(19:56):
In fact, federal funding is leaving the United States when
it comes to medical research. NIH CDC all being sapped
of funding across the board. It's not just the vaccines
with RFK junior, it's cancer research, it's Alzheimer's research, et cetera.
So might the future of some of that research be
(20:20):
California funding that research here in the Golden State.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
We'll talk to a doctor about that. Next.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Huge cuts at the federal level when it comes to
medical research. The National Institutes of Health and Science cut dramatically.
And it's a weird thing because we do a lot
of that research, the federally funded research here in California.
When we say when I say we, I don't mean myself,
of course you'll be relieved to know, but very smart
(20:55):
researchers exist with super Big Brain program here in California
doing critical medical research to talk to us about the
fact that we might be able to fund our own
NIHE here in California, to essentially replace a lot of
the federal funding that would have come to California. Is
(21:17):
doctor Michael Daniel. Hello there, sir David. I say, Michael David,
how are you, sir?
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Good?
Speaker 6 (21:26):
How's it going.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I'm well, nice to have you on board. You've seen
doctor Daniel on Fox eleven. He's a regular on my podcast,
The Mark Thompson Show, and so cool to have you
here to talk about this. So, first of all, we
do a lot of medical research here in California, do
we know, as.
Speaker 6 (21:46):
You mentioned, Yeah, yeah, and those are the major institutions there, UCSF, Berkeley,
u CLA, you see, San Diego, Stanford, And if you
look at the cuts from the Trump administration in DOGE,
it was about a forty percent reduction to NIH, which
is about eighteen billion dollars less, and a lot of
(22:07):
that funding from NAH just then gets parsed out to
the universities, as you mentioned, particularly in California. So right
now they're looking at about one hundred research grants totally
approximately three hundred and two, three undred and twelve million
that have been canceled, and that's disrupting ongoing research studies,
leading to a lot of hiring freezes and potential layoffs.
(22:29):
And so what State Senator Scott Weener had come up
with was, as you mentioned, a California NIH and he
wants to call it the California Institute for Scientific Research.
And basically, it would be a state level agency that
provides these grants or re implements the grants to fund
these research studies that have been disrupted. And you know,
(22:51):
as you mentioned, a lot of the science and the
research and the medical research comes out of California from
our university. So this would, you know, sort of prevent
that disruption. And I think it's a great initiative, and
it's scheduled for a legislative hearing tomorrow actually, so we'll
have to really pay close attention to what happens.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
And when we look at you know, it's funny we're
we're talking to doctor Michael Daniel about the fact that
maybe funding within the state of California could replace a
lot of these research grants that were coming from the
federal government. And one of the things that's interesting to
me anyway, is that a lot of this research grant
money comes back in a multiplier to the state. Like
it's not just outlay for medical research. There's actually huge
(23:37):
revenue generated from these original outlays of research money.
Speaker 6 (23:43):
Yeah, and you look at you know, nationwide, California accounts
for I think forty seven percent of US biotech research
R and P and generates fifty three percent of the
nation's biotech revenue. So you know, it's not, as you mentioned,
just a a fund and see you later. I mean,
a lot of this will come back to us. And
(24:03):
then you know it's not even just the funding coming back.
You look at the dividends that get paid as far
as public health.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
Oh s and the other.
Speaker 6 (24:11):
Yeah. The other interesting thing that's part of this bill
is that Senator Wnor wants to authorize cal RX to
develop partnerships and contracts to maintain our supply and distribution
of vaccines, which you know, as you and I have
discussed multiple times on your podcast, is you know those
(24:32):
vaccines are a threat now too from you know RK
Junior at HHS and everything. And so the bill is
actually you know this bill tomorrow it's too pronged. It's
to develop that California NIH and also to protect our
state's vaccine supply.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Yeah, it's interesting. I'm so glad you mentioned I was
talking about the return on investment essentially. You know, when
there's five point one billion that is awarded to California
universities just last year and thirteen point eight billion dollars
worth of jobs and services and scientific discovery, are it
come back?
Speaker 4 (25:05):
So that's huge ROI.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
But you're right to also point out the fact that
it's not just money, it's real medical research. They're gonna
be breakthroughs and Alzheimer's in cancer and you know, these
are very important studies. And what's happened as they've yanked
the funding these studies just stop right in mid study
or is there some kind of de escalation of research
(25:28):
or you know, slow uh wrapping up of research. And
I hate to think that a lot of these programs
are they have timelines that are two, three, even five years.
