0036 Sir Gene Speaks Special - Interview Tina Curry

Gene: 0:14

All right. so Tina Curry, Tina, the keeper. Yes. so let's jump into some questions that I'm sure a lot of people are wanting to know. Oh yeah.

Tina: 0:31

I'm not that

Gene: 0:31

interesting, but let's see. When did you and Adam first meet?

Tina: 0:37

Oh, goodness. Um, I first met Adam when I worked at Ronald McDonald house charities at a donor event. And actually he was married at the time. It was, um, just a brief introduction and didn't really have a conversation with him. And it wasn't until about six months later, he had agreed to MC one of our largest fundraisers and I had to work with him in order to write his communications script for the event. And, um, we just had the sort of chemistry in the meeting and a lot of my coworkers had recognized that immediately. And then that night, um, he friend requested me on Facebook and then the following evening, I saw him and I met his daughter, Christina, and we had a deeper conversation and he had asked me to go out to dinner and he had said, Oh, we'll wait until after the event. Um, in order for us to go out to dinner. And I said, at the end, that was fine. He said, because he didn't want to work, uh, mixed working and personal. And, um, let's see it, we were texting back and forth, but it took him forever to actually initiate the date. And, um, he used to always say that he was, and I say this in air quotes busy. And, um, we finally went out, it was middle of may and that'll, that was six years ago. So we embarked on this, this friendship and turned into a relationship with no vested, um, outcomes. And we just realized the more that we spent time together, the more fun we had. So that's how it started.

Gene: 2:05

Yeah. I definitely remember first seeing you at that event,

Tina: 2:10

in Dallas.

Gene: 2:11

Yeah. I can't believe it's been six years already. Wow. Time flies, like crazy. I know. Yeah. Cause I think I might've been in Austin more than 10 years now. I keep saying to people, I think it's around 10, but it might actually be longer at this point. I was

Tina: 2:27

only in Austin for a year when I met him. So I've only been here for seven years. So I knew who he was. I fully knew who he was because when my boss at the Ronald McDonald house charities told me he was coming to tour the house and she said, Oh, he used to be on MTV. And I said, well, who, who is it? And she said, Adam Curry. And I knew immediately because when I was in my teens, I worked for a cable news. Um, outfit and I remember MTV and I remember seeing my intelligence, I knew exactly who he was.

Gene: 2:56

Okay. So you do remember the big hair.

Tina: 2:58

Oh, for sure. Yes. I think I had the same hairstyle in the eighties too, that he did.

Gene: 3:05

Well, there are a few questions that people have asked in the agenda social as well. like here's one, about Ronald McDonald house. the person I asked they've seen the little, donation containers everywhere, and I've always wondered if those donations truly just go to the Ronald McDonald house.

Tina: 3:30

Yes, they do. And it adds up to quite a bit. So each, each Ronald McDonald house charities is its own separate five Oh one C3. So we have a geographic area. And so within that geographic area, there are the McDonalds. No, most of them are owner operators, owner operators, and they collect all those donations and it is funneled back to the house. And when I was there, it was, Oh, it was over six figures for sure. Because all those pennies and quarters added up and the biggest

Gene: 4:03

area, how big is the geographic area?

Tina: 4:06

Well for the one in Austin, we served Hayes County, Williamson County, um, part of Bryan college station, if it's hard to say, like mile, you know, miles. Um, but it was, it was pretty expansive because there were, there was a Ronald McDonald house in San Antonio. There's one in Houston, there's one in temple. So we just served the surrounding areas in the hospitals, in that surrounding area. So it differs based on the house. But, um, as I was saying those coins, they really, really make a difference and it adds up over six figures for sure. And recently, um, they did the Roundup, so it took forever for the McDonald's organization to get that software into the restaurants. So people could just round up their, their, um, their total price for their food. And I'm sure that has been amazing for them because it's so easy to do that. Um, so yeah, that all that money definitely goes back to the house for sure.

Gene: 5:02

Okay. And then another question is, This Ronald McDonald just provide a free hotel for parents or did they do anything else?

Tina: 5:13

Well, what they do. Oh, they do a lot of different things. Um, but the, the most important thing is they provide the free lodging and the free meals and all the things that the families need in order for them to be comfortable while their child is in a hospital. So let's say for instance, all of a sudden your child gets sick and they get airlifted into a hospital, 45 miles away. Um, the house typically located near the hospitals there to support the family while the child is in the hospital and they give them everything from a room with a computer. So if they have to work remotely, they can, um, they have laundry facilities, so they don't have to go back and forth to their house to clean their clothes. They have snacks, they have volunteers who come in and make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for them. So that alleviates the expense for food. Cause think about it. If you have a child in the hospital, you're not only incurring those medical expenses, but you're incurring your living expenses as well. So they provide all those services. So that. The families don't have to think about that. And they can folks focus solely on their children and all this happens because of people who make donations, they are completely funded by people who open their hearts and, and want to support these families who have sick children. It's an amazing, amazing organization. And in addition to that, they also have what are called Ronald McDonald family rooms. So these are rooms that are located in the hospital and it's usually near the NICU. So the neonatal intensive care unit. And they're actually, they're exactly what it sounds like a family room. And so you, you basically walk into this Oasis that looks completely different than a hospital waiting room. And there are bedrooms there, and there are snacks and drinks and food and computers, just so that you can escape kind of the blinking, sterile environment of the NICU and just decompress. And so we have those in, um, several hospitals throughout Austin, and then they also help families who have, unfortunately lost children. We have a program called the healing hearts program and it supports family through, burial assistance as well as, bereavement support. So they do quite a bit.

Gene: 7:21

Yeah, that's definitely more than, than what I've heard.

