December 17, 2025 • 25 mins
(December 17, 2025)
Warner Bros. rejects Paramount’s hostile bid, accusing Ellison Family of failing to put money into the deal. Why Made in the USA doesn’t appear on artificial Christmas trees. Dr. Jim Keany, Chief Medical Officer at Dignity Health St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, joins The Bill Handel Show for 'Medical News'! Dr. Keany talks with Bill about poor sleep triggering a vicious cycle your brain can’t break, Psilocybin breaking depressive cycles by rewiring the brain, and a weight loss strategy that is 5x more effective than Ozempic.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
AFI AM six forty will handle here on a Wednesday morning,
December seventeen. Tonight, I believe six o'clock our time, we
are going to hear President Trump with his third set
of comments behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
And that is probably the most serious, the most serious
(00:36):
talk to the American people behind that desk. And we've
heard so much of huge import when the President is
at the Resolute Desk. Also, number of restrictions the US
is now putting on countries where people coming in from
other countries has increased. President Trump signed a Proclamation directive
(00:58):
expanding the list of country's with fuller partial travel restrictions
to thirty nine. That's up from nineteen. And Nick Reiner,
the son of Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner, who is
accused and has been charged with the murder if his
two parents, is on suicide watch at I believe the
(01:20):
county prison.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Another big bit of news to say the least has
to do with the entertainment industry, and most of us
are well how many people don't have Netflix out there,
and how many people don't watch the various streaming services.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
So this is a story about Netflix.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Netflix, I think is the first and the best of
the major streaming services and has the best stuff going
and Warner Brothers Discovery. Warner Brothers Discovery is putting itself
up for sale. Well, yeah, it is because Netflix came
in and offered a ton of money and said, okay,
we'll buy you. And there was an agreement made and
(02:03):
the board of Warner Brothers said okay, and there's the deal. Now,
Paramount has been going after Netflix for a long time
and what they have done is they inaugurated a hostile takeover.
A hostile takeover is a company, usually a company going
(02:24):
directly to the shareholders, and this is of Warner brother
and going to the shareholders and saying we have a
better deal for you. And while the board of Netflix
has a tremendous say, it is the show shareholders who
must ratify any major move. It's that simple, especially something
(02:47):
of this magnitude. So Paramount is saying we're going to
give you a better deal, and you, the shareholders, should
vote our offer and let us let us buy.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
And then now starts the fight.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
The board usually goes in the way it initially sort
of leans to. In this case, the board of Warner
Brothers said, okay, we want Netflix. Paramount said, no, we
want to come in and here's our hostile takeover, and
they take out all kinds of ads and reach the shareholders.
At the same time, the board sends out emails and
(03:23):
missives to the shareholders and saying, oh, no, Paramount is
a horrible deal, even though in this case Paramount pays
more money. Usually, when a sale is made to another corporation,
and we're talking about stock, the corporation does not sell
itself until a huge premium is paid for stock. I mean,
(03:45):
people who own stock and a company is being sold,
they generally do very well because and the premiums can
be very healthy. And Paramount offered a premium. Now what
the board of Warner Brothers said, it really isn't the
premium because this is sleight of hand. What they're doing
is playing Monty three card Monty with you. The money
(04:08):
that Ellison who has come in and produced, really isn't money.
It is only promised to pay and there really isn't backing.
And you even look at Jared Kushner's fund, he is.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Involved with.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
The the the Arab countries, and we're talking about Saudi
Arabia and the and the Emirates who pulled out. They
pulled out from the deal, and still Paramount is going
saying we were going to go forward. We have the money,
we're being backed by the Ellison family, and again we
don't know because it's all put into a revocable trust
(04:49):
that can be changed anytime. And as a matter of fact,
according to Warner Brothers, they brought out the language saying
that Paramount can change any terms at any time and
as telling as shareholders, you cannot sell to Paramount. So
we're in the middle of a battle that Netflix is
going to win.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Now is it good for the consumer?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Because Netflix is saying that when we buy with Netflix
is saying when we buy Warner Brothers, it's going to
be more product, it'll be less cost, you will have
more choice, And they left out the phrase and this
is all a croc because none of this is going
(05:35):
to happen when mergers of this magnitude take place.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
No, generally, it's not a good idea.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Now, Paramount did something else too, because the Ellisons are
pretty close to the Trumps, to Donald Trump and actually
said the okay, because it's such a big deal. The
federal government has to okay this, because that's what happened
with the Feds. When you have massive deals like this,
you have monopoly issues, you have sherman antitrust issues. And
(06:05):
so what Paramount said is we're better situated to get
the okay then than Netflix, whoa effectively saying that our
connections to the Trump administration are going to make it
easier for this thing to go through, therefore you should
vote for us. Netflix comes back and says, no, there
(06:28):
really is no difference. We're in the same position that
Paramount is in, which also is a croc because those
who are favored by Trump, those who are close to Trump,
they win.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
It's not that complicated. So what's the end all going
to be here?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, I'm guessing, and I don't think I'm alone, because
this is what most of the pundits and the financial
experts are saying. Netflix is going to prevail. It's just
that simple. Netflix is going to win out all right. Now,
Christmas trees. You know a lot of people have Christmas trees.
