October 3, 2025 • 10 mins
GO SEE DEB FLORA'S MOVIE THIS WEEKEND You guys know Deb from when she sits in with me and you may know her from her excellent YouTube show she does with someone else you might know (ME, IT'S ME) but you may not know she and most excellent husband Jonathan Flora make documentaries in their spare time. They made an excellent film called Whose Children Are They and the wonderful organization Braver Angels is hosting a screening of the film Sunday at 4pm at the Parker Task Force Meeting Room. Find out all the details here and Deborah will join me at 12:30 to talk about the film.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Someone who's a very familiar voice to you if you
listen to the show when I'm off, and you should,
because Deborah Flora often fills in for me. And now
we're on to talk about the Deborah is you have
more jobs than you know, your average hustler out there,
and one of your jobs is filmmaker. Let's put on
your filmmaker hat today. Take off your Douglas County Citizen Marie,
(00:23):
your other hats, just take those off, and then we'll
put on your filmmaker hat. Because your movie that you
did with your wonderful husband Jonathan is going to be
screened this weekend. And I know that this was such
a passion project. Tell everybody about whose children are they.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you so much, Mandy.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Absolutely, yes, I have multiple hats and I try not
to stack them on top of each other because that
just looks weird.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It would make it anyway, it would make you taller.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
You could use that. Yes, I need to be as
tall as you.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
That's the difference between us, one of the only differences.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
But anyway, Ye, thank you so much. It's great to
be here and share with your audience.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
This coming Sunday, are going to be screening Braver Angels,
which is an amazing organization perfectly time for this period
in our history. It's an organization that is trying to
bridge this divide and bring people together so we can
reason together.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
And they are going to be hosting a screening of our.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Documentary Whose Children Are They? It premiered in theaters nationwide.
People can find out about it at whose Children They dot.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Com and Mandy.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
This is important because it's a school board election year
and so people are just looking for answers and this
film is not political, it's informational and so it's going
to be screened this Sunday, October fifth, I believe that is,
and it's going to be at the Parker Task Force.
People can go to my Facebook page Deborah Flora on
(01:48):
Facebook and I've got the information there. They do ask
that you it's free, but they do ask that you
sign in so that people know who's there.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But we invite you.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I mean, it really is time to come and reason together,
and that's why we made the documentary.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
You know, Debra, you and I have spoken about this
at a different time, but yesterday I had a big
thought right before the show started, and I've expressed to
you that I have concerns that this new talking point
in the school board races and it's in the Doug
Co races and it's now in the Jeff Co races.
Is it's all about mental health, mental health, mental health,
mental health. And I'm not opposed to making sure that
(02:23):
there's supports in schools, but this feels like another area
where the school is trying to insert themselves into the
parent child relationship because ultimately parents need to be responsible
for checking on their kids' mental health. And yes, some
parents are going to fail at it, right, but that
doesn't mean we assume all parents will. So this movie
even though that's not what this is about.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
This is kind of like.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I feel like the sort of slow drum beat that
you talk about that gets it's just getting louder and
louder and louder. So how do you describe the film
to people that have not seen it?
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah, the film is really by the way, first of all,
want to say it comes from the standpoint that we
are pro teacher, pro parent, pro student. In fact, out
of eighty interviews, the majority, the largest group that we
interview are teachers, and it's really about letting teachers teach,
not be social engineering or pushing political or ideological agendas,
(03:19):
parents being equal partners.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
With the teachers, or the good.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Of students, and what you're saying, Mandy about mental health
is one of the key elements. Granted, we all know
there's a mental health crisis amongst our youth. We can
have a longer documentary debate about all the causes for it,
but the reality is you cannot have these mental health
just upsurges of people practicing mental health in the schools
(03:44):
if the parents are not included and involved. What unfortunately
is happening too often in any one of these issues
is parents are shut out.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And study after study after.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Study has shown children prosper the more involved and engage
the parents are in their education and their well being.
And that's what we want to get back to. So
the documentary covers, you know, almost everything. It's like chapters
academic plummeting that's happening, what the real cause of safety
and security concerns that are going on, which by the way,
(04:17):
hurt teachers of you know, situations such as a sex
education which when you read it, by the way, Mandy,
that is the part of our documentary that would be
our rated or NC seventeen if it had a rating
in the theaters and we put a disclaimer up front
saying not.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Appropriate for children. However, this is what is shown to
your children, right, so right, we copy everything in there.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And the reason why is because different people may have
different concerns. But at the heart of it is what
you said, Teachers, parents partnering together for the good of
students is the original golden triangle of education when we
were the best in the world, and that is being
really pushed apart by the teachers' units predominantly that have
(05:00):
a different agenda and are not really finding for things
such as teachers pay.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I mean, it exposes this whole situation, and.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
That's what it's about, and I think there's something for
everyone to talk about, particularly at this point in time
with the school board elections coming up.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Well, I put a link on the blog today at
mandy'sblog dot com where people can go ahead and get
the details and go ahead, and I believe do they
have it as a yeah, you can sign up? I guess.