Tina: 7:24

It's a pretty amazing organization when I. When I first, um, found the opportunity there, I had no idea what they did. All I saw was that they, you could donate at McDonald's. I had absolutely no idea, and they serve millions of families across the world. They're everywhere, millions and millions of families, because children get sick or get an accident every day.

Gene: 7:47

And you were there for how long?

Tina: 7:49

I was there for almost six years, almost six years. And I still do work for them occasionally. Um, they will forever be my, um, forever charity and I, I actually wrote their gratitude report last year for them. So I do help them out occasionally. Nice, nice. Yeah. It's really cool organization. I would, I would definitely recommend people check them out for sure.

Gene: 8:11

Yeah. Hopefully people won't need to use them.

Tina: 8:14

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I met so many wonderful families there and the gratitude that they have for having this service there, because when your child is sick, you can't think of anything else other than, Oh my gosh, I want my, my, my child to get better and to have the support service is amazing. So I, I have interviewed, and I have filmed so many different families to tell their stories, to get people, to support the house. And it's just, the gratitude is just, it's amazing, but it's really, it's down to the people who make the donations that make that happen. People give to people and, um, the people who have supported, uh, Ronald McDonald house charities. They're just amazing. Amazing.

Gene: 8:56

So where you now, you, before you moved to Austin, you moved here from Florida, right?

Tina: 9:04

Yeah. I lived in Florida, Florida for 15 years

Gene: 9:07

and

Tina: 9:07

we're in Florida. I lived in Boca Raton.

Gene: 9:11

Boca. I've never been to Boca. I've mostly been to the Miami area and up North on the Atlantic coast, what's Boca like,

Tina: 9:21

well, did you ever watch Seinfeld? Cause they used to make jokes all the time that all the old people moved to Boca.

Gene: 9:27

That's about the only impression of Boca that I have. So do you want to correct that? Yeah, there's

Tina: 9:32

a lot of families out there a lot. Um, it, it, it is like living in a place where you're on a perpetual vacation, cause we are five, five minutes from the ocean or excuse me, five miles from the ocean. And it is, it is beautiful almost all the time. And it was lovely. I raised both of my daughters there and had, um, We had a really nice environment and a nice community. And the only thing we would complain about is in November, you would see all the trucks arriving with the cars from New York. And it was all of the re retired people coming to spend from November to may in Boca. And when that happened, you knew all the restaurants would be flooded. All the stores would be flooded. And so that was the big joke is that we hated seeing those car trailers with all the New York license plates.

Gene: 10:19

So they were shipping the cars down and then flying down. Oh

Tina: 10:22

yeah. And they would stay, they had, they had homes there for the winter. And so they would stay for six months because they were escaping the cold, but it clogged everything. So yeah, I was just kind of what we had to deal with, but it was, it was a really nice environment. And that's how I actually got into nonprofit communications as I started working for them. I'm a really small non-profit organization that helped low income children. And I worked there for several years and then I went and worked for a charitable foundation that actually set up, um, uh, charitable funds for people in order to make donations to different nonprofits.

Gene: 10:59

And what were you doing before the chair role board?

Tina: 11:02

Oh, goodness. Well, I was, I was a stay at home mom for many years, but prior to that, I was in financial marketing. I actually worked at a bank in Chicago and I glamorized, I like to say this, I glamorize checking accounts at the time. So, but I, I actually launched mutual funds and a marketing campaign. I launched credit cards and a marketing campaign, and that's really where I got most. I got all my experience in marketing and communications was in the financial industry. That's kind of boring, boring, grew up in Chicago, right in Northwest Indiana. Yeah. But I actually lived in the city for several years.

Gene: 11:36

So you grew up in Northwest Indiana. So were you driving down Chicago as a teenager?

Tina: 11:42

Not as a teenager? No, but I started working for the bank when I was 20. So I worked at the cable news place before, and then I started working at the bank when I was 20 and they actually, um, put me through school. They actually paid for my, my education. I got my degree while I worked full time and I went to DePaul university and so they had complete tuition reimbursement, and I wouldn't have done it. I mean, they were my biggest cheerleaders, um, and encouraged me to go back to school. And I, I didn't come from a family that was college educated, so they didn't really necessarily, uh, encourage me to do that. But once I got into that environment, it was, it was great. It was great. And I would have never done it. And so I got my degree when I was 29.

Gene: 12:26

now, When you were in Chicago or you were working at the bank, were you living in Chicago as well? At that point then?

Tina: 12:34

Yeah, I was living in Chicago. I was having a lot of fun. I was single and living in the city.

Gene: 12:39

And Chicago is a fun city. I I've been there a lot of times when I was young. there's a lot of activity. There's a lot to do. but it also is a city that, gets fricking cold in the winter with the wind coming off the Lake, or even in the fall for that matter. I remember that you

Tina: 12:57

just though, you just, you just buy the appropriate outerwear and you just deal with it, you know, because nothing stops like here in Austin when it snowed and the whole city just shut down that people would in Chicago would laugh at the snow that happened in, in, uh, Austin, because you just, you just trudge through it and you just, you deal with it.

Gene: 13:16

the rest of my family lives all still up North and everybody was literally laughing. They weren't laughing at the power outage, but they were laughing in the snow.

Tina: 13:25

Yeah. We're not, we're not equipped here, but

Gene: 13:27

but I will say like for myself, when I moved South, when I moved to Texas years and years ago, I really kind of lost that, ignoring the cold and dealing with the cold kind of feeling like I actually feel the cold when it hits down to the fifties now. And so I've acclimated to the warmth. have, have you noticed that, especially having lived in Florida for a long time,

Tina: 13:53

I haven't because I run really warm. Now, the older I get the warmer I get. So for me to go out when it's 50 degrees, I typically don't have a coat on, but what's interesting is Adam gets super cold when it's 50 degrees. So I think the same thing has happened to him. That's happened to you. Yeah. He just, he can't tolerate the cold at all. Where for me, it's kind of, because I run so warm that it's actually a really, for me.