I've never had a Christmas tree. This year is my
(07:11):
first Christmas tree, and it's a fake Christmas tree. Matter
of fact, I have two fake Christmas trees and I
am not alone. Why is that? Because more people are
buying Christmas trees than ever before that are fake. Except
the National Christmas Tree Association, of course, there is one
(07:34):
says it really hasn't changed in the last fifteen years,
about the same number of people buy artificial trees. So
why would you buy an artificial tree? Well, because the
cost of artificial trees has gone up, but not nearly
as much as the cost of real trees, real trees.
It's reached the point now where artificial trees, which used
(07:55):
to be far more expensive than real trees, not anymore. Also,
there's a lot of reason why people don't have real trees,
because you have the needles fall off and they get
a little old, and you have to and they don't
last very long. And what do you do afterwards, You
(08:16):
gotta there's a lot of work. Artificial trees you just
throw up and they're done, and they already have lights
on them, nice lights, and they're in is why most
people like artificial trees, or a lot of people do.
So now the story is made in America because frankly,
the trees are made overseas.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Nobody makes trees in America.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So for those people that say we must have made
in America labels, they're not going to have. They're not
going to have artificial trees. About eighty percent of people
who put up a Christmas tree plan to use a
fake one eighty percent of people use fake trees. And
(09:02):
with artificial trees, what a lot of people do and
people like to do is you set up the trees
on Thanksgiving, you leaving them up for weeks. Well you
can't do that with fresh cut trees because they go south.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Maybe a matter of a few weeks.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
But you can't do it from Thanksgiving through New Year,
which fake trees happened to just we happen to do
now that I am a member of that fraternity. Also,
one of Ashley's CEO of this company, Balsam Brands sells
(09:39):
hundreds of thousands of trees every year fake trees said,
on top of all that, where are you going to
get fifteen thousand people in America who want to string
lights on Christmas trees? Because every one of them those
lights on fake trees are strung up by hand. And
you just don't find people that are willing to do that.
(10:02):
It takes an hour or two to make an artificial tree.
It has to be molded, that's easy. Cutting the needles,
that's done by hand, tying branches together, and attaching the lights,
that is done by hand. And why is it in
China and that here? Well, ninety percent of the fake
trees are made in China and the people, the workers
in China are paid a buck fifty to two dollars
(10:24):
an hour. Yeah, it's not going to happen here, especially
by the tens of thousands. One of Balsam's factories, it's
a Chinese.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Factory and they call them their partners, which is how
it works.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Employees fifteen to twenty thousand people. Indonesia has up to
ten thousand people seasonal workers. And you just can't find
Americans to, you know, to string those lights together. It's
much like finding Americans to pick strawberries. It is not
going to happen. So they figured, Okay, people want an
(11:02):
American tree, American made tree. And so the company hired
a bunch of consultants and was going to automate some
work and it was going to happen here. And it
concluded that a tree that costs eight hundred bucks. It's
like a nine or twelve foot tree would cost three
thousand dollars. It was made in the US. Yeah, it
(11:24):
just doesn't work. And also, artificial trees are really neat
in my opinion, as opposed to a real Christmas tree.
I know the smell of pine and the freshness and
all right, you put one of those pine scented dow
dots into the wall that smell the entire house up,
(11:45):
and you have the scent of lilax or lavender or pine,
and you get the Christmas tree smell. It doesn't compare
a real tree, doesn't compare to an artificial tree. Remember
eighty percent of the people buy trees by artrees. Now
why because they break apart in the sense of now
(12:05):
they're in thirds. They're easy to put into a box.
You store them in the garage or wherever for the year,
and then you just pop them out and you set
them up. Lights are already on there, and they're beautiful,
and they're strung together where it would take you hours
and hours and it's the easiest thing.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
In the world.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
You don't but you don't have to put them in
a pan of water. The bottom of the tree and
you don't have to worry about cleaning up afterwards, and
you have to worry about trying to figure out where
the tree is going to go. I know the city
I think picks up trees if you put put them outside.