So it's kind of like an RSVP, so they know
how many people are coming because that space is not tiny,
but it's not huge, right, correct, Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
And it's going to be afterwards something that you know
really needs to be practiced, braver angels. Afterwards is going
to have people that are attending that would consider themselves
to be left of center or right of center, and
we're going to have a conversation afterwards and practice the
very thing we need so much in this society day,
which is civil discourse. Questions you know are welcomed afterwards,
(05:59):
you know, and that's one of the.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Things that we look forward to. So yeah, they do
ask that you register.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, so Debrah like about that conversation. My perspective on
this and I've thought about this so much as how
do we how do we go because because as a
mom who volunteered in our daughter's school and my husband
was in the schools all the time, we had a
great experience with our schools. We had a wonderful experience
with the teachers. Wonderful experience is just really positive experience
(06:23):
because we were involved parents. But it seems to me
that teachers have enough bad experiences with bad parents that
they then paint all parents with that broad brush. And
parents have that one bad experience with that bad teacher,
and then they paint all teachers with that broad rush,
(06:46):
and it's like we have to start to recognize that
we're looking at outliers, right, We're looking at the extremes,
and they're now being used to justify any sort of
animosity on both sides, and I think that's unfortunate and
I'm but ultimately, well, both of those motives are how
can I protect my kids? Right, Teachers looking at their
kids going how can I protect these kids? But they're
(07:08):
looking at every parent as a problem. And same on
the other side. I just I don't know how to
bridge that gap necessarily.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yeah, I think we need to get back to mutual respect.
I mean, first of all, we asked the question whose
children are they? In Western civilization, the very building block,
cornerstone of Western civilization is the idea that parents have
the unique right and responsibility to guide their child's upbringing.
The kids do not belong to the government or the
(07:36):
state or the society as a whole.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
That is a key.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Element respect for the parents' role. Then parents have respect
for teachers who have spent their lives getting a degree
to learn how to teach. But the magic happens when
there's mutual respect between both.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
The problem that it's occurred.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Is groups like the teachers' unions that have their own
agendas getting in the middle of that golden triangle and
kind of exploding it. Or the fact that when there's
been a increase in students and in children of a
certain amount students and excuse me, and of teachers of
a certain amount that's twenty seventeen eighteen percent, administrators have
(08:17):
skyrocketed eighty five percent. It's one of the reasons why
you know there's less money going into the classroom. I
think every parent wants the teacher of their students to
have everything they need, a good income, resources for the classroom.
But we've got to come together and see why isn't working.
Because everyone knows that it isn't working. We're plummeting in academics.
(08:38):
Violence is up, all kinds of division is up. This
is about identifying it. But it's also, by the way, Mandy,
a really positive outlook towards the end of how this
is changing, with parents waking up, getting re engaged, and then.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Wanting to let teachers know, look, we're not the ones
to fear. We're here to support you, but.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
We need to come together and understand that used to
be the teachers and the parents coordinating, not all these
external groups with ideologicals agendas that don't work in the classroom.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Debah Flora is my guest, Debb. Before I let you go,
I heard that you had another side project that is amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Oh you know what. I'm so glad you asked, Mandy.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Absolutely, I want to invite everyone to go to another
page on Facebook, which is Mandy ampersand Deb.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
We're fancy Mandy and Deb.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yes, I have this online streaming television show with an
amazing woman, Mandy Connell.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I heard she was amazing.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
She's amazing, and you know, with a lot of focus groups,
we decided to mean the group that show Mandy and Deb.
Follow it at Mandy and Deb on Facebook. That's an
ampersand and we really have so much fun talking about
things that we all care about, but having a good
time at the same time. And it is for brave men.
It is the den of estrogen, but we do really
(09:56):
connect with in a way they talk about issues.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
So I invite everybody. It's a fabulous one. I'm so
glad that you asked.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Well, a Rod just called it an estra den, so
we've not no and you can I heard that. You
can also see it on the Independence Institute's YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yes, that's a court. Absolutely, that's where you watch it.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Go to Independence Institute's IV on YouTube and click subscribe.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
It's so much fun and we have a lava lamp.