Speaker 6 (25:40):
Yes, you're you know, you hit the nail right on
the head. And a lot of these projects are going
to be these research studies are going to be in
various stages and you know a lot of them the
well done randomized control trials include a placebo arm of
the study, and then the arm of the study that
involves the new intervention, whether that's a new drug for cancer,
(26:01):
a treatment for Alzheimer's, a new vaccine. And so you
stop that mid study and you know you're going to
lose so much data, You're going to lose so many
potential new innovations that will eventually benefit a large number
of us in the future. And I really think this
would be a great way for the state, with you know,
(26:23):
the fourth largest economy in the world, to send a
message to Washington that you know, we're not going to
stand for this roadblocking of science and public health and
medicine that needs to continue.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I mean, it's just everything from the safety of drugs
you know that comes out of the FDA, and all
of this is out of HHS and biomedicine, as you say,
and with sort of critical research and aging population, there
are a bunch of baby boomers are desperate for some
kind of treatment for everything from cancer to Alzheimer's. It
appears that you know, a lot of this research is
(26:57):
so very critical, Doctor Daniel, Can you just over the break.
I've just also a question about the emergence of bird
flu et cetera. And so I want to talk to you.
We'll just wrap up with doctor Daniel in a minute.
You can find him on Fox eleven. He regularly makes
appearances there and he also is a regular on my podcast,
The Mark Thompson Show, which is on the YouTube and
across the podcast universe, including iHeartRadio. So more with doctor
(27:21):
Daniel as we continue.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Mark Thompson here, and we're talking to doctor Michael Daniel
about We began the conversation with essentially a conversation about
filling in the gaps that are being left by federal
research money leaving the American medical system. Meaning all of
the federal research that is funded here in California at UCLA,
(27:47):
at US at major universities and beyond that is stopping
a lot of it because of I'd say the lion's
share of it, because of the plug being pulled from Washington.
So might there be a possibility to self fund essentially
and make up that gap, kind of start our own
NIH here in California. And doctor Daniel was saying, yeah,
(28:09):
that's very much possible, and so off of that, I
wonder doctor if you could talk about those things that
are being researched in so many ways in California. I
know there's a lot of research being done even on
the spread of bird flu. I mean, you know there's
sort of contemporary disease control research monitoring going on.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Can you speak to some of that.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
Yeah, as we talked multiple times on your podcast, I mean,
bird flu is definitely one of those things that just
keeps me awake at and I just feel, especially with
the new administration trying to downplay you know, COVID, other
infectious disease, reduce funding to infectious disease. They canceled a
lot of workshops that were planned around bird flu. They
(28:58):
canceled a simulation project to train multiple labs across the
country for how to identify it. So, you know, I
think right now we're really flying blind, and by that,
I just don't think we have a good handle and
probably don't really have an accurate assessment of how many
cases there are. You know, we know that there's been
(29:20):
a significant impact in dairy cows and poultry and wild birds,
and you know, there's only been about seventy confirmed human
cases of H five and one, which is the bird flu,
and most of those were related to infected dairy cows
and infected poultry, and for the most part, most of
the cases have been mild. There was only one death
(29:40):
of a worker in Louisiana. So, but you know, looking
right now at the number is I just don't feel
like what's available is to us publicly from CDC is
an accurate number. And as I mentioned to you multiple times,
with any kind of virus, I just worry that the
more unrestrained replication that we allow, whether it's in the
(30:05):
dairy cows, in the poultry, the virus will find a
way to ultimately be able to spread from human to human,
and once that happens, we're in big trouble.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Yeah, I guess I'm listening to you and trying to
be encouraged by some of what you've said.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Maybe the low numbers encourage me.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
I mean, obviously I'm discouraged by the fact that there
are no numbers that are really reliable based on what
you're saying that they're essentially looking the other way on
bird flu. But is there at the end of the
bird flu mutation that might actually jump into a human
population how severe is it? I mean, how big a
(30:45):
is there a threat of a lot of fatalities or
the threat of does it diminish you? And what are
the effects of bird flu? I guess you would ask, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (30:54):
I mean right now, as I mentioned, if you're a
poultry a farm worker and you get infected with bird flu,
the symptoms are mild and there's only been one, you know,
fatality for somebody with severe illness. But in that one
patient in Louisiana, we learned a lot. This patient had
severe disease and looking at the actual genome structure of
(31:16):
the virus of the bird flu strain that this patient had,
the virus was already exhibiting the ability to infect the
upper airway of humans. And that kind of thing makes
me nervous because that is how viruses spread very easily.