That's normally the case, because I used to see Christmas
trees outside on the on the sidewalk. But the bottom
(12:45):
line is, it's all about artificial trees. And now, as
I did earlier, I'm going to do the rounds Kno,
real or artificial. That's a real oooh okay, Amy, real
or artificial?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
For what tree?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Real or artificial? We're not talking about, never mind parts
of your body. Okay, that is not what I'm asking
Real or artificial.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Okay, no, I understand that.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Real.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
By the way, that's probably a lawsuit right there, isn't there.
I mean, I'm done real or artificial tree?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Real? Real? Oh wow, that's too real? And will real
or artificial?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
I prefer real, But I've got an artificial okay, excellent,
and then ann real or artificial one of each.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Okay, So we are like all over the place.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Eighty percent of us do not have artificial trees, and
we have Anne.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Really screws it. Up with one real and one artificial.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Will is I love a real tree, but I have
an artificial tree. You don't help the survey at all. Thanks, Yeah,
you're welcome. And then I am all artificial. Now that
is when you think about it, that has several different meanings,
doesn't it being artificial definitely hits a couple of categories
(14:13):
in my life. Okay, as we always do say, mornings,
it's a medical news segment with doctor Jim Kinney, chief
medical officer for Dignity Saint Mary Medical Center in Long Beach,
and a board certified er doc who has wonderful stories
to talk about in the er.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Morning Jim, Morning Bill.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Okay, let's get right to it because we have a
lot to talk about. Poor sleep contrigger, a vicious cycle
that your brain simply can't break. Most of us do
have poor sleep in the sense we wake up, wake
up in the morning. During the night, I always wake
up to pee and most people do. Once in a
(14:56):
great while, I'll sleep through the night, and then of
course I'll know that I have very wet sheets because
of what the bed, what happens and what is poor sleep?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Right?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So I mean lots of people wake up through the night.
That's that's not normal. We go through cycles in our sleep,
deep sleep and then lighter sleep the later and they eat.
In the sleep cycles, we get rem sleep, and that's
when your your brain actually gets to kind of clean
out the toxins and everything else. So you know, it's
it's not unusual to wake up, but when you wake
(15:29):
up unrested and sleepy and tired, that's your best indicator
that you got poor sleep. And what this really shows
is there's a link between mental health, you know, how
you feel, how you're doing, and sleep. Uh and and
it's been well documented right that that lack of sleep,
poor sleep results in mental health issues and vice versa.
(15:52):
Mental health issues seem to be associated with poor sleep.
So we don't know, you know, chicken in the egg,
probably both are impacting each other. But sleep is that
important that you know you need to get that to
maintain good mental health. The problem is that not everybody
does that. There's a lot of issues that feed into sleep,
like whether you're getting you know, bright lights in your
(16:15):
eyes before at bedtime when you're trying to go to sleep,
a lot of people are scrolling on their phone checking things,
really amping up their anxiety and not producing melatonin. This
shuts off your pineal gland when you see bright light,
and that's the gland in your brain that produces melatonin.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
When you talk about poor sleep, are you supposed to
wake up refreshed and ready to go and bounding out
of bed, Because I know very few people that do that.
I mean every morning I wake up, sometimes you alarm
goes off. Usually I wake up before the alarm and
it takes me about an hour to kick in and
(16:53):
be normal. That has to be what happens to most people.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, it is. That's about right. You know, you wake
up and your cortisol level and in the temperature a
kind of what tends to wake you up. So if
you can control your environment, ideally you go to bed
with the room cooler and darker, and then in the
morning when you wake up, you should be getting sunlight
in the room or light, and then you also get
(17:21):
a warmer temperature and those two together will trigger all
the natural kind of things in your body to wake
you up, and then our brains are set to see
that morning lighting. You know that low in the horizon,
the wavelengths of light that come across on the low
horizon early morning light. Those are actually set to wake
(17:41):
you up, So if you can get outside and see
some of that, this will help you wake up, and
then your cortisol level starts to rise, and that's what
And you want that early morning high elevation of cortisol
so that you wake up in the morning and then
all day long that tends to drop off, and you
want it to be low at night. And then again
that's why behaviors that spike your cortisol at night are
(18:04):
not good, because then you're not gonna be able to
go to sleep.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
So people will work night shifts, and those of us
here in this show who have no chance of waking
up to light other than artificial light, we are, I
won't say in trouble, but.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Part of this vicious cycle. Is that fair to say?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah? Absolutely, shift workers and I was one for many,
many years. You know, it definitely ampacts your health. It
affects your mental health, your physical health, risk factors for
cardiovascular disease and everything else. But you can mitigate it
by doing certain things. And if you're gonna adjust your
timing of when you sleep, you can do that again
(18:46):
by getting artificial lights that simulate that morning light and
then avoiding light in your eyes in the evening. A
lot of people wear those blue blocker lights and things
like that. If you're going to have to be up
about when when it's bright light or sunny just before
you go to bed, wearing those kind of devices will
(19:06):
help reduce those wavelength of light that stop the production
of melatonin and then don't allow you to go to sleep.