That's really all the.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
People need to I mean, everyone should check it out.
I appreciate you so much, my friend. I will see
you soon.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
That sounds great. Thanks so much, man, you have a
great day.
Someone who's a very familiar voice to you if you
listen to the show when I'm off, and you should,
because Deborah Flora often fills in for me. And now
we're on to talk about the Deborah is you have
more jobs than you know, your average hustler out there,
and one of your jobs is filmmaker. Let's put on
your filmmaker hat today. Take off your Douglas County Citizen Marie,
(00:23):
your other hats, just take those off, and then we'll
put on your filmmaker hat. Because your movie that you
did with your wonderful husband Jonathan is going to be
screened this weekend. And I know that this was such
a passion project. Tell everybody about whose children are they.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you so much, Mandy.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Absolutely, yes, I have multiple hats and I try not
to stack them on top of each other because that
just looks weird.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It would make it anyway, it would make you taller.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
You could use that. Yes, I need to be as
tall as you.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
That's the difference between us, one of the only differences.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
But anyway, Ye, thank you so much. It's great to
be here and share with your audience.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
This coming Sunday, are going to be screening Braver Angels,
which is an amazing organization perfectly time for this period
in our history. It's an organization that is trying to
bridge this divide and bring people together so we can
reason together.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
And they are going to be hosting a screening of our.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Documentary Whose Children Are They? It premiered in theaters nationwide.
People can find out about it at whose Children They dot.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Com and Mandy.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
This is important because it's a school board election year
and so people are just looking for answers and this
film is not political, it's informational and so it's going
to be screened this Sunday, October fifth, I believe that is,
and it's going to be at the Parker Task Force.
People can go to my Facebook page Deborah Flora on
(01:48):
Facebook and I've got the information there. They do ask
that you it's free, but they do ask that you
sign in so that people know who's there.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But we invite you.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I mean, it really is time to come and reason together,
and that's why we made the documentary.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
You know, Debra, you and I have spoken about this
at a different time, but yesterday I had a big
thought right before the show started, and I've expressed to
you that I have concerns that this new talking point
in the school board races and it's in the Doug
Co races and it's now in the Jeff Co races.
Is it's all about mental health, mental health, mental health,
mental health. And I'm not opposed to making sure that
(02:23):
there's supports in schools, but this feels like another area
where the school is trying to insert themselves into the
parent child relationship because ultimately parents need to be responsible
for checking on their kids' mental health. And yes, some
parents are going to fail at it, right, but that
doesn't mean we assume all parents will. So this movie
even though that's not what this is about.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
This is kind of like.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I feel like the sort of slow drum beat that
you talk about that gets it's just getting louder and
louder and louder. So how do you describe the film
to people that have not seen it?
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah, the film is really by the way, first of all,
want to say it comes from the standpoint that we
are pro teacher, pro parent, pro student. In fact, out
of eighty interviews, the majority, the largest group that we
interview are teachers, and it's really about letting teachers teach,
not be social engineering or pushing political or ideological agendas,
(03:19):
parents being equal partners.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
With the teachers, or the good.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Of students, and what you're saying, Mandy about mental health
is one of the key elements. Granted, we all know
there's a mental health crisis amongst our youth. We can
have a longer documentary debate about all the causes for it,
but the reality is you cannot have these mental health
just upsurges of people practicing mental health in the schools
(03:44):
if the parents are not included and involved. What unfortunately
is happening too often in any one of these issues
is parents are shut out.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And study after study after.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Study has shown children prosper the more involved and engage
the parents are in their education and their well being.
And that's what we want to get back to. So
the documentary covers, you know, almost everything. It's like chapters
academic plummeting that's happening, what the real cause of safety
and security concerns that are going on, which by the way,
(04:17):
hurt teachers of you know, situations such as a sex
education which when you read it, by the way, Mandy,
that is the part of our documentary that would be
our rated or NC seventeen if it had a rating
in the theaters and we put a disclaimer up front
saying not.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Appropriate for children. However, this is what is shown to
your children, right, so right, we copy everything in there.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
And the reason why is because different people may have
different concerns. But at the heart of it is what
you said, Teachers, parents partnering together for the good of
students is the original golden triangle of education when we
were the best in the world, and that is being
really pushed apart by the teachers' units predominantly that have
(05:00):
a different agenda and are not really finding for things
such as teachers pay.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I mean, it exposes this whole situation, and.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
That's what it's about, and I think there's something for
everyone to talk about, particularly at this point in time
with the school board elections coming up.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Well, I put a link on the blog today at
mandy'sblog dot com where people can go ahead and get
the details and go ahead, and I believe do they
have it as a yeah, you can sign up? I guess.
