Ep. 1 - Pilot episode, Kira Davis interview and more

Featuring an interview with Kira Davis from RedState.com and "Just Listen to Yourself with Kira Davis" and more

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is the FCB Radio Network,Real Talk worldwide online at FCB radio dot
com. Kick the tires and lightthe fires. The randomness danger begging you

(00:33):
the dot You go o Hi,way through riding. Oh my gosh,
Jen, Jen, Jen, We'reback? Is this thing on? Jen?

(00:57):
We're back? Wait? What thisis? Sounds right with Jen and
Scott. I'm Scott Hounsel. Overthere in her wonderful, bedazzled corner is
Jennifer van Laar, Jen, canyou believe it? I can't believe they
let us back. I don't knowwho let us out of the out of
the cage and everything else, butI think twenty twenty had enough and decided
to unleash us. I mean,they let you let the straight jacket off

(01:21):
of you. Right. Uh yeah, that's more true than any of our
listeners really want to know. Huhcorrect, it's it's probably pretty accurate.
Fifty one fifty is being generous.Oh so for our new listeners, of
which we hope there are many.This this sounds right with Jen and Scott

(01:41):
and Jennifer van Lair and Scott Hounselas he mentioned before, and we are
back. We are back from notthe dead, but from twenty sixteen.
It's kind of like a time workthing, right, Yeah, I think
that that it's uh, it's ait's a little bit change. A lot
of things have changed, obviously,but it's it's the same us and uh

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but we're obviously got a lot thathas happened over the last the last four
years. I know that you've gota bunch of updates, don't you.
I do. I mean, muchlike our country has changed a lot in
the last four years. My familyhas grown. I have two daughters in
law now and I am authorized tosay that I'm going to be a grandma
in April, and so lots ofawesome, amazing things going on, unlike

(02:29):
a lot of the changes in ourcountry. Unfortunately, right, I happened.
I happened to have met one ofyour daughters in law, and I
enjoy her company. She's rather fun. The other I have not other than
I think, like for a briefa few minutes met her. But yeah,
my oldest son's wedding, Yes,oh, which you crashed? I

(02:53):
did? That was hilarious. Yes, uh so, uh we we actually
wedding crashed Jen's son's wedding as weddingcrashers. So another friend of ours.
Uh, and and I dressed upas the wedding crashers from the movie and
crashed uh Spencer's wedding and then thatwas rather funny and people were people were

(03:17):
equal parts uh, entertained and annoyed. Well, yeah, we won't mention
who the annoyed people might have been, and we'll leave our other friend nameless
for his protection. But the picturewas pretty awesome. He has recreated the
picture from the from them, fromthe movie, from the DVD cover,
from the poster, or whatever youwant to say, like, yeah,

(03:38):
we recreated that that look for uhfor it and it was a it was
a lot of fun. We hada great time, for sure. But
well, Spencer got it immediately,didn't you roll up when they were coming
into the reception, right, Heand I and as soon as I mean,
I was wearing the tan suit andthe whole thing, and uh,
and we we totally like he wewalked up and immediately You're started cracking up.

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He's like, oh my gosh,this is so awesome. And then
it took a second for Diane tocatch on and she was like, oh
no, well that's generally the reactionwhen we give you when you when you
roll up. Usually usually when Iroll up, people are like, oh
no, yeah, because they knowthat something amazing is about to happen.

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But we have had some sad changesto our show family over the past year.
Actually, uh, Scott, doyou want to share that? Yeah,
obviously it's a it's something that affectedus both. But we had a
great member of our Sounds Right familyin producer Jess Um. Jess was one

(04:49):
of the best people that I've evercome across UM, and we loved her
dearly and unfortunately after UM I wasable to spend some time with her.
At the end of the last year. We found out earlier on this year
that she had passed. It wasextremely shocking to all of us. I

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mean, I still to this daydon't know the details and don't know that
I'll ever know all the details behindit. But she passed away earlier on
this year. I've still find myselflooking at text messages that we had sent
back and forth of joking about somethingor I saw something about drag queens or
something and send it to her,and all the text messages she and I

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would share about funny things we'd seenin the media or whatever, and so
it's it's been rather tough to tosee her go. I did, like
I said, did get to spendsome time with her last in the end
of last year in Orlando when Iwas at Disney World. My family was
there and we got to spend aday with her at one of the parks,
which was fun. We had agreat time. It was just like

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old times, even though it hadbeen you know, three years since the
show. It was like that didn'tthey might as well have been one one
day or you know, a fewhours we got along. We was just
a great experience to be able tohang out with her. And uh,
and we're going to miss her dearly, but that's uh, that's part of
the reason why we're dedicating this firstepisode to produce suggests. Absolutely. And

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she, like you said, sheloved the drag queen what would you call
it, the the lifestyle. Imean, she obviously was not a drag
queen, but she would go toall the different conventions that they had.
We actually got to hang out withher in downtown LA one time when she

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was here for one of those andwe were down at La Live going to
we actually went to the Bowling Alleythere hung out had some food, and
just seeing all of the other thedrag queens around and taking that in with
her and people watching was pretty fun. We had a lot of a lot
of comments, mostly not anything derogatory, but I was looking at these the

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drag queens and going these people havespent more time just today getting ready for
something than probably I have in myentire adult life combined, because I'm not
one of those women that takes foreverto get ready to go out or really
does a whole lot of my hairmakeup, and so just looking at the
detail and she was very much intothat lifestyle. And we had actually talked

(07:26):
about bringing the show back probably ayear year and a half ago, and
one of the things that was amuss for us was to have Jess as
our producer wherever we brought the show, and unfortunately it wasn't the right time
to bring it back then, andnow we don't have Jess. It's kind
of a bummer. I mean,obviously, in the term I believe you

(07:47):
were looking for is drag hag iswhat she called her. She was a
self proclaimed drag hag and she wouldgo to all these these drag events and
everything else. But yeah, That'sof the regrets that I probably had is
not bringing the show back sooner thanshe used to, that she could be
a part of it, because wejust, uh, we had such a

(08:09):
great time. You you, wewere talking about this well back. But
how hard she used to get laughingwhere she had to like literally mute herself.
Yeah, and that the giggle wasso cute even if she was laughing
hysterically, it was still came outlike this giggle right uh or or or
or as we've we've joked about herher alter ego slash sister Julia. Play