So it takes real intention. If you're going to try
and alter your sleep cycle away from the normal daily
variations of light and sun and everybody else being awake
and asleep, you're going to have to do it very intentionally.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Got it, Jim.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Over the years, and we've been talking for decades. Now
we're talking about the magic bullet for weight loss, and
it looks like we're pretty close. If not, we're there
with the GP GLP one drugs. Now, I'm reading what
you have written as a topic. There is a strategy
(19:48):
that is five times more effective than just simply taking.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
The drug, and a lot of people want to know
about that one.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, so okay, I don't know that that's not exactly
what it is. So here's the deal. The glps have
a place. They are very effective in helping people lose weight.
And in a study environment, you know, people are losing
like twenty percent of their body weight, but then in
real life they seem to be losing closer to five
or six percent of their body weight, and that's because
(20:20):
it's you know, you're not getting all the support of
a study, and over time, either people stop taking it
or you know, it plateaus and it stops working for them.
So it is an effective strategy, but long term it
doesn't seem to be as effectives as the weight loss
surgery itself. So either the gastric sleeve or the gastric
(20:41):
bypass surgery, those are lifelong commitment. So now as you know,
because you've done this, it changes your body forever, so
there's no option to go back and overall, and again
this study was presented at a bariatric surgery conference, so
definitely this is more there's some bias here potentially, but
(21:05):
what they showed was long term weight loss from gas
bypass surgery is about twenty five percent of your body weight,
and GLPS it's about five percent, So that's where they're
getting the five times more effective. But the real answer
is there's probably a strategy in between where maybe you
use the GLPS at first, see how they do, and
(21:25):
if you're able to maintain that weight loss, then you
keep going with GLPS. If not, then you need to
go potentially to weight loss surgery and re law surgery.
By the way, is it's still not you know, it
should be at this point considered kind of a standard
treatment for obesity, and it still really is just kind
of a boutique service. You know that it shouldn't be
(21:46):
that it should just like the GLPS, where we recognize
obesity as a serious health problem and we address it
using all the tools that we have.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Well, what do you call it?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Weight loss surgery? And I had the rule and why
and I weighed I was three hundred.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
And ten pounds.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
And for those people that want to see what I
looked like at three hundred and ten pounds, that was
when I had the worst television show in the history
of mankind. And you can go to YouTube and look
it up Bill handle judge for yourself, and you'll see
a couple of photos where I just I'm unrecognizable, but
(22:24):
I had the ruin.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Why I had the.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Most I won't say I guess it's fair to say
the most effective, but certainly the most invasive part of
the weight loss surgery.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And it worked.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I mean I went down and I've kept the weight
off for all those years. And to your point, and
we only have a second If it is this effective
and long term, it's going to save the insurance company
buckets of money with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Why is
it not now simply part of normal treatment that the
(22:59):
insurance complease pick up.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Yeah, they do pick it up, so it is covered.
And that's what I'm saying. It is still looked at
as an extreme, you know, extreme intervention, and that's the
problem is the surgeries have gotten better, Like you said,
we do less invasive surgeries and it's not as extreme,
and it shouldn't be looked at as the last resort.
It should be looked at as an effective treatment for
obesity that hasn't you know, resolved with diet and exercise.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
All right, all right, Jim, we'll talk again next week
as we always do on a Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
You have a good win. Take care, all right? Take care, yeah, Jim.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Who by the way, is no youngster and is an
extraordinarily good shape. We we have lunch and dinner occasionally together,
and it's kind of nice to know that he eats
as much as I do. All Right, we are done, guys, finished, finished, finished.
I'm back again tomorrow. Amy and will.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Start at five o'clock with wake up call. Neil is
not here tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So it's just the three of us as I join
the show at six o'clock.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
We're off now because Gary and Shannon are showing.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Up in just a moment. Yeah, I and Cono quit
pointing to yourself. I'll get to you.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Okay, God, you know you.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Know what.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
It's amazing you just beg for it. You're like, it's
I have my little pooch begging for attention. Okay, and
I don't know who I go to first, and then
Amy and Cono also here to help with Oh yeah,
I'm sorry, it's Anne. Am I still conflating Amy and Anne?