It's from an upper airway infection. And you know, as
(31:36):
we saw with COVID, the original strain was very good
at getting into the lungs and causing severe disease, pneumonia,
low oxygen rates, high ICU utilization. But fortunately through the
course of the COVID pandemic, the virus lost that ability
to get into the lungs. And preferred a more upper
airway infect ability to and that's why we saw, you know,
(32:01):
higher numbers of people getting infected, but less severe disease,
less hospitalization, less death as we went through the pandemic. Fortunately,
but I think with bird flu, we just we just
don't know what's going to happen. And in previous cases
of bird flu around the world, the fatality rate has
been pretty high. It's been around forty fifty. So that's
(32:22):
another Yeah, that's another thing that makes me nervous. And
so we just need to, uh, we need to pay
better attention. And you know, we can't really count in
the federal government, and that's one of the reasons why,
you know, at my er little company, Mary and Torrents,
we created our own protocol for just screening for bird flu,
you know, adults that come into the ear with flu
(32:43):
like illness. We asked one simple question, and what kind
of work do you do. Do you work on a
poultry farm? Do you work with livestock? Because that would
trigger for us additional testing. And so I think that's
what hospitals and ers you know, need to do around
the country. They need to do their own upfront surveillance
and that's usually to be in the er.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Our last minute with doctor Michael Daniel, who is an
er doctor, I want to ask, what is the most
common thing that you see every day in the er?
What's the general common malady or accident or other thing
that comes into the er when you're there under your watch.
Speaker 6 (33:22):
That's a great question, you know, in my own experience,
and this is supported by research, the most common reason
that people go to the er is abdominal pain. By
far across the country, that's the one, and that can
be a variety of things. I mean that could be appendicitis,
could be a stone in your gallbladder, a kidney stone,
(33:43):
but you know, oftentimes abdominal pain. People that are having
heart attacks can present with atypical pain and it can
sometimes be a dominal pain. So we usually cast a
very wide net when we're working up those patients.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
How many times on what percentage of those abdominal pain
patients who come to you in the er have something
that's actually legitimately serious?
Speaker 6 (34:07):
Oh, very I see a very small number. The vast
majority are sent home.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (34:13):
No, The interesting thing is the vast majority are sent
home without a diagnosis. Yeah, you know, and that's The
thing that frustrates patients is they come to the er
looking for answers. But as I always tell my patients,
in the emergency room, we're trained to rule out the
worst case scenario, sure, the worst possible thing that could
be contributing to your Donald Paine, such that when we
(34:34):
send you home, we're confident that you're going to be fine.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
My dad wouldn't take us to the emergency room as
kids under any circumstances. I remember breaking my ankle once
and my dad would not take me, and I knew
the ankle was broken. It was crazy. It was just
like it was a different even like he was like
a fifties, sixties kind of dad, where you just like
tough it out, you know what I mean. But finally,
(34:57):
I remember we did have to go to the hospital
and they had to give me a cast and everything
on that in that particular instance. But I know that
now I feel like people go to urgent care in
the er a little more frequently than they might have
in the past, you know, yeah.
Speaker 6 (35:11):
Just because of ease of access, especially to urgent care.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
Exactly easy of access.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Michael Daniel, The Great Doctor can be found on Fox eleven.
You can also be found on my podcast and Mark
Thompson Show. But also you are a real er doctor,
and I don't know if you know you may run
into him in the where what is your er that you.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Work out of?
Speaker 6 (35:33):
I work at Providence Little Company and Mary down in Torrance.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
Love it, Love it the best place to get sick
if you can see doctor Michael Daniel. My god, I
hope I get sick and Torrance if I need to.
So appreciate your input. All kidding aside, Thank you for
bringing some light to this emerging issue with the medical
funding and research funding that may happen in California and
talking to us about bird fluid. Thanks a lot, Doctor Daniel,
(36:00):
pleasure all right, talk soon. He's terrific and really just
a window on so very much. When we come back,
I have more of the interview that Donald Trump did
with Kristin Welker from Meet the Press. Talked about the border,
deportations and the Constitution. We'll get to all of that
in the next hour. And my mentee stops in. She
(36:22):
has a new podcast. It's fascinating. It's very related to
her world as a foster child. We'll hear more about
that in the next hour as well
Speaker 1 (36:33):
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