(08:35):
that you say, Julia. Sowhat Jess used to do? Sometimes she
couldn't produce the show We would recordon Friday mornings, and she would text
or email one of us and say, hey, I can't I can't produce
today, but my sister Julia will. And Julia sounded just like Jess.
Still don't believe her, still don'tbelieve it. I don't either. I
mean, after Jess died, wesaw stuff about her sister Julia on Facebook

(08:58):
and we're both going, wait aminute, she really exists, Because we
would we accused Jess of some dayswhen she just didn't want to handle Scott's
awesomeness that she would just say,hey, I'm coming in as Julia and
then just be Jess's voice, butall business and taking none of Scott's junk.
She would laugh, she wouldn't giggle, none of it. And I
just thought, oh, Julia isjust Jess's cranky side, that's all it

(09:22):
is. So uh And like youand I said before, wouldn't it be
so cool if we could do thatin our real lives? I can be
like, um, look at mykids, Hey, Jen isn't here today.
Yes, Um, this is hersister Jackie right here to deal with
you, right, just just tobe able to kind of like sign off
like, uh, yeah today I'mSteve and Steve is not happy to be

(09:45):
here. So we're just gonna letSteve have his his his crankiness today.
So but Jess, wherever you are, we miss you greatly and uh can't
wait. We love you, wedo we We we couldn't be you in
this without you today even and sohopefully one day we're all going to be

(10:05):
able to sit around the Heavenly Podcastmicrophones and have another We have all the
giggling laughs that we once did,so you know, I'm kind of jealous
that she doesn't have to experience allof twenty twenty. That's probably what I
would have came down to, isthat she got a little insight into where

(10:26):
twenty twenty was head and the Lordwas like, well, do you want
to deal with that? She's like, nope, get me out of here.
Well, she because her heart wasso gentle, she never had any
of a she unlike us, Shewouldn't go around saying she hated this or
that, or wanting to punch peoplein the face, or coming up with

(10:46):
devious plans to rid the Los Angelesarea of traffic. Right Like, the
other day, Jason, one ofthe friends of the show, Jason Pie,
posted thing about name a bad guywho you who agreed with, and
he put down Thanos and I waslike absolutely, Like like the bad guy

(11:09):
that you you think had a pointis Stanos And I was like, m
hmm. If I could just snapmy fingers and half the people in Los
Angeles, Los Angeles would disappear,I'd be okay with that. Well,
that's not quite how we put it. On the way Back from a King
because game one time our sounds rightnight at the LA Kings but we'll just
leave that right there. But soyou can expect from our show with stuff

(11:31):
about LA sports, sports in general, LA culture and the state of culture
throughout the country and politics. Soa little bit of that's the mix of
who we are, right Scott,right well, with a lot of sarcasm
and snark in there though, ofcourse, of course, but that's what

(11:52):
good comedy does, and it hasthe snark, but it has the truth
and they're just like Bill Burr's openerfor the for Saturday Night Live, right
That's That's the other thing that waswas really funny about that that the other
morning was just laughing because everyone wasso upset. He managed to upset everyone
that you think you could upset inin just his his monologue. And I

(12:18):
want to I want to laugh aboutit because it's like, that's exactly what
comedy should be. No sacred cows. Everything's on the table. Everyone gets
to laugh. You know, nothing, nothing, no sacred cows here,
We're not we're not. Nothing's offlimits. His when he said Gucci,
when he said Gucci clad feet orGucci booted feet, over the over the

(12:39):
wall of oppression, Yeah, Ialmost like I am the guy is an
absolute genius. How he's able towrite the thing there about about that,
and because you you literally envisioned inyour mind some white lady with like a
mocha, frappuccino or whatever in herin her hands, swinging her feet over
the wall of oppression and running tothe into the front of the line like,

(13:03):
oh, it's my turn, myturn. Well, the part where
he said they'd never heard so muchcomplaining in his life from white women and
saying, my life is so hard. I have my suv in my heated
seats. You have no idea whatit's like to me. I there's a
couple of women I literally pictured inmy head right that that, Oh that

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is so this or that person.And I won't call them out here,
but I wrote about it this morningover at Red State, which I don't
know when people will be listening tothis, but we will definitely put a
link up on our website to itabout that. His piece, his monologue
was everything that comedy should be intwenty twenty. And you wrote about it

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at Red State too when it happened, and and just kind of going over
the news of it. But therewere so many white women of course saying
you know, I don't know ifthere's ever a right time for this,
but it's definitely not now. Andfrom which I said, your response is
exactly why now is the right timefor this? Correct. That's the That's

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the thing that's so frustrating to meis that they don't realize, like,
that's exactly why you are right hereexactly outlining why this is the problem you're
you're you're laying out in in keyexample as to why people don't like,

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uh, don't like the woke culture. It's this idea that somehow, uh,
everyone everyone else is responsible for yourproblems, but you're not. You're
you have no responsibility for your foryour lot in life. Everyone else is
to blame. It's everyone else's fault. And and and to me, that's
just hilarious how he's able to takeagain no sacred counts. Bilburger, by

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the way, is married to aliberal black woman, So this is not
like keys out there. He's someconservative guy that's just you know, crapping
on the front lawns of liberals.He's letting everyone know that like there's no
uh when he's when he's in themiddle of his monologue and he's like where's
the camera? And he like pointsit. How dare you like? He

(15:18):
literally he stops and as to finda camera so he can look into the
eyes of America and say, howdare you? I just again, guy's
a genius. Everything about it thatthat that monologue was about as perfect as
it gets. Well, it's likeand in my piece I quoted something from
Stephen Cruiser's over at PJ Media,another town Hall media site, and he

(15:41):
wrote back in February twenty nineteen aboutI think it was the forty fifth anniversary
of Blazing Saddles being released, right, and he said, uh, when
everything is offensive, nothing is offensive. And he said what Brooks and company
did in that movie is made surethat they offended everyone, which made it
funny, right, And that's andthat's what that's what I keep getting back

(16:03):
to is that it was it's it'sabout like no sacred cows. One of
our mutual friends, Jen, whois a who is a very liberal individual,
actually messaged me this morning saying howgreat Bill Burrs uh Peace was and
I and not that I think thathe wouldn't find it funny, but it's
just funny that he of all people, uh, you know, white Uh,