You know what many years?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
What about me? It has It's gonna go on for
a whole lot time.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I canflate my daughters, and I've been around them for
a while.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
I can flate my dogs.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I call Uh, I call him her, and it's you know,
I conflate Uh Lindsey because and she's not even trans
so We're done. Alright, guys, I'll catch you tomorrow. Darien
Shannon up next. This is KFI AM six point forty.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
AFI AM six forty will handle here on a Wednesday morning,
December seventeen. Tonight, I believe six o'clock our time, we
are going to hear President Trump with his third set
of comments behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
And that is probably the most serious, the most serious
(00:36):
talk to the American people behind that desk. And we've
heard so much of huge import when the President is
at the Resolute Desk. Also, number of restrictions the US
is now putting on countries where people coming in from
other countries has increased. President Trump signed a Proclamation directive
(00:58):
expanding the list of country's with fuller partial travel restrictions
to thirty nine. That's up from nineteen. And Nick Reiner,
the son of Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner, who is
accused and has been charged with the murder if his
two parents, is on suicide watch at I believe the
(01:20):
county prison.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Another big bit of news to say the least has
to do with the entertainment industry, and most of us
are well how many people don't have Netflix out there,
and how many people don't watch the various streaming services.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
So this is a story about Netflix.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Netflix, I think is the first and the best of
the major streaming services and has the best stuff going
and Warner Brothers Discovery. Warner Brothers Discovery is putting itself
up for sale. Well, yeah, it is because Netflix came
in and offered a ton of money and said, okay,
we'll buy you. And there was an agreement made and
(02:03):
the board of Warner Brothers said okay, and there's the deal. Now,
Paramount has been going after Netflix for a long time
and what they have done is they inaugurated a hostile takeover.
A hostile takeover is a company, usually a company going
(02:24):
directly to the shareholders, and this is of Warner brother
and going to the shareholders and saying we have a
better deal for you. And while the board of Netflix
has a tremendous say, it is the show shareholders who
must ratify any major move. It's that simple, especially something
(02:47):
of this magnitude. So Paramount is saying we're going to
give you a better deal, and you, the shareholders, should
vote our offer and let us let us buy.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
And then now starts the fight.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
The board usually goes in the way it initially sort
of leans to. In this case, the board of Warner
Brothers said, okay, we want Netflix. Paramount said, no, we
want to come in and here's our hostile takeover, and
they take out all kinds of ads and reach the shareholders.
At the same time, the board sends out emails and
(03:23):
missives to the shareholders and saying, oh, no, Paramount is
a horrible deal, even though in this case Paramount pays
more money. Usually, when a sale is made to another corporation,
and we're talking about stock, the corporation does not sell
itself until a huge premium is paid for stock. I mean,
(03:45):
people who own stock and a company is being sold,
they generally do very well because and the premiums can
be very healthy. And Paramount offered a premium. Now what
the board of Warner Brothers said, it really isn't the
premium because this is sleight of hand. What they're doing
is playing Monty three card Monty with you. The money
(04:08):
that Ellison who has come in and produced, really isn't money.
It is only promised to pay and there really isn't backing.
And you even look at Jared Kushner's fund, he is.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Involved with.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
The the the Arab countries, and we're talking about Saudi
Arabia and the and the Emirates who pulled out. They
pulled out from the deal, and still Paramount is going
saying we were going to go forward. We have the money,
we're being backed by the Ellison family, and again we
don't know because it's all put into a revocable trust
(04:49):
that can be changed anytime. And as a matter of fact,
according to Warner Brothers, they brought out the language saying
that Paramount can change any terms at any time and
as telling as shareholders, you cannot sell to Paramount. So
we're in the middle of a battle that Netflix is
going to win.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Now is it good for the consumer?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Because Netflix is saying that when we buy with Netflix
is saying when we buy Warner Brothers, it's going to
be more product, it'll be less cost, you will have
more choice, And they left out the phrase and this
is all a croc because none of this is going
(05:35):
to happen when mergers of this magnitude take place.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
No, generally, it's not a good idea.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Now, Paramount did something else too, because the Ellisons are
pretty close to the Trumps, to Donald Trump and actually
said the okay, because it's such a big deal. The
federal government has to okay this, because that's what happened
with the Feds. When you have massive deals like this,
you have monopoly issues, you have sherman antitrust issues. And
(06:05):
so what Paramount said is we're better situated to get
the okay then than Netflix, whoa effectively saying that our
connections to the Trump administration are going to make it
easier for this thing to go through, therefore you should
vote for us. Netflix comes back and says, no, there
(06:28):
really is no difference. We're in the same position that
Paramount is in, which also is a croc because those
who are favored by Trump, those who are close to Trump,
they win.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
It's not that complicated. So what's the end all going
to be here?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, I'm guessing, and I don't think I'm alone, because
this is what most of the pundits and the financial
experts are saying. Netflix is going to prevail. It's just
that simple. Netflix is going to win out all right. Now,
Christmas trees. You know a lot of people have Christmas trees.