Gene: 14:18

I have been to the Seattle area where my parents live my kind of running joke, not really a joke with them is I will only visit in August because every other month is too fricking cold. So I've gotten pretty bad in terms of the being around cold places. Although I have to say when the power was out for three days here, maybe it was the adrenaline pumping through the system, but I really, didn't feel all that cold, even though it dropped down to 46 degrees inside the house. Oh my

Tina: 14:53

gosh. Hmm, Hmm. Yeah, it didn't, it didn't get that cold in our house and it was not, it was not unbearable to me for me at all

Gene: 15:03

at all. Well, you got to know your place the whole time too. Yeah, we

Tina: 15:07

had our, yeah, we had our gas fireplace going, so we were we're comfortable. It wasn't bad. The, the bedroom was, was cold because it has two outer walls, but the main portion of the house was we were fine. We were, we were cooking by candle light and we had our gas stove and. We've we fared, well, we didn't have any problems with our, with our water, so we didn't lose water. We didn't break any, no pipes burst or anything like that. So we, we got lucky because a lot of our neighbors had huge

Gene: 15:34

issues. Yeah. I remember that some of your neighbors had their heaters break. Yeah.

Tina: 15:39

Yeah. And it took weeks for them to get it fixed. So I don't know what they, I don't know what they did. So we, we fared really well, but it's just interesting to see to me going back to, with nobody's driving nobody's out on the roads and in Chicago, I mean, I remember walking through two feet of snow to get to from the train to my job. I mean, it was just, you just prepared for it and you did it

Gene: 16:03

just plow on through. Yeah, exactly. Well, I've always said that. I think it's a lot better for children to grow up in the North because you get to see all four seasons. You, you get a better appreciation for nature and you get to build snow forts. Yeah, there you go. I can't imagine a kid growing up in Austin or Florida that doesn't get exposed to any of that. I don't think they've got a complete, experience, complete childhood at that point.

Tina: 16:33

I agree. I agree. And don't totally agree, but yeah, Chicago was fun. I, I, I have a daughter who is up there now. She's going to be moving to Maine next month, but she's been in Chicago for a year. Um, and she, she didn't get to experience the city like I did, um, because of, um, the coronavirus and everything being locked down. Yeah. But she realized that she's not an urban, she's not an urban girl where I always felt like I was an urban girl. I love the energy of the city. I loved meeting people. I loved, um, walking around and just experiencing different things where she's, she's much more of a nature girl. So she's gonna, Maine is very fitting for her to be there.

Gene: 17:12

So one in New York, what the Maine.

Tina: 17:15

Yeah, two ends of the spectrum. So I have one who's so connected to nature, the one who's moving to Maine. And then I have my urban girl in the city who is just thriving and loving it. So two ends of the spectrum, for sure. Yeah. But you know, it adds a lot of, lot of flavor and color into my world, so I appreciate it, but

Gene: 17:35

both on the East coast though. That's interesting.

Tina: 17:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So, and I'm, I'm sure that if, if, uh, if I want to see them, I'm going to have to make the Trek out there and I doubt that they're going to come to

Gene: 17:45

Austin maybe in the middle of winter. Yeah.

Tina: 17:52

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. So

Gene: 17:54

yeah. Having grown up in Indiana and in near Chicago, have you noticed the way that I have just so much nicer Midwesterners there. Oh

Tina: 18:08

for sure. And I hear it all the time. So I work part time at a retail store and people, people recognize my accent. Like I don't realize that I have an accent, but they recognize that, I guess, especially when they say Chicago, um, and they immediately Midwesterners gravitate toward Midwesterners and we're just nice people. We're nice people. Um, but yeah, for sure, especially having lived, especially having lived in Boca Raton and, um, and a lot of my friends, um, have moved from New York or lived in New York. And so I have a lot of really good friends, but the difference in terms of the approach and personality is, yeah, it's, it's completely different. Yeah. So Midwestern people are nice. I mean, and people who meet my sisters, my sisters come and visit me all the time and they, they love them because they're funny and they're, uh, they're just outgoing and they're warm. And yeah. So

Gene: 19:06

I wonder if that type of persona, at least in Minnesota is going to go away because clearly Minnesota, his reputation lately is not very friendly.

Tina: 19:17

I know it's really sad. Where Minnesota did you live?

Gene: 19:20

I grew up in the third ring suburbs. So we were in, on the border of cow fields, half a mile from where I grew up, but we were in the house. We were in new developments out, up there. And then, when I moved away from my parents' house, I wanted to be in the city. Of course. So I moved into Minneapolis And then I lived there, I guess, about four or five years. And then I realized the suburbs were better. I moved even further out than the, my appearance in the suburbs after that. So I grew up in Bloomington and then went to Minneapolis proper and then, out to a place called Eden Prairie. I don't know how much of a moving there to your, but the Eden Prairie mall is the mall that was used in mall. Rats that's really shot up. You've seen that movie. You've seen the mall that I basically spent most of my teenage years in. They changed the store names, obviously, but that was really funny seeing that model in the movie, cause it's like, Oh my God, this is totally that place,