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I'd call him, uh far centerleft, so he's pretty far left
but still relatively reasonable dude. Andhe ye, if it is who I'm
thinking it is, it is thatstuck the stuck the landing. But yes,

(16:48):
I love how I was. Iwas trying to explain who he was
without saying who he was. Butyou're like, oh, I know he
is. Yes, he's a bigKamala fan and so uh. But he
thought that that he took the timetoo to say that to you shows that
more than this, that he foundit funny, right, that he agreed
with it was someone saying like,look, there's no sacred couse here,

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There's no way of making fun ofit. I think that the best part
about it was that I saw theclip on Twitter and then there was just
this liturgy of like hatred. Theflow actually exactly all the white women that
were like flooded onto Twitter. Itwas like, this isn't funny. I'd

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like to speak with the manager ofSNL. Well, and did you watch
the part where he was talking aboutmasks and that if if people wanted to
kill off their weak cousin that hasasthma by not wearing a mask around their
family. Then that's their choice,right, and this guy's actually I am
that cousin. Right. All thepeople that got mad, I mean the

(17:55):
gays got mad because he was like, why do you get why do you
get a whole month? Like youknow that gays came out and they got
the month with the short sleeves andthe warm temperatures. Black people got twenty
eight days in February with what hesays, with something about the crappy weather,
really crappy weather, crappy weather,and the sun goes down at four
thirty in the afternoon, and right, it's just too funny. He uh.

(18:21):
He's again provocative, absolutely, butonly provocative in the fact that he
just doesn't care what you think abouthim. He gives note yes zero,
well yeah, one paragraph that Icame up with in my late night semi
lucid writing of this op ed thaton second reading this morning actually looked as

(18:42):
pretty spot on. In my humbleopinion is that comedy, like other forms
of art, is in the eyeof the beholder. Everyone viewed that monologue
differently based on their experiences and identityto the LGBTQ community. It was all
about homophobia, especially this Daily Beastwriter that said the whole thing was a
homophobic rant because a corner of itwas about Pride Month. But to liberal

(19:06):
black men and women, it wasabout telling the woke white women to back
the f up and stop stop hoggingthe spotlight. To the woke white women,
it was about calling the manager toask who to authorized burg to say
such terrible things, And to conservativesof all stripes, it was about cheering
that a comedian on SNL had thecojones to poke the Karen Bear, the
Karen Bear, that's hilarious. Well, I mean you think of Karen hair,

(19:30):
it's kind of like bear fur.It is, it does kind of
look I mean Karen. Actually,Karen hair actually looks more like thick Donald
Trump frow than anything. In myopinion, I'm picturing Jocelyn on Chit's Creek.
I guess that she definitely would havesome of her more shaggy hair styles.
Yes, anytime you say Karen,though, I think of Kate from

(19:52):
John and Play John and Kate pluseight just that that like flocking weird haircut
she hair or that chick in Bestand show the one that where they both
have braces the couple, right,Yeah, yeah, which makes sense since
both Shits Creek and Bested show isthe same people. Right, It's it's
all uh Eugene Levy. Anyway,Well, we uh, we've had a

(20:15):
great for sessions first section this morningand their Jen, but we've got to
take a break and we'll be backin just a few minutes with our second
segment and then our third segment.We've got a fantastic guest and she's special.
You guys are gonna want to stickaround for that, So we'll be
right back after this break with SoundsRight and Jenn and Scott. This is

(20:45):
Sounds Right with Jen and Scott onthe FCB Radio Network, and again we're
back. Welcome back to Sounds Rightwith Jen and Scott, where we've been
talking about Bill Burr's opener on SaturdayNight Live is probably a much better opening
monologue than either of us gave inthe initial session of this episode, or

(21:07):
we'll try to do better. We'rea little rusty right now. But something
that struck me, Scott, whenI was looking at pieces written about that
about that monologue is that there wasone writer, Van Befair, that actually
got it. Because I think that, like I mentioned before, everyone looked
at this piece differently depending on whoyou are, what slot in life that

(21:30):
you occupy, and but that itreally, if someone had the desire to
do so, gave an opportunity forself reflection because there was a lot of
truth in it. These white womenhave taken over a lot of this movement,
and black friends that I have onboth sides of the aisle have said
that to me, how they arekind of irritated that they've made it all

(21:52):
about them, made it about thembeing an ally, made it about really
understanding the struggle, and that's prettyoffensive. So this woman said, the
joke were made about white women worksbecause he'd already told a season the top
tier when it comes to villains,he made it clear that white guys are
awful and have oceans of atoning beforethem. I'm saying that with sarcasm.

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But then she says, but healso took a minute to remind us white
women that we have a habit ofhijacking moments that aren't ours to take,
like the woke movement, while willfullyignoring our own mess right, and then
said, damn if Twitter didn't immediatelylight up with white women asking for his
head, Like we said before,doing exactly that. It's like nothing can
be funny anymore in twenty twenty.You can't tell a joke, you can't

(22:37):
be lighthearted, and dang in whatwe all need after this year after day
like two hundred and sixty five,I'm just guessing there of all of these
lockdowns, and it's the time thatwe most need it. We can't have
honest conversations with anybody, not justjokes. We can't have even honest conversation,

(23:00):
right. That's been a that's beena frustration for me, particularly in
the fact that that it's either allor nothing with a lot of the left,
uh and so like for instance,when the George Floyd protests started,
I was out protesting with Black LivesMatter, why because I felt that George,

(23:21):
the George Flood situation was was horrible. Initially when I had heard about
the Brianna taylorcase that also had gottenmy attention. But then you have something
like Richard Brooks, that was theguy who passed out in his car in
the Wendy's drive through in Atlanta andthen tussled with two police officers, assaulted

(23:42):
both of them, took one oftheir uh their tasers, and fired it
at him at the cops miss butthen in the process of firing got shot
with an actual gun and and killed. And when Black lives Matter demands in
the ways that you accept all situationswhere cops use use force as racist is

(24:07):
where you're gonna lose me. Andand as a result, I stopped participating
in that because while I wanted tosupport where actual injustice occurs, I didn't
want to be have to be tieddown to the fact that that every case
of police use of force is racismor unjustified. And that's you'll never find

(24:27):
me on that ever. And that'spart of the reason why I why I've
moved I guess further to the leftjust this year, or not left further
to the right just this year,is because those on the left don't want
your participation unless you're going to beboth feed in with them. Right,