I've never had a Christmas tree. This year is my
(07:11):
first Christmas tree, and it's a fake Christmas tree. Matter
of fact, I have two fake Christmas trees and I
am not alone. Why is that? Because more people are
buying Christmas trees than ever before that are fake. Except
the National Christmas Tree Association, of course, there is one
(07:34):
says it really hasn't changed in the last fifteen years,
about the same number of people buy artificial trees. So
why would you buy an artificial tree? Well, because the
cost of artificial trees has gone up, but not nearly
as much as the cost of real trees, real trees.
It's reached the point now where artificial trees, which used
(07:55):
to be far more expensive than real trees, not anymore. Also,
there's a lot of reason why people don't have real trees,
because you have the needles fall off and they get
a little old, and you have to and they don't
last very long. And what do you do afterwards, You
(08:16):
gotta there's a lot of work. Artificial trees you just
throw up and they're done, and they already have lights
on them, nice lights, and they're in is why most
people like artificial trees, or a lot of people do.
So now the story is made in America because frankly,
the trees are made overseas.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Nobody makes trees in America.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
So for those people that say we must have made
in America labels, they're not going to have. They're not
going to have artificial trees. About eighty percent of people
who put up a Christmas tree plan to use a
fake one eighty percent of people use fake trees. And
(09:02):
with artificial trees, what a lot of people do and
people like to do is you set up the trees
on Thanksgiving, you leaving them up for weeks. Well you
can't do that with fresh cut trees because they go south.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Maybe a matter of a few weeks.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
But you can't do it from Thanksgiving through New Year,
which fake trees happened to just we happen to do
now that I am a member of that fraternity. Also,
one of Ashley's CEO of this company, Balsam Brands sells
(09:39):
hundreds of thousands of trees every year fake trees said,
on top of all that, where are you going to
get fifteen thousand people in America who want to string
lights on Christmas trees? Because every one of them those
lights on fake trees are strung up by hand. And
you just don't find people that are willing to do that.
(10:02):
It takes an hour or two to make an artificial tree.
It has to be molded, that's easy. Cutting the needles,
that's done by hand, tying branches together, and attaching the lights,
that is done by hand. And why is it in
China and that here? Well, ninety percent of the fake
trees are made in China and the people, the workers
in China are paid a buck fifty to two dollars
(10:24):
an hour. Yeah, it's not going to happen here, especially
by the tens of thousands. One of Balsam's factories, it's
a Chinese.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Factory and they call them their partners, which is how
it works.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Employees fifteen to twenty thousand people. Indonesia has up to
ten thousand people seasonal workers. And you just can't find
Americans to, you know, to string those lights together. It's
much like finding Americans to pick strawberries. It is not
going to happen. So they figured, Okay, people want an
(11:02):
American tree, American made tree. And so the company hired
a bunch of consultants and was going to automate some
work and it was going to happen here. And it
concluded that a tree that costs eight hundred bucks. It's
like a nine or twelve foot tree would cost three
thousand dollars. It was made in the US. Yeah, it
(11:24):
just doesn't work. And also, artificial trees are really neat
in my opinion, as opposed to a real Christmas tree.
I know the smell of pine and the freshness and
all right, you put one of those pine scented dow
dots into the wall that smell the entire house up,
(11:45):
and you have the scent of lilax or lavender or pine,
and you get the Christmas tree smell. It doesn't compare
a real tree, doesn't compare to an artificial tree. Remember
eighty percent of the people buy trees by artrees. Now
why because they break apart in the sense of now
(12:05):
they're in thirds. They're easy to put into a box.
You store them in the garage or wherever for the year,
and then you just pop them out and you set
them up. Lights are already on there, and they're beautiful,
and they're strung together where it would take you hours
and hours and it's the easiest thing.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
In the world.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
You don't but you don't have to put them in
a pan of water. The bottom of the tree and
you don't have to worry about cleaning up afterwards, and
you have to worry about trying to figure out where
the tree is going to go. I know the city
I think picks up trees if you put put them outside.
That's normally the case, because I used to see Christmas
trees outside on the on the sidewalk. But the bottom
(12:45):
line is, it's all about artificial trees. And now, as
I did earlier, I'm going to do the rounds Kno,
real or artificial. That's a real oooh okay, Amy, real
or artificial?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
For what tree?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Real or artificial? We're not talking about, never mind parts
of your body. Okay, that is not what I'm asking
Real or artificial.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Okay, no, I understand that.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Real.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
By the way, that's probably a lawsuit right there, isn't there.