Tina: 20:23

you know, with, with what's happening up there. It's. It's hard for me to just to discern exactly where a lot of this is happening, because they're doing this broad brush stroke of Minneapolis, you know, and, and it could be confined to a small area. I don't know that it's the whole city. It's hard for me to discern, you know, how widespread the issues are there. I have a friend who I worked with at the house and her family lives in Portland. And I had brought up like, Oh my gosh, Portland is, is a mess out there. And she said, Oh, it's only, it's only confined to a couple, um, uh, uh, blocks. She said, it's not throughout the whole city. It's just a certain area. And so that's what I think about when I think about when I see all the news reports happening up in Minneapolis, like they're just brought, like I said, it's a broad brush stroke. It's hard for me to determine how widespread this really is

Gene: 21:14

definitely more widespread me imposed in Portland though in Minneapolis. So Brooklyn Senator, where a lot of the stuff, I guess the writing's been concentrated is, a first ranked suburb, so it's kind of a poor neighborhood, more, minorities live there. Minneapolis, proper, I think it was where the rest went down. That was off Chicago. I believe in Chicago, that whole street is kind of been known for drugs and prostitution. I should say 20 years ago, as of 20 years ago, it was very much a crappy neighborhood. Maybe it's been revised my sense, but that was the case. but having said that I have spoken to some friends that still live up there and when they had, protests. In the weeks following. So not on the day or the day after, but on the weeks following the, those protests, there were protests in a lot of suburbs. Like there were local people organizing to just walking around their neighborhoods, their suburbs, and then, yell at anybody who's white basically. Oh, wow. I know my in fact my ex-wife called me up and she said, Hey, you know how I said that, I didn't wanna take any guns when we got divorced. Yeah. So I need to buy a gun. What should I get?

Tina: 22:37

I'm all for that, for sure. I'm all for this. So

Gene: 22:39

I'm like, Hey, I got a deal. I'll sell you your old gun. So I did. And she actually bought her old gun, which I thought was hilarious. Yeah.

Tina: 22:47

I mean, a lot of people are doing that now a lot. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Gene: 22:52

No, it's not only she buy it, but she went and got her concealed carry almost immediately. Right after selling her, you know, you could have done all this when we were still married.

Tina: 23:01

She has you as a resource to get that done. Well, we

Gene: 23:06

w we parted reasonably amicably, so, it's certainly not the first time that she's reached out to me, but that was pretty funny when she was like, that's her first concern is Oh, you want to get a gun? And because guns are so hard to get right now.

Tina: 23:20

Yeah. As, as, as ammunition

Gene: 23:22

to write, yes. Ammo is extremely hard to get and the prices have just been jacked up, like crazy. Yeah.

Tina: 23:28

Yeah. Well, we, um, when everything started, we went and got gun training cause I really needed formalized gun training, so, and I'd like to do it again. Just, I just don't want to be. I don't want to be caught in a situation and where my adrenaline is so spiked that I get so nervous that I'm not able to follow through. So, but I definitely have a gun in my car, so I just don't want to be, I don't want to shoot myself,

Gene: 23:51

basically. Just remember, anytime you pull a gun out, you gotta yell taser, taser, taser. Yeah.

Tina: 23:57

Yes,

Gene: 23:58

exactly. That's going to be interesting to shit out of everybody. No

Tina: 24:02

kidding. No kidding. Well, it's going to be interesting to see what's going to happen when this verdict comes down. I mean, I just, I feel for the people out there, um, in Minneapolis, I just, I mean, obviously something's going to occur and I just hope that people are, people stay safe,

Gene: 24:17

So my take on Minneapolis, having lived there, but then moved away is that Minneapolis in a lot of ways while all of Minnesota, but in predominantly the twin city area, is very similar to Norway or Sweden. In that these are people that w when I was there, it was like 99% white. It was extremely Norwegian, Swedish, Scandinavian, not a whole lot of, other ethnicities. But anyway, so these people were always very wanting to be helpful and they care about any kind of, Anybody that's downtrodden. they were outwardly very welcoming to all kinds of communities. And I remember when I lived there, there was a big wave of the Hmong population moved to Minnesota. The Mungs were, I guess, from the part of Vietnam that was supporting, the us against the communists. And so there was a huge community that all moved to Minnesota. It was a big enough community that they weren't simply referred to as Vietnamese, but they were referred to as Hmong which is not a country. It was just a really, I read or heard of that. Yeah. Right. Exactly. And, and then in the nineties, I guess, after the U S got into Somalia, there were Somalis that were. Helping the U S whatever side, I don't even know what the hell side of the U S was on, but whatever side of the U S was on, there were locals that were on that side. When the U S left, they, started taking, they're not technically immigrants. They're, what's the other word for it? Refugees, they were taking refugees from Somalia I think what happens is the state basically like grants money for aid, for a certain population of, refugees coming in, something like that, because all of a sudden Minnesota became like ground zero for a whole bunch of Somalis moving in.

Tina: 26:24

Well, that's how Ilhan Omar. Exactly. Yeah. That's exactly right.

Gene: 26:28

Yeah. Well, that's how she ended up in the us. Yeah. So her family and I, I'm. Guessing she was born there in Somalia, but maybe not, maybe she was born in the us but it seems like given her age, I would assume she was born in Somalia. And she was a kid when she came over as a refugee to Minnesota, but there's a huge influx

Tina: 26:53

so that's how she got elected because what she stands for, I don't necessarily agree with a lot of things that she has said or done. So, and