(24:47):
it's it's either that Trump is atotal villain and evil and all of his
supporters should die, or or thatTrump is God right. It's the same
thing with the people on the right. You can't you can't joke around about
Trump or even be truthful about him, Like if you could say Trump's a
jackass, like, oh, oh, how dare you about the president President

(25:12):
Trump, and and my personal favoriteswhen people like refer to him and like
his full name, like President DonaldJ. Trump would never do that,
and Donald J. Trump would this. And it's it's that stuff where you're
gonna lose me as well, Like, I mean, he's a New York
businessman, right, if you can'thim so much in sixteen, really remember

(25:33):
that, Oh, I mean wewere the firm feet never trumpers. I
wrote that article over at National Sentineldonald Trump as a hemorrhoid covered a hole,
but I didn't say a hole.Uh and then uh, and then
I wrote the Letter to America overat Ricochet, where I said, like,
look, this isn't the guy.And I am okay with saying I

(25:56):
was wrong about Trump in some ways. Is he still a jackass? Yes?
Is he a small government conservative nowhe's not. Yes, he's reduced
the size of it's kind of moresmall government than the Republicans we've had recently.
Exactly my point. I've been morehappy with Trump's performance than I was,

(26:17):
say, with Bush. The expansionsof government under the Bush administration,
largely because of nine to eleven,but the expansions of government under under the
Bush administration. We're disgusting the factthat we had during the Obama administration the
NSA spying on Americans. That's completelyunacceptable. But again going back to how
how I see this is you canI can be critical of Trump when Trump

(26:41):
needs is deserving of criticism, andpraise Trump when he's deserving of praise.
But a lot of the left isall or nothing. So if I praised
Trump ever, I'm the enemy.But the same with the right if I
criticized Trump ever. And you know, one individual hates when I criticize Trump,

(27:03):
and sure I know a few,yes, ap, yeah, yeah,
he gets so upset when I criticizeTrump, And it's like, is
it easy? Not deserving of criticism? Why does twenty twenty Why does our
current political climate have to dictate thatI'm either all all in one corner or
all in the other. I can'tbe, you know, be the moderator

(27:26):
or the go between. I haveto be in both corners and on one
corner or the other. And it'sto me, it's frustrating extremely because the
only way that we're going to findsolutions to things is to be able to
actually talk about the merits of something, or be honest about something to have
find that common ground. And toone of the things that you said,

(27:48):
I think that had we not havehad COVID, donald Trump would be a
lot less there'd be a smaller governmentthing. I think that's caused some of
the expansion things that neither of like. But also, I mean, he
is a jackass. Do we needa jackass right now? Yes? So
that might be a good thing.I mean its acknowledging his personality traits.

(28:11):
That doesn't mean that he can't alsobe empathetic. I've heard from people that
have met him how empathetic he canbe in private or really helping people.
And he doesn't go broadcast everywhere,which is to his credit. But he's
a jackass. But as you liketo say, I'm about yourself sometimes,
Scott, he's our jackass right exactly. And that's and that's and that what

(28:34):
it comes down to again, youjust you hit it on the head,
is like, is that what weneed right now? Because we've tried.
This is what's so frustrating me isthat the left wants to lecture the right
about Donald Trump and how we supporthim and how horrible he is and everything
else. That's like the same peoplethat you guys have praised because they were
critical of Trump. We tried tofreaking elect and you guys wouldn't take him.

(29:00):
Right. Remember, binders of womenare forty seven percent with Mitt Romney.
And while I completely don't like Romneythe way he handled twenty twelve,
Uh, he was a good man. The left right that he's a good
man. You had a chance toelect a good man. You can boy
scout right literally right, probably oneof the most upright, morally upright individuals

(29:25):
to have ever run for president inMitt Romney. Mary to his wife,
never cheated it on her, payshis taxes in full. Uh, you
know, all the things that you'dwant from a presidential candidate. And they
they they destroyed him and and soand that was John McCain. John McCain

(29:48):
wore hero moderate senator. All thethings that they hated about that they hate
about Trump that in reality we're notfound in John McCain Romney. And they
didn't vote for him either. Somy whole point is, if if we're
not going to get if our chance, choices are losing with the fine up
standing or winning with the Jackass.I'll take winning with the jackass because until

(30:12):
until Liberals will realize that they've gotto start becoming a lot more moderate.
I've said it before, had theynominated Tulsie, not that Tulsie was the
best or wash is better than TrumpBiden stretching imagination, but I was going
to vote for Tulsie had she beennominated, only as a reward to the

(30:33):
Democrats forgetting that they have to moderate, they have to become more moderate.
And when they didn't, and theywent as far left as they part pretty
much could without going to Bernie,to me, it just shows that they're
completely out of touch of with what'sgoing on in the world or in the

(30:53):
country for that matter. Well.And something that I thought of as you
were explaining all of that is thatwe can't talk with the left the way
that we think we could with areasonable person. It doesn't work. Like
you said about the Republicans that wenominated for president and who were pretty much

(31:17):
good people. I'll be quiet aboutMcCain, but they just destroyed them.
And those are the people that thenhave been wishy washy. I mean McCain
was totally wishy washy. Senator hetotally sold us out by not showing up
for that vote on Obamacare and Romney. We don't need to go into all
of that. But they've been tryingto negotiate with the left. And we've

(31:41):
been aware of Kamala Harris for years. You and I just working in California
and politics, dealt with her shenanigans, and we learned through all of that
that you can't give an inch tosomeone like her. All that is seen
as is weakness. Right, don'tdon't try to negotiate trying to find a

(32:01):
middle ground, because middle ground willbe It's it's the old what happens if
you give him mouse a cookie,he's gonna want a glass of milk.
And the left is the same way. Is that you'll compromise, but at
the end of the compromise, theywant more out of it. They want
they want a further extension of theirof their of their power. Hey,

(32:22):
great, we went in the middle, Now can we take another ten feet?
And right, we saw that withSecond Amendment laws. When Komlo is
an attorney general, is always moreand more and more. And unfortunately our
legislature left everything so vague in thebills they wrote and left it all to
be decided through regulation, that shewould just keep going further and further or
by the liberal courts, right,So they knew that, they knew that