So it's kind of like an RSVP, so they know
how many people are coming because that space is not tiny,
but it's not huge, right, correct, Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
And it's going to be afterwards something that you know
really needs to be practiced, braver angels. Afterwards is going
to have people that are attending that would consider themselves
to be left of center or right of center, and
we're going to have a conversation afterwards and practice the
very thing we need so much in this society day,
which is civil discourse. Questions you know are welcomed afterwards,
(05:59):
you know, and that's one of the.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Things that we look forward to. So yeah, they do
ask that you register.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, so Debrah like about that conversation. My perspective on
this and I've thought about this so much as how
do we how do we go because because as a
mom who volunteered in our daughter's school and my husband
was in the schools all the time, we had a
great experience with our schools. We had a wonderful experience
with the teachers. Wonderful experience is just really positive experience
(06:23):
because we were involved parents. But it seems to me
that teachers have enough bad experiences with bad parents that
they then paint all parents with that broad brush. And
parents have that one bad experience with that bad teacher,
and then they paint all teachers with that broad rush,
(06:46):
and it's like we have to start to recognize that
we're looking at outliers, right, We're looking at the extremes,
and they're now being used to justify any sort of
animosity on both sides, and I think that's unfortunate and
I'm but ultimately, well, both of those motives are how
can I protect my kids? Right, Teachers looking at their
kids going how can I protect these kids? But they're
(07:08):
looking at every parent as a problem. And same on
the other side. I just I don't know how to
bridge that gap necessarily.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yeah, I think we need to get back to mutual respect.
I mean, first of all, we asked the question whose
children are they? In Western civilization, the very building block,
cornerstone of Western civilization is the idea that parents have
the unique right and responsibility to guide their child's upbringing.
The kids do not belong to the government or the
(07:36):
state or the society as a whole.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
That is a key.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Element respect for the parents' role. Then parents have respect
for teachers who have spent their lives getting a degree
to learn how to teach. But the magic happens when
there's mutual respect between both.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
The problem that it's occurred.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Is groups like the teachers' unions that have their own
agendas getting in the middle of that golden triangle and
kind of exploding it. Or the fact that when there's
been a increase in students and in children of a
certain amount students and excuse me, and of teachers of
a certain amount that's twenty seventeen eighteen percent, administrators have
(08:17):
skyrocketed eighty five percent. It's one of the reasons why
you know there's less money going into the classroom. I
think every parent wants the teacher of their students to
have everything they need, a good income, resources for the classroom.
But we've got to come together and see why isn't working.
Because everyone knows that it isn't working. We're plummeting in academics.
(08:38):
Violence is up, all kinds of division is up. This
is about identifying it. But it's also, by the way, Mandy,
a really positive outlook towards the end of how this
is changing, with parents waking up, getting re engaged, and then.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Wanting to let teachers know, look, we're not the ones
to fear. We're here to support you, but.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
We need to come together and understand that used to
be the teachers and the parents coordinating, not all these
external groups with ideologicals agendas that don't work in the classroom.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Debah Flora is my guest, Debb. Before I let you go,
I heard that you had another side project that is amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Oh you know what. I'm so glad you asked, Mandy.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Absolutely, I want to invite everyone to go to another
page on Facebook, which is Mandy ampersand Deb.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
We're fancy Mandy and Deb.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yes, I have this online streaming television show with an
amazing woman, Mandy Connell.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I heard she was amazing.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
She's amazing, and you know, with a lot of focus groups,
we decided to mean the group that show Mandy and Deb.
Follow it at Mandy and Deb on Facebook. That's an
ampersand and we really have so much fun talking about
things that we all care about, but having a good
time at the same time. And it is for brave men.
It is the den of estrogen, but we do really
(09:56):
connect with in a way they talk about issues.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
So I invite everybody. It's a fabulous one. I'm so
glad that you asked.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Well, a Rod just called it an estra den, so
we've not no and you can I heard that. You
can also see it on the Independence Institute's YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yes, that's a court. Absolutely, that's where you watch it.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Go to Independence Institute's IV on YouTube and click subscribe.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
It's so much fun and we have a lava lamp.
That's really all the.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
People need to I mean, everyone should check it out.
I appreciate you so much, my friend. I will see
you soon.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
That sounds great. Thanks so much, man, you have a
great day.
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