Gene: 26:59

this is the thing that most whites certainly most Americans in general, completely Dillon understand about the majority of the rest of the world is that in other cultures what's important. Isn't your politics, it's your ethnicity. And so you might have people that are more conservative Somalis, you might even have people that are more liberal Somalis and both groups will vote for a Somali. Over anybody else. Who's not a Somali regardless of their politics because of their ethnicity because of their city. Yeah. And again, it's not a color of skin Somalis don't like American blacks, unless they can take advantage of them, which case they're fine. Somalis are very, in of course I'm generalizing like crazy here, but this based on personal experience, like I lived there, I dealt with it. I had a Somali, a limo driver for about five years. So this guy, you know, he's a great guy. I loved, loved having him as a driver. He was a very studious guy. He had a fleet of limos and he worked himself. Like he, you know, he wasn't like the guy sitting in the back of the room, trying to give his illegal buddies jobs, driving. he was in every sense of the word, very entrepreneurial. he was a kid of maybe five, six years old when his parents came to the U S as refugees. And so he was essentially living the American dream and I remember they kind of took over the, the taxi business, in Minnesota who, prior to the Somalis, the Ethiopians had the taxi business, interesting Ethiopians didn't seem to care one way or the other Somalis didn't like, alcohol and, um, dogs. And there was a big brouhaha about how Somali taxi drivers would refuse to pick people up at the airport. If there were carrying any bottles of alcohol with them,

Tina: 28:58

how, how would they know if it's.

Gene: 29:01

Because they're loading and if they saw it, they would say, you're not taking this cab. They pretty much owned the whole cab brackets. So there was nobody to try people. So this is, uh, most, most, uh, Muslim cultures. Don't like dogs, their dogs are seen as a very dirty animal. like you couldn't bring even the little tiny poodle or something with you in the cab if it was during my smiley. I remember the, uh, I think it was the taxi commissioner. Somebody had to essentially tell people they're going to lose their license drive cabs if they don't start picking everybody up. They would refuse to pick up, drunk people coming home from bars because they didn't want the alcohol in their cars. I'd say, well, isn't that half the point of a taxi.

Tina: 29:52

Exactly. It's discrimination. So

Gene: 29:54

yeah, it's totally is absolutely discrimination. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. You moved away from, uh, Indiana and really even Chicago, pretty young in life, right?

Tina: 30:06

Yeah. Let's see when I moved. Oh my gosh. So I've been married three times. So my first marriage was to my high school sweetheart, and I consider that market research. So I don't really consider that a marriage. Um, and I was, I, I was married less than four years and so I, um, it was crazy. We had the whole house in suburbia and the dog and the two cars and, and for me it would just. There was something missing. And I realized that I didn't really have an opportunity to kind of live life. And so I ended up, um, moving to Chicago when I was 25, I was working downtown. I was working in the Wrigley building, which is an absolutely beautiful building right on Michigan Avenue. And I just decided like, I'm done, I'm going to just look for a place. And I would hop on the L and I found, I found my own, my own apartment. And I moved, I moved out of the house and I moved downtown and didn't really know anybody. And everybody I worked with lived in the suburbs. So I basically moved to the city by myself. And it was the best thing that I ever did. I had a fabulous time. And so I lived in all different areas. I lived in Lincoln park. I lived in Wrigleyville. The last place that I lived before I got married. The second time was I lived in a. I'm an old converted church. And I lived in what was the rectory in the back of the church. And, um, we called it the linoleum palace because it was all an Oleum through the whole thing, but it was this fantastic little place and it was unbelievably affordable. And so I lived there while I was single and then I got married and lived closer to downtown and we lived there Oh gosh, for another six years. And then eventually moved to the suburbs, but only lived in the suburbs for a couple of years before we moved to Florida. But I had a lot of fun in Chicago and I'm, I'm proud to say that in 1991, I was one of Chicago's top 60 bachelorettes in the city. Oh,

Gene: 31:59

pretty good on her. Yeah, that was

Tina: 32:00

pretty fun. That was really fun. But I was in marketing and advertising and so I worked with a lot of different newspapers and magazines and it was one of the magazines that I worked with. Um, and the, the guy, the rep that I worked with, he was the one that recommended me to be included in this list. So, you know, that going back to 1991, I'm really dating myself. Um, It was interesting because there were no cell phones. At least I didn't have one at that point. And there was, I don't even think there was email, but I started receiving letters in the mail from people who saw my profile in this publication. So talk about, talk about old school. So that was a lot. Yeah, that was a lot of fun.

Gene: 32:41

So whenever I went to Chicago, I always liked to stay the same place. And I think it's gone through a number of names over the years. Uh, but it used to be called the executive Plaza on Wacker drive right across from the Tribune. And I saw, I would start off every morning from there and the walkout and explore the city, get some coffee, get some breakfast. And Chicago it was a short enough drive from Minneapolis that you could do it without thinking too hard about it. So it was, I guess it was about a four and a half hour drive. that's a bad. Yeah. And then one time I did it in three hours and I got stopped in Wisconsin by a cop, um, for getting tickets for driving over a hundred miles an hour. Oh my gosh. Uh, and lost my Wisconsin driving privileges for five years. Oh yeah. So that was the end of that. My driving trips to Chicago, after that, I just flew. but prior to that, I used to drive there. Pretty cause look, if you're driving in the middle of the night, there's hardly any cars, Wisconsin is just a big blur. I like how you rationalize it. It's totally normal. It's happy doing over a hundred. What the hell? Why not?