(32:45):
that they left it ambiguous enough inthe legislation they could legislate from the judicial
bench. And of course that's thankgoodness. Another moment I'm thinking goodness for
Trump is that Trump has Trump ishas nominated confirmed so many judges that have
changed the appearance of the entire UnitedStates court system. So I said,

(33:08):
like a small rant, and thenalexus when I just said that. So
as to the court, they talkabout court packing, and we know that
what that means is that if Bidenis elected, are they going to try
to get legislation through Congress making increasingthe size of the Supreme Court to then

(33:31):
they can make sure to whatever numberthey need to have more liberal justices than
conservative. And we all know that'sexactly what they're going to do. I
don't they'd have to have majorities inboth houses of Congress, and hopefully that
would happen. But they're trying toredefine court packing as just filling vacancies on

(33:53):
the court, on any court,on the Supreme Court, on all the
federal bench. And I've even seennever rumpers, people that were died in
the wool, never trumpers even upto three or four months ago, tweeting
about this issue in support of thepresident. And if we want to talk
about court packing, though, let'slook back at the Ninth Circuit if you

(34:13):
want to see what real court packingis. When Jimmy Carter was president,
they expanded the number of justices thereon the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,
which they needed to because it coverssuch a huge area and had such a
huge caseload. So I'm not sayingit wasn't necessary to have more judges available,
but it was court packing. Theywere the most liberal judges ever that

(34:36):
Carter appointed for lifetime appointments, andwe're just now getting the changes that we're
starting to see in the Ninth Circuitare because those judges are dying off or
having to retire because they're not reallycompetent to be there anymore. That is
the result of court packing. Sowe absolutely cannot have that on the Supreme
Court. So that was my littlerant on that. Well, I mean,

(34:58):
where does it stop the is mynext question. So let's say,
then the Democrats come out and packthe court, and they pack the Supreme
Court, they add judges, andin the rest of it, what stops
Republicans in four years or eight yearswhen they're in charge again of doing the
same thing all over again. OrI wonder if they could decrease the number
of judges to say it as theydie off. But then, I mean,

(35:19):
that's kind of crappy too, Buthopefully we never have to deal with
that. And not just that,where does it stop. It's they would
then use that court to basically changethe Constitution in any way they wanted.
Well, the problem with expanding thecourt versus trying to contract the court is
you'd have to essentially get two peopleto resign from a court if you expand

(35:43):
the court by two or four judgesor whatever. So you'd always have to
contract the court by two judges,so you'd end up with an even number
of judges. So if you're justwaiting for people to die off, so
you wait for you know, Thomasto die or whoever it may be,
then you're going to end up havingan even number of judgment of justices,

(36:05):
which leads to obviously deadlock. Nowmore, you have a moment you have
a deadlock Supreme Court, you endup with Congress legislating without any type of
oversight judicial oversight, which is exactlywhy they don't want these confirmation hearings to
go on. For Amy Coney Barrett, this is again why I keep going

(36:28):
back to the fact that I wantTrump to win, is because now if
if Trump wins, court packing questiongoes away. If Trump wins, the
idea of whether or not he confirmed, you know that he went against the
will of the people is over becausehe won. The will of the people
was that he filled that seat.The Democrats are all in on this.
I don't even remember in twenty twelve, but after Romney lost there was this

(36:51):
big old thing about like the eulogizingthe GOP, eulogizing the eulogizing the of
the GOP. And yet we haven'ttalked about the fact that is the Democrat
Party dying. It is tearing itselfinto between moderates and progressives. Absolutely,

(37:14):
I think so. And when weare talking before about that you can't negotiate
with leftists. What I'm referring tothere are the leftist politicians and officeholders.
Because if you talk to just peoplethat we know in the community who are
Democrats, then you can usually findsome kind of common ground with them,

(37:34):
and I've seen that most this yearin the fight with eighty five are anti
contracting law. There are so manyDemocrats that I've become friends with through that
and who don't agree with what theirparty is doing there. They were kind
of all in on the rhetoric andthen they saw unfortunately it had to come
to them seeing the results of theirvote and of going along with that rhetoric.
But they number of them have reallyseen the light this year and have

(37:59):
either switched part or they're not planningto vote Democrat, even though they're staying
registered Democrat, just kind of forapparance reasons. So we've been able to
have those conversations because of AB five. It's forced us into having conversations about
the actual policy and not just onrhetoric of Orange Man Bad. And coming

(38:19):
up in our next segment, we'regoing to have Kia Davis, who's a
good friend of both Scott's and mineand also over at Red State, and
she on one of our podcasts recentlytalked about how to talk to people,
either your family or friends or justin general about politics without having it devolved
into this terrible experience where everyone's basicallyflipping each other off and walking away.

(38:44):
And because sometimes, like on Facebookor Twitter, you can do that,
but we all have friends or familymembers. I think that are pretty hard
left and how do you have thoseconversations without it devolving? And so I'm
really looking forwards talking to Kara aboutthat. Yeah, that's gonna be great.
So we'll actually go ahead and headon out for the break to bring

(39:07):
in Kia, but appreciate everyone's listeningand stay tuned for the next segment with
Kia Davis. Do you feel likeeveryone is yelling at each other but no
one is listening to each other orthemselves. I'm Cura Davis, host of
Just Listen to Yourself, a weeklyexercise and critical thinking and drawing our talking
points all the way out to theirlogical conclusions, because I believe when we

(39:29):
take the time to examine our owntalking points, we can realize we're not
always saying what we think we're saying. Download Just Listen to Yourself with Kura
Davis on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts,or wherever you get your podcasts. This
sounds right with Jen and Scott thefc being Radio Network. Welcome back to

(40:02):
Sounds Right with Jen and Scott.We have a great guest for our premier
return of our show. She wasour first guest way back on February sixth,
twenty fifteen, and it's the wonderfuleditor at large for Red State dot
Com, Kara Davis. Thank youfor being on again. Kara. Hey,

(40:24):
guys, it's good to be here. Good to talk to you.
Guys. Can't believe it's been solong and you'll still talk to us.
Well, well, that remains tobe seen. We'll see how this call
goes. Okay, sure, she'lltalk to you. It's just that you
want to talk to me. It'sprobably here's nobody else on this podcast,

(40:47):
got it? We have an estrogentim out yet. Yeah, but you
have a very successful new podcast.Just listen to yourself. I'm not sure
how new it is. It seemsnew because everything in twenty just seems new
and old at the same time.But so when did you start that podcast?
It's a year this month? Actually, wow, congratulations, thank you.