I mean, I'm done real or artificial tree?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Real? Real? Oh wow, that's too real? And will real
or artificial?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
I prefer real, But I've got an artificial okay, excellent,
and then ann real or artificial one of each.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Okay, So we are like all over the place.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Eighty percent of us do not have artificial trees, and
we have Anne.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Really screws it. Up with one real and one artificial.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Will is I love a real tree, but I have
an artificial tree. You don't help the survey at all. Thanks, Yeah,
you're welcome. And then I am all artificial. Now that
is when you think about it, that has several different meanings,
doesn't it being artificial definitely hits a couple of categories
(14:13):
in my life. Okay, as we always do say, mornings,
it's a medical news segment with doctor Jim Kinney, chief
medical officer for Dignity Saint Mary Medical Center in Long Beach,
and a board certified er doc who has wonderful stories
to talk about in the er.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Morning Jim, Morning Bill.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Okay, let's get right to it because we have a
lot to talk about. Poor sleep contrigger, a vicious cycle
that your brain simply can't break. Most of us do
have poor sleep in the sense we wake up, wake
up in the morning. During the night, I always wake
up to pee and most people do. Once in a
(14:56):
great while, I'll sleep through the night, and then of
course I'll know that I have very wet sheets because
of what the bed, what happens and what is poor sleep?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Right?
Speaker 1 (15:08):
So I mean lots of people wake up through the night.
That's that's not normal. We go through cycles in our sleep,
deep sleep and then lighter sleep the later and they eat.
In the sleep cycles, we get rem sleep, and that's
when your your brain actually gets to kind of clean
out the toxins and everything else. So you know, it's
it's not unusual to wake up, but when you wake
(15:29):
up unrested and sleepy and tired, that's your best indicator
that you got poor sleep. And what this really shows
is there's a link between mental health, you know, how
you feel, how you're doing, and sleep. Uh and and
it's been well documented right that that lack of sleep,
poor sleep results in mental health issues and vice versa.
(15:52):
Mental health issues seem to be associated with poor sleep.
So we don't know, you know, chicken in the egg,
probably both are impacting each other. But sleep is that
important that you know you need to get that to
maintain good mental health. The problem is that not everybody
does that. There's a lot of issues that feed into sleep,
like whether you're getting you know, bright lights in your
(16:15):
eyes before at bedtime when you're trying to go to sleep,
a lot of people are scrolling on their phone checking things,
really amping up their anxiety and not producing melatonin. This
shuts off your pineal gland when you see bright light,
and that's the gland in your brain that produces melatonin.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
When you talk about poor sleep, are you supposed to
wake up refreshed and ready to go and bounding out
of bed, Because I know very few people that do that.
I mean every morning I wake up, sometimes you alarm
goes off. Usually I wake up before the alarm and
it takes me about an hour to kick in and
(16:53):
be normal. That has to be what happens to most people.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, it is. That's about right. You know, you wake
up and your cortisol level and in the temperature a
kind of what tends to wake you up. So if
you can control your environment, ideally you go to bed
with the room cooler and darker, and then in the
morning when you wake up, you should be getting sunlight
in the room or light, and then you also get
(17:21):
a warmer temperature and those two together will trigger all
the natural kind of things in your body to wake
you up, and then our brains are set to see
that morning lighting. You know that low in the horizon,
the wavelengths of light that come across on the low
horizon early morning light. Those are actually set to wake
(17:41):
you up, So if you can get outside and see
some of that, this will help you wake up, and
then your cortisol level starts to rise, and that's what
And you want that early morning high elevation of cortisol
so that you wake up in the morning and then
all day long that tends to drop off, and you
want it to be low at night. And then again
that's why behaviors that spike your cortisol at night are
(18:04):
not good, because then you're not gonna be able to
go to sleep.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
So people will work night shifts, and those of us
here in this show who have no chance of waking
up to light other than artificial light, we are, I
won't say in trouble, but.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Part of this vicious cycle. Is that fair to say?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah? Absolutely, shift workers and I was one for many,
many years. You know, it definitely ampacts your health. It
affects your mental health, your physical health, risk factors for
cardiovascular disease and everything else. But you can mitigate it
by doing certain things. And if you're gonna adjust your
timing of when you sleep, you can do that again
(18:46):
by getting artificial lights that simulate that morning light and
then avoiding light in your eyes in the evening. A
lot of people wear those blue blocker lights and things
like that. If you're going to have to be up
about when when it's bright light or sunny just before
you go to bed, wearing those kind of devices will
(19:06):
help reduce those wavelength of light that stop the production
of melatonin and then don't allow you to go to sleep.