Tina: 34:01

Oh, it reminds me of my daughter, my second daughter, when we first moved to Texas, we lived in Waco for, I lived in Waco for less than three months, but while I was there, she, she got caught speeding. She was 16 and she was doing 91 on, um, 35. Uh, yeah. And so she was, they had slapped her with a reckless driving ticket and we about hung her out to dry when that happened, but sort of reminds me of that. Yeah, well that

Gene: 34:29

was, I think that's exactly what my ticket was. It was reckless driving and then it was literally in the middle of Wisconsin, some little Podunk city, uh, halfway between Chicago and Minneapolis. So obviously I didn't drive out for the court visit, which was mandatory court. And by not showing up to court, I effectively, admitted to my guilt or whatever, and that's what ended up, getting rid of my Wisconsin driving, you know,

34:56

you

Tina: 34:56

realize you probably made that cop's day by, by, uh, snagging you, Oh, I'm

Gene: 35:01

sure I did, but I still made it to Chicago in three hours. Well, there you go. So about five miles after that ticket, I was back doing about 110. Oh gosh. So yeah. Well, I'd try like an old man these days, you know, I used to, uh, I used to have a lot more fun driving. Well, I've gotten a few tickets over the years. I have

Tina: 35:22

never gotten a ticket. I haven't never gotten a ticket. Nope. Nope. Oh, I was pulled over once. I had an RX seven. In the eighties and I was driving home from the train station and it was a, it was a loose either a four or five speed. I don't know it was manual. And I had a skirt on. And so, you know, when you're driving a manual transmission, the skirt kind of rides up a little bit. And so as the cop was coming to the car, I was kind of shimmering my skirt down. And I think that's why I didn't get the ticket, but Hey, whatever works.

Gene: 35:53

Yeah. I think that works a

Tina: 35:55

lot, but I know I've never gotten a ticket. I should knock on something. So

Gene: 35:59

When I moved to Austin from Dallas, I got a ticket, right on Riverside for going 45 in the 35. And I was like, Oh, come on. That was like, maybe barely faster than the card next to me. But the cop pulled me over and then I got another ticket literally a month later. going North from here on, I forget what road it is, So got another ticket there and, Oh my God. After two tickets, like, I'm like, okay, screw this. I'm I'm back to buying a Raider detector. Cause I used to have one when I was a teenager and then I kinda, you know, get rid of it or whatever. And then, so after two tickets that were, you know, a couple of hundred bucks a piece. I was like, yep. I'm for a radar detector. And I got one and I knock on wood. I haven't had the tickets since I got

Tina: 36:46

detector. That's good. Now you can't even find a cop to help you. Oh yeah. That's a good point. I guess you don't really need them when nobody's available. So you could probably speed all you want and you'd be okay. Can't find anybody. So

Gene: 36:59

that's a good point. I've seen a lot more firetrucks in cop cars lately. You

Tina: 37:03

can't find them. Not at all. You know, I've seen so many, cause I I'm really big on Twitter because I'm really pushing this prop B to get the camping ordinance, um, rescinded. Uh, but I, I, so I'm on Twitter and I'm connected to the Austin community and I've seen several times how there's been something where an officer is needed and it says, officer unavailable, I've seen several times I've seen that, which is kind of scary. So I that's hence the reason why so many people are going out and buying their own guns. Oh yeah,

Gene: 37:33

yeah, no, it's definitely happening and literally the most basic reason for having a government in the first place is defense defense from the outside and defense from the inside. That's where it starts. And everything else is just a slap on, on top of that. I think both you and I are big fans of Tim Poole and on yesterday's show, he was talking about, and I think pissing some people off by saying that if this verdict comes down as guilty in Minneapolis, then Minneapolis cops need to quit because it is skinned to be unsafe, to be a cop in Minneapolis.

Tina: 38:16

What about all the, what about all the civilians? What happens

Gene: 38:19

then? Well, the civilians got to elect the politicians that have no balls. And so they get what they elected, which is no police protection.

Tina: 38:31

That, that is

Gene: 38:34

so that's Tim's point. And I got to say, I mean, he was saying it's very, a very emotionally and very strongly, I'm not quite there to the level that he is, but I have to kind of agree with them. At which point do you stop saving people from themselves? And so, yeah,

Tina: 38:58

I'm kind of, I don't know. I, I guess if you're fully armed and you can protect your family, Um, but there are many people that aren't and many people who will be victims. And so is that, is that his point is that he needs, they need to see all of the victimization in order to kind of knock the census back into them. I don't, you know, I don't know, to me that's a scary prospect, but I also understand what he's saying as well. Yeah.

Gene: 39:24

To me it feels sort of like, you're going to go camping with a guy that's going to keep you away from the wolves and the bears. And the first thing that happens is you decide to take a vote as a group of campers to say, yeah, uh, we're not going to pay this guy anymore because we don't see him providing anything beneficial to us. Would it make sense for the guide to keep just still keeping you safe? Or should the guy just say, okay, shrug his shoulders and say, all right, it's up to you guys. Do whatever you want.

Tina: 39:59

So, is he getting a lot of pushback

Gene: 40:01

on that? Well, if he wasn't in the show, I think I'm agreeing with him from a few folks, but he was definitely getting some strong pushback. Ian was being in and completely, saying, no, you can't do that. And you gotta keep people safe. But I don't know, man, I can't think of any example in any position where people don't want you there, but you still stay there to help the people that hate you.

Tina: 40:31

Yeah, but do you think that that is a universal thought? You think everybody feels that way? I mean, what about the family that has little kids? What about the family that brought home a newborn baby? Do you think they feel that way? I mean, it's easy for me. My daughters are grown now. It's just me and Adam. But to think of the vulnerability of those families, well, the

Gene: 40:50

point is at which point are you okay with letting people feel the consequences of their actions? And you could say, well, all it takes is 51% to vote somebody in that's true. But I also know in Minneapolis, those elections are not close, There are a lot of areas where people are voting for politicians that do more lip service than they actually have their interests at heart. I got to agree with Tim, the only way to teach those people that they're being idiots is to let them suffer the consequences of being idiots and then somebody, yeah. If somebody else's unfortunately living in the same area, I mean, I left,

Tina: 41:36

you know? Yeah. And I, and I, I see what you're saying, but at the same time, even if it's 51% that elected those people in there, what about the other 49 then? But if

Gene: 41:44

it was, but I'm saying it's not even close. It's like 80 to 20. Oh. It's like the majority, certainly some people vote against the current. Liberal politicians in Minneapolis, but it's going, it's been going further and further to the left, partly because it had this policy of wanting to help anybody that needs help in terms of refugees. And when the refugees get there, they, they vote for their own, they don't really vote for particular type of politics. Right. So I kind of feel like with a lot of these cities with Portland, with Seattle, with Minneapolis, do you

Tina: 42:25

think that's happening? Do you think a lot of the police are walking away in those cities?