(41:13):
Yeah. I actually didn't realize untilI mean, of gosh, it's
like the least most important thing that'shappening these days, Right, It's like
this year just flew by. Butyeah, it's been a year, and
the response has been amazing, andthe growth of the podcast in just the

(41:34):
last three or four months has beenreally intense. I think people are really
kind of hungry for some new kindof political discourse. I think people are
getting tired of what they're seeing outthere and what they're hearing. It doesn't
seem to be feeding the soul,you know, totally, it's not the
same just old crotchety person screaming theclouds like Grandpa Simpson on his lawn.

(42:04):
Your podcast brings in scripture, bringsin, I'm brings in just remembering that
other people are humans too, andthat we all have needs and wants and
desires and one of so understood andfeel loved. And I know that's a
really difficult thing for Scott to talkabout sometimes without laughing. I'm kidding Scott

(42:24):
pretty much. But I really lovedwhat you had to say about one of
your latest podcasts where you had aquestion from a listener about how to talk
about politics with people that she caredabout that disagreed with. Yeah, well
that was one of my Yeah theLab podcast I wanted to do a podcast

(42:45):
that was kind of centered around realsolutions because a lot of times I just
talk about talking points and drawing themout to their logical conclusion and making sure
that that you're saying exactly what youthink you're saying. It's really about asking
people to return to critical thinking,because I really sincerely believe that when you

(43:07):
actually take the time to parse outyour talking points, sometimes you're not thinking
exactly what you think you are.You're not saying, excuse me, exactly
what you think you're saying. Andso when we are more confident and we
know what we believe, I dobelieve that takes a lot of the tension

(43:28):
out of political conversations because we're notso worried about making people see us as
right, We're not so worried aboutconvincing people. We're just having an interesting
political conversation, and then we cango on with our lives. But I
get a lot of questions on adaily basis from listeners who really sincerely want

(43:49):
to know, like what about thepeople who don't want to want to play
fair, who come into the conversationangry, who want to accuse me of
being a racist or a bigot withoutknowing exactly what I think, how do
I have conversations with those people?So I laid out some points, some

(44:10):
aspects to hit as you're entering intothese conversations, and I went through a
hole. It was actually one ofmy longest podcasts because I really wanted to
take the time make sure people understood, make sure people had all their questions
answered. But one of my biggestthings, I think is that And I'm

(44:32):
not sure if this exactly is whatyou're referring to, Jennifer, but I
think for me, one of thebiggest things is you have to go into
every conversation am knowing what your goalsare. So is your goal to prove
yourself right? You know? Thenthen that's probably not ever going to turn
it into a healthy conversation. Isyour goal just to have an interesting conversation?

(44:53):
Or is your goal to get toknow this person? Know what the
goal is. If there's nothing productivehappening in the conversation, if it just
starts out with hatred and this personhas no interest in hearing you out,
you walk away from that conversation.That's fine. But a lot of the
advice I give people is unfortunately andIt sounds super lame, but a lot

(45:17):
of it is. You know,you're kind of responsible for the tone of
a given conversation. You've got togo in giving up your right to be
offended. You've got to go inwith an open mind. You've got to
go in feeling confident and then notfeeling like you have to be right.

(45:39):
You've got to be willing to giveup the last word. That's a tough
one. That's a tough one forme. You've got to be willing to
you know, sometimes you don't getto defend every single point. It's difficult,
there's some sacrifice involved. But Ido believe we can have these conversations

(46:00):
with people who differ from us ideologically. I sincerely believe we can have those
not with everybody, but I thinkwith even most people if we approach it
in a sincere manner that makes sense. I mean, obviously, I wrote
a piece also at red State thislast week kind of touching on this same

(46:22):
subject, but more on the otherend of Yes, I would love to
have open and wonderful conversations with myfriends on the left. However, most
of the time it devolves into mebecame being called a racist sexist, homophobe,
And so while you have them,let them be who they are,

(46:42):
and you want to have discussions andfind common ground. I'm always starting there.
But you have a little bit moreof a polite way of returning,
kind of ending the conversation. AndI admire that only because my end a
way of ending those conversations is usuallythrough four letters to brodges of very upsettedness.

(47:07):
Right. But the question is then, like, how did you go
into the conversation? Is was ita friendly conversation? Was it a combative?
Did you go in combative? Didyou go in with the idea that
you were going to make either makefun of this person or prove this person
wrong. You know that that's nevergoing to end properly. And if and

(47:28):
if the conversation does start out withthis person being cruel and unreasonable, then
that's not Maybe that's not a conversationyou start in the first place. It's
okay to just walk away from thoseconversations and it really is. Or it's
okay to end them and let theother person just be who they are,
just to end them and say,well, you know, I disagree,

(47:50):
I don't I think you're misjudging me. I think I've made my points and
perhaps this isn't productive anymore. Let'sgo grab a beer or let's go do
something different. But I think alot of the onus is on us.
You know, we can I've nevergone into a conversation that is tense that

(48:10):
hasn't been disarmed in some way bygood humor and grace. And I think
I think ninety percent of the timethose approaches work, and then for the
other ten percent of the time youjust need to back away. You're not
going to win every conversation. You'renot. And the other thing is is
that we think we're going to makethe point that's going to change this person's

(48:34):
mind and change how they think abouteverything. And that's not how it works,
is it. I mean, thinkof all the things you've changed your
mind on. It's not been alightbulb moment where you've been having this really
intense conversation and then someone says andthen you say, oh, yeah,
you know, I never really thoughtabout it that way. You change everything
about the way. I think.Typically it takes time. Typically you have

(48:57):
to go away and think about it, and a paradigm shifts really don't necessarily
happen overnight. They happen over time. So sometimes we go into the conversation
thinking I've got to prove myself rightinstead of instead of thinking I would like
to hear what this other person issaying. Are we listening to what the
other person is saying? Are wejust waiting to have our chance to talk

(49:21):
again? I think I lame.Like I know, it's not like that's
super lame. It's not fun,but it's not I it's super lame.
Yeah, I think that even whenyou go in the conversation with the best
of intentions, like we've all threefound out, I'm sure it doesn't always
end up with the other person havingthose intentions. But even and I'm tempted
a lot of times to go theScott route, and sometimes I do.