So it takes real intention. If you're going to try
and alter your sleep cycle away from the normal daily
variations of light and sun and everybody else being awake
and asleep, you're going to have to do it very intentionally.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Got it, Jim.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Over the years, and we've been talking for decades. Now
we're talking about the magic bullet for weight loss, and
it looks like we're pretty close. If not, we're there
with the GP GLP one drugs. Now, I'm reading what
you have written as a topic. There is a strategy
(19:48):
that is five times more effective than just simply taking.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
The drug, and a lot of people want to know
about that one.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, so okay, I don't know that that's not exactly
what it is. So here's the deal. The glps have
a place. They are very effective in helping people lose weight.
And in a study environment, you know, people are losing
like twenty percent of their body weight, but then in
real life they seem to be losing closer to five
or six percent of their body weight, and that's because
(20:20):
it's you know, you're not getting all the support of
a study, and over time, either people stop taking it
or you know, it plateaus and it stops working for them.
So it is an effective strategy, but long term it
doesn't seem to be as effectives as the weight loss
surgery itself. So either the gastric sleeve or the gastric
(20:41):
bypass surgery, those are lifelong commitment. So now as you know,
because you've done this, it changes your body forever, so
there's no option to go back and overall, and again
this study was presented at a bariatric surgery conference, so
definitely this is more there's some bias here potentially, but
(21:05):
what they showed was long term weight loss from gas
bypass surgery is about twenty five percent of your body weight,
and GLPS it's about five percent, So that's where they're
getting the five times more effective. But the real answer
is there's probably a strategy in between where maybe you
use the GLPS at first, see how they do, and
(21:25):
if you're able to maintain that weight loss, then you
keep going with GLPS. If not, then you need to
go potentially to weight loss surgery and re law surgery.
By the way, is it's still not you know, it
should be at this point considered kind of a standard
treatment for obesity, and it still really is just kind
of a boutique service. You know that it shouldn't be
(21:46):
that it should just like the GLPS, where we recognize
obesity as a serious health problem and we address it
using all the tools that we have.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Well, what do you call it?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Weight loss surgery? And I had the rule and why
and I weighed I was three hundred.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
And ten pounds.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
And for those people that want to see what I
looked like at three hundred and ten pounds, that was
when I had the worst television show in the history
of mankind. And you can go to YouTube and look
it up Bill handle judge for yourself, and you'll see
a couple of photos where I just I'm unrecognizable, but
(22:24):
I had the ruin.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Why I had the.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Most I won't say I guess it's fair to say
the most effective, but certainly the most invasive part of
the weight loss surgery.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And it worked.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I mean I went down and I've kept the weight
off for all those years. And to your point, and
we only have a second If it is this effective
and long term, it's going to save the insurance company
buckets of money with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Why is
it not now simply part of normal treatment that the
(22:59):
insurance complease pick up.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Yeah, they do pick it up, so it is covered.
And that's what I'm saying. It is still looked at
as an extreme, you know, extreme intervention, and that's the
problem is the surgeries have gotten better, Like you said,
we do less invasive surgeries and it's not as extreme,
and it shouldn't be looked at as the last resort.
It should be looked at as an effective treatment for
obesity that hasn't you know, resolved with diet and exercise.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
All right, all right, Jim, we'll talk again next week
as we always do on a Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
You have a good win. Take care, all right? Take care, yeah, Jim.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Who by the way, is no youngster and is an
extraordinarily good shape. We we have lunch and dinner occasionally together,
and it's kind of nice to know that he eats
as much as I do. All Right, we are done, guys, finished, finished, finished.
I'm back again tomorrow. Amy and will.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Start at five o'clock with wake up call. Neil is
not here tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So it's just the three of us as I join
the show at six o'clock.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
We're off now because Gary and Shannon are showing.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Up in just a moment. Yeah, I and Cono quit
pointing to yourself. I'll get to you.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Okay, God, you know you.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Know what.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
It's amazing you just beg for it. You're like, it's
I have my little pooch begging for attention. Okay, and
I don't know who I go to first, and then
Amy and Cono also here to help with Oh yeah,
I'm sorry, it's Anne. Am I still conflating Amy and Anne?
You know what many years?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
What about me? It has It's gonna go on for
a whole lot time.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I canflate my daughters, and I've been around them for
a while.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
I can flate my dogs.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I call Uh, I call him her, and it's you know,
I conflate Uh Lindsey because and she's not even trans
so We're done. Alright, guys, I'll catch you tomorrow. Darien
Shannon up next. This is KFI AM six point forty.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
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