Gene: 42:31

Some have been re there's definitely been much higher rates of retirement early retirement than there has been, but there hasn't been a mass Exodus at this point and I kind of see

Tina: 42:42

this. Yeah. What do you think about, uh, uh, Product companies who are virtue signaling to defend the police. What do you think about that? Oh,

Gene: 42:51

that's great topic. Yeah. So I'm in a process of updating the list of companies to not do business with that. Adam's maintaining because I was asking him questions about the list and he says, great. Now you can update it. I was like, okay, I guess I got volunteered.

Tina: 43:09

Um, yeah, Instagram yesterday, you know, seventh generation, you know, that cleaning product it's um, It's an, I guess, a natural cleaning product. And they had posted on Instagram that they didn't support to defund the police and the comments that they got, which were mostly negative and people were just, I'm not buying your product anymore. And the hashtag go woke, go broke. I mean, they got major backlash and I really hope, I think there's collective power and people saying, fuck that I'm not doing that. I'm not buying your product and really affect them where it hurts them the most. And I really hope that people collectively do that.

Gene: 43:49

Absolutely. I think that it has to happen. I think for far too long, the left has been using this strategy and nobody on the center or rights has bothered. I think the last time I remember somebody on the right, trying to go after a business. Uh, was Al Gore's wife during the eighties for the music business. And then it was like, that was literally the last time that there was, uh, somebody pushing from the right to actually focus on targeting businesses. The left's been doing this for the last 25 years where they don't like something. They go after a company, they threatened them and then the company puts out a press release, acknowledging or even worse, supporting some, weird wacky far-left position. So, yeah, I think company, well, there's two things. First answers companies need to get out of politics. First of all, they have no business being in politics because in my opinion, as soon as the company starts pulling out, putting out political statements, they need to have their entire income treated. As a PAC as a political action committee, because they're acting on behalf of a certain political party at that point. And we need to start reviewing them in that manner. now obviously that hasn't been happening. There's very little chance of that happening, but that's my personal take is that as soon as the company expresses a political opinion, I don't care which side you're acting like a PAC, not like a, a business. So any kind of exemptions that you have, that a pack wouldn't have need to go away. But also I think it's very dangerous because you're guaranteed to be polarizing half your customers. Well,

Tina: 45:32

that's like what Michael Jordan said, you know, he said, what'd he say, um, Republicans buy my shoes too. So, and I think that a lot of these organizations that make these virtual signaling statements a lot more

Gene: 45:44

assumes, it's done Democrats. Yeah. It's, she's a very expensive.

Tina: 45:48

But isn't it with corporate America. Doesn't, isn't it a very incestuous, um, environment where they donate to the politician and then they have their lobbyists and then they, you know, hold the politician to account, to, to pass whatever legislation that that is deemed in their favor. Isn't it very cyclical and ancestry.

Gene: 46:06

Yes. I think here's the difference. Historically, companies have donated fairly equally to Republican and Democrat politicians, but to local politicians. So essentially companies have tried to get something from the government by supporting whoever is elected. So whether it's a Republicans who elected or a Democrat elected, they, they donate money to their local winner. In order to gain some particular favors from that person, whether it means tax breaks or whether it means a contract for rocket parts for NASA or whatever it is. That was the model for many, many years, because the influence you're trying to buy, isn't the influence to change people's minds. It's the influence to get some government contract. And that's a very different now I'm not saying that that's great either. Like, ideally that wouldn't happen at all, but that's very different from Delta airlines, going out on record and talking about elected politicians who passed a law, that you have to have a majority to pass, are doing evil and horrible things. So they effectively have broken this covenant between politicians and companies, where the companies giving money to local politicians. The local politicians tried to give them something what's the net result. Literally one day later, Atlanta politicians now are looking at putting a bill out that strips Delta of tax breaks. Oh boy, you guys just have to stick your foot in your mouth. Didn't yet. So

Tina: 47:51

yeah, it's just like with the major league baseball to moving, I'll start the all-star game. I mean, it's like cutting your nose off to spite your face

Gene: 47:58

to happen with that, right? Yeah,

Tina: 47:59

exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And they hurt the people. Th th the most who they want to protect, which is just, yeah.

Gene: 48:07

So major league baseball decided to move that game from a city that is 80% black, right. To a city that is 20% black by saying that we support black people while you can just fired a whole bunch of black people by doing that. But, and

Tina: 48:22

you just took, you took income away from people that need it, that you, that you are supposedly supposed to support. It

Gene: 48:28

makes absolutely. But you saw what the end result is going to be. Right. so there's a bill now, to strip major league baseball of antitrust protection, which they've had for a hundred years. Um, so what does that mean? This is, typical bullshit. The government had their business doing in the first place, which is creating special exceptions for their friends. So if Emma would be, gets stripped of the anti-trust protection, then not only does it mean that there could be other baseball leagues that pop up to challenge them, but it looks like there's 28 co-sponsors to that bill.