(49:43):
It's the four letter word and walkingaway, But I find that I feel
bad after that hurts me psychologically probablymore than them, and and spiritually because
because then I'm angry and my heartis not in the right place. And
with the paradigm shifts never come duringan anger moment, like someone's beating you

(50:04):
over the head with their viewpoint.At least I'm going to resist it.
Just to resist. But if someonesays, well, this is the way
I look at it, and here'swhy I believe that way, I can
at least listen and maybe into thatI can see the value of your approach,
Kira, of just explaining that.But there's I have some family members
that I just know that we can'ttalk politics, and sometimes they still rant

(50:28):
about it, and I just letthem rant. Yeah, And that's okay
to do. And it's sad thatit has to be that way. I'm
not saying it's fair. But atthe same time, if you want to
keep the peace, if you wantto avoid feeling like your blood pressure rising
and all that, then sometimes youhave to be mature enough to say there's
nothing productive that's going to come outof this. And I value this relationship

(50:52):
more than I value being right orshowing somebody else that I'm right. And
I think even like, don't getme wrong, I definitely believe that in
the landscape as it stands, conservativesare treated very unfairly by the other side,
and we've got to combat a lotof unfair judgments going into any conversation.

(51:13):
But that doesn't mean we don't havestuff to learn. And one of
the things I say in my podcastis over the years, I've learned to
read between the lines. I've learnedto really try to listen to people and
listen to what they're what they're reallysaying, not what the words are coming
out of their mouth. So ifI hear somebody saying, I don't know,

(51:37):
like if if you don't, ifyou don't believe in higher taxes,
you're a racist and a bigot,and you hate everybody, and you hate
babies and kittens and puppies and youwant everyone to die. My next tactic
will usually be the first. I'llrepeat the question, And I think there's

(52:00):
value a lot of value in makingpeople repeat themselves because when they say it
a second time, it usually doesn'tcome out the same way. So I'll
say, you know, I'll saysomething so I just to make sure that
I haven't right. Are you tellingme that if I believe in lowering people's
taxes that I also believe in killingsmall children? Is that what you just

(52:22):
said? Typically somebody will be like, no, no, that's not what
I mean. What I mean isthen you can get a little further into
it. But usually if I'll say, you know, this is what I
hear you saying to me. WhatI hear you saying is that you care
about people, and you worry thatpeople are going unfed, on house,
unclothed, that there are people wecan be helping out there that aren't being

(52:45):
helped, and there are some peoplewho are getting away with not paying their
fair share. That's what I hearyou saying. But to my mind,
I think that it's actually better foreveryone if we all pay lower taxes,
we can those jobs go to you, the private citizen, your churches,
your synagogues, your community centers,the community in general. That I believe

(53:07):
that people are better off when thesethings are handled by your individual communities rather
than baseless bureaucrats in a city farfar away. You know, suddenly the
tone of the conversation shifts, youknow, and then you're sort of daring
the other person to disagree with thiscommon ground. And then you know,

(53:29):
if they do, then you knowwhere they see and you can be like,
Okay, well now I see itdoesn't really matter. You're not really
interested in what I'm saying. Youreally just want to call me names.
That's not a conversation that's going tobe productive. Disengage, but my experience
has been most people will go downthat road with you if you make some
space for them to be a littleangry and then have the insight to reframe

(53:54):
what they've said. I see that. My issue with that is, and
I'm obviously trying not to disagree withyou specifically here, but when when someone
calls me, I would never ina million years Kia. But my issue
with this is is that if someone'sgoing to call me a racist, or
a sexist or a homophobe, myresponse to that is again for a letter

(54:16):
words like screw you. You don'tknow who I am. If you believe,
if you honestly and genuinely believe,that my disagreement with Kamala Harris has
anything to do with her race orgender, you don't know me, So
don't come here and pretend to havea conversation with me and that you're my
friend and all the rest of it. And then the moment I say I

(54:38):
disagree with something she said, thatnow I disagree because she's a woman or
because she's of a particular racial background. To me, that's so insulting,
so demeaning to my opinion, tothe way I believe things that I My
reaction is not, oh, letme listen to why you think that.

(54:59):
Why you think that to me matters? Larry Little and I understand what you're
saying. You obviously don't want toburn friendships along the way. But if
that friend to me is saying tome you're a racist, I wouldn't be
friends with a racist. I wouldn'tbe friends with it that judges wouldn't,

(55:19):
that's a great point to make,Scott, Then that is a great point
to make to your friend. Ifyou're if if the conversation has started,
it sounds to me like you're sayingyou've been deceived into having this what you
thought was an intelligent conversation and thenit's devolved into this. Absolutely it was
going to go there. Sure,But that is the thing that you can
say too. You know, um, I don't I don't understand. I

(55:45):
am not this person. We arefriends. And if we're friends and you're
still friends with me, how canyou think this about me? And how
long have you thought this about me? You know? There's something wrong with
being a little vulnerable like that.That that's why I also say like you're
a right, of course it's insulting, but again, how far are you're
getting with? I am not Iam not this. I'm not like do

(56:08):
some people want to hear that,you know what I mean? To them,
it's like, oh, the lady, don't protest too much. They
love it. They get off onthat. Sometimes the best thing to do
is to just turn it off site. You know what, We're not making
any progress here. I don't thinkyou think this is true. I know
it's not true, and I can'twaste my time defending this. Is there

(56:34):
anything you could say to that personthat would change their mind about that?
Probably not. That's a good goodsituation in which to disengage. Maybe,
you know the Bible tell scripture tellsus not to argue with a fool lest
you become like the fool at acertain you guys, we all have kids,
haven't you all. Haven't we allbeen in this situation where, especially

(56:59):
when our kids were young, girllike you know, four and five,
and they're trying to tell you whythey need candy for breakfast, and you're
like, no, it's not healthy. Breakfast is the most important meal of
the day. But I want candy, Yes, but you have to eat
this first, and it'll keep yourbody running smoothly, but canny, and
you try to explain it, andthen after a while you're like, what

(57:19):
am I doing? Like, I'mnot I'm arguing at a four year old,
and you sound ridiculous arguing with afour year old. At some point
you don't have to disengage. Youhave to say, no, it's just
it's just this, it's no canny, that's it, goodbye. I think
you've actually said that to me,Kara before, about different either political or
other arguments. You've seen me andlike you've said, why are you engaging

(57:40):
them at all? You look ridiculous, and I thought, oh, you're
right, it's tempting. I mean, don't don't think for one second that
I'm that I have found the secretand then I'm really great at this.
I mean a lot of the timeson my podcast, I'm talking to myself,
I'm convincing myself. I'm just likeeverybody else, and it takes practice,

(58:04):
and it is infuriating. I'm withyou, it's infuriating. It is
it's unfair to be unfairly judged.But the thing is, there's a difference
between conversation and accusation. I thinkwe can all discern when when our conversation,
partner is is sincere and when they'rejust out to draw blood, and

(58:27):
I just don't see any value inengaging and drawing blood unless that's what you
want, unless that's making you happyand you get your giggles out of that.
You know, some people like that. I have friends who they don't
really want any progress. They justwant to poke, poke at the progressives,
poke at the the angry mobs andmake them cry. You know,

(58:50):
that's fine too, as long asyou know what you're going into the conversation.
For I like Kirk Schlichter two.But the point about how about it
making someone happy? And Scott andI were talking about a different friendship that
I used to have earlier today andthat became toxic that I had to walk

(59:12):
away from, and noting how muchmore peaceful I am in my life,
sense said, and not only that, my career has really taken off since
I got rid of that millstone aroundmy neck. And I think that's like
a really big example of it.But that's seen that in our political conversations
with people too, And the morethat what we focus on is where our
heart goes, and to just haveall that negativity, I sound really new

(59:35):
ag, but I think you knowwhat I mean about it now. Absolutely,
the word says it. What isinside your heart will spill from your
lips. Absolutely. This is whyI can't stand it with so many the
left today is obsessed with hate,and you walk around your neighborhood, I
see these signs. I'm sure yousee these signs in your neighborhood. Hate

(59:57):
has no home here. I'm aroad trip through Texas with my daughter right
now, and every now and thenwe'll come across a billboard that'll say,
you know, resist hate or loveTrump's hate or something. And to my
mind, if you're talking about hatethat much, it's because it's in your
heart. You know, people whoare who have love in their hearts,

(01:00:17):
who speak with love, who tryto operate on the basis of love.
We don't even joke about hate verymuch, Like I rarely say to a
friend even jokingly, oh I hateyou. You know, maybe occasionally,
but we rarely even use the wordto describe many things because it is so
ugly and there's such ugliness attached toit. But if it's what's in your

(01:00:40):
heart, it'll come out of yourmouth all the time, and you'll justify
it as self righteous, you know, as as righteous behavior. Well,
of course I hate hate. Hateis the worst. But if that's the
only thing that is coming out ofyour mouth, that tells me that your
heart's probably pretty full of it.Every time I see one of those hate

(01:01:01):
has No Home Here signs, Ithink that's probably a very hateful person living
there. They they probably put thatsign out thinking that they were going to
poke at people they hate, orthey think that hate anyway what or they
think they hate, like for instance, that like the person, Oh,

(01:01:22):
that person hates people. So I'mgoing to say that we shouldn't have hate
here, so right, But Ihate that person for hating people. You
know, It's like that signs alie. It's a lie elementary school thinking,
Right, Yeah, I know youwere, but what an't I exactly?

(01:01:44):
Look here, we are wrapping upour first episode and I cannot tell
you how awesome it is, Kia, to have you as our first guest
on the relaunch five years later.It's amazing to have you. You've been
such a good friend to us andto the show and have been on anytime
we need someone, So thank youvery much. It's truly special for us.

(01:02:05):
To have you can you tell peoplewhere they can find you and where
they're going to be able to findJust Listen to Yourself. Yeah, you
can always find me on Red State. I'm over there with you guys on
Red State and Just Listen to Yourselfis available on our network. We're all
network friends and available wherever you findyour podcasts. And I have another Just

(01:02:30):
Listen to Yourself, as really aimedat the medal. It's aimed at finding
middle ground, at helping people seethings from a different perspective. I don't
hide who I am. I'm aconservative, you know, I'm not embarrassed
about that. I don't hide that, but I do always try to see
both sides of the story, tryto ease people's minds about listening to ideas

(01:02:51):
that they don't like or ideas thatthey find offensive, and finding a way
in to those conversations that might beuncomfortable. But if you want to hear
some red meat, then you goto Red State vi IP and you go
to the Cia Davis Show, andthat's where I get more political. I'm
a lot more partisan on that showbecause that's really for Red State subscribers.

(01:03:13):
So you can find that on Redstate, join our VIP program to see
more from me there and from alot of our writers over a red state,
and then find me over on mylocals page. Guys, I just
found out that Facebook is starting tocensor me, and yeah, it's crazy.

(01:03:34):
All you talk about is love.Why would they censor you? Day?
I didn't know, and I'm hardlycontroversial online, I mean compared to
other people all and even I wasgetting messages from readers who are like Kira,

(01:03:55):
I thought you, I thought you. You canceled your Facebook page because
I can't find it. I actuallyhad to go look for it, and
I was getting so many messages.I realized, no one's safe in this,
and I can't. We can't dependon the big social media giants to
support our brands anymore. Used tobe that way, but that's just it's

(01:04:17):
not that way anymore, especially goinginto the selection cycle. So I went,
you know, we need to bedepending on making our own way in
the social media universe. So Iwent and got an account on locals dot
com. That's the it's sort ofa patreonon is you know community that Jordan

(01:04:39):
Peterson and Dave Ruben set up afterthey started getting banned from Patreon and YouTube
and you can join for our community. You have to subscribe to be a
member and find me over there,and you get bonus podcasts. We do
live chats. I did a livezoom call with my listeners last week which

(01:04:59):
was super fun and so you getall kinds of bonus Kira over that.
So go find Davis Nation at localsdot com and sign out sounds great.
That's awesome again, Thanks so much. Jen, Where can everyone find you
well at RedState dot com. Justlink with you and Kia and on Twitter
at Jen van Maar Sweet and youcan find me at Hounds Sizzle on Twitter

(01:05:25):
as well as with my two wonderfulcompatriots here and looking forward to seeing everyone
next week or next episode here atSounds right. Thanks so much. BFCB

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