Tina: 49:07

What Tim. So it's going to, it's going to be presented to the

Gene: 49:09

house. Uh, so it's, uh, it's starting in the Senate actually.

Tina: 49:16

Yeah. Yeah.

Gene: 49:17

but it's clearly a result of major league baseball, getting all political and whoop. Yeah.

Tina: 49:23

Along with a lot of other, yeah. A lot of other entities. Um, I was saying to Adam this morning with this whole thing, that's happening in Austin with the camping ordinance and property and how it's the, um, the ability or the mechanism to change it. It's kind of a grassroots kind of groundswell. And I really believe that, and I hope that it passes it'll show. It'll show many in communities and you know, outside of Austin, how much power we really do have, if we collectively come together as a group and say, no, we're not going to do this. This is not right. And I really hope that that message. I hope that it passes. I think that it will, but I hope that message gets out that people realize that the problem.

Gene: 50:11

Yeah. When is that up on the, on the

Tina: 50:13

list. Now you can go vote now. Oh, it's on right now. Oh, I didn't realize it vote. Yes. On prop

Gene: 50:19

one when there's, how many people realize that that vote is happening right now.

Tina: 50:22

Oh yeah. I'm all over Twitter on it. Big time. All over. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's just devastating. So anyway, my point is, is that with regard to like seventh generation or major league baseball or Delta, or even down to this cap, camping ordinance, the power ultimately rests with us. The people who have to endure this each and every day. And I would hope that people understand that and realize that they do, they do have a choice to change things.

Gene: 50:50

Oh, yeah. prepositions are one way to do it. The other one of course is to, make sure that you actually vote for somebody that you want an office that you don't just not go vote at all. because you're not sure who to vote for. It's pretty easy to get up to speed. And I guarantee you that one of the two people on the ballot is closer to your political views than everybody else. And then the other thing I just want to remind people is it's not just voting. If you have the interest and the time to do it, get involved in the political system itself, volunteered or even get a job. Cause there are paying jobs that they, put out a job ads for every election cycle, to be in the election judge. you can be an observer observers are voluntary. Judges are usually paid positions, get involved in, in whatever political party. you're interested in, if you get involved in the libertarian party, it's just the waste of time, but you're welcome to do it. Um, I can say that because I was pretty involved in the libertarian party in my twenties, and it was a nice waste of time, but, and honestly the Republican party's kind of a waste of waistline too, but nonetheless, by being able to be involved, you get to make a lot of the choices that ended up happening. So it, you do have one day each election cycle, or nowadays, I guess it's even more than one day in most places to make a difference. but. It's not the only way to make a difference. The only thing to make a difference. So tell people more about this prop. So what is this camping thing you keep talking about?

Tina: 52:26

Well, proposition B is a, um, is being up for vote to rescind the camping ordinance. So two, about two years ago, the Austin city council approved for the unhoused to be able to camp basically anywhere they want. Um, th that's how it started out and they start except in front of city hall, how convenient. And then these tents just started popping up everywhere, like on the corners in downtown Austin. And they, they changed the language and I wasn't as, um, in tune to it back then, but they changed the language where they, they put some stipulations where they couldn't, couldn't where they could and could not camp. And, um, basically though they are able to camp underneath the, uh, highways. Um, they are camping all along Cesar Chavez, which is downtown in Austin and along the trail, um, which is a trail that I used to walk all the time when we had out, um, out of town visitors, we would go cause it's beautiful. And now. They're camping in the trees and in the woods. And to me, it's just unsafe because they're very unpredictable. Um, because it's not just a housing issue, it's a mental health issue too. They're on our side of the neighborhood, as you've seen all along the swale in, um, not the swale, the median, yeah. On Riverside drive. It is, it looks like a third world country. It is the garbage and the it's just it's, it's such an eyesore. Um, my sister was just here this weekend and she couldn't believe it. She hadn't been here for 18 months. She could not believe the destruction that's happened as a result of allowing them to camp everywhere. So anyway, this property is up for vote to resend the camping ordinance that would make it. It would make it unlawful for them to just camp anywhere. So, and I just think a broader strategy needs to be done. It's not just because to me, this just affects the constituents, the taxpaying, um, constituents that if you leave your garbage can out, you're going to get fined, but yet you have people who can just live and throw garbage everywhere. Um, it's just, it's an unfair on equitable, um, uh, decision that they made. So hopefully it'll, hopefully I have my fingers crossed. It looks like it's going to go that way, because I read today that the mayor was a little concerned that, uh, that it was going to pass because you know, that's a big Mark on him.

Gene: 54:46

And when is our first opportunity to get rid of the mayor,

Tina: 54:50

right? Uh, is that this year? Every it's it's no, it's it's, he's got two more years. Yeah. Cause he's off, he's off, he's off from the presidential election. So he's just been awful. He is awful. How

Gene: 55:05

long has he been there? I thought he was only a, he's been mayor for like four years

Tina: 55:09

now. No the second term. So I think he's two years

Gene: 55:13

until the second.

Tina: 55:15

Yeah, I know. I think Adam was he Adam voted for the flame thrower. What was his name? I forget what his name was. He wanted to give all the police flame throwers. So, so hopefully yes, hopefully it'll pass it just because it's just number one. It doesn't serve the people who are homeless because it's not giving them the support services they need, because it's not just housing. It's, it's a coordinated effort. And so it's not serving them and it's not serving the constituents who have to see this and are dealing with the increased crime. And when you're stopped, when you're at a stoplight and people approach your car and you tell them to leave and they don't leave and they're harassing you. And I mean, it's just, it's not good for anybody. They need a definite big, definitely need a new strategy.

Gene: 56:01

Oh, absolutely. And I think it's made the city way, way less safe. and it's, it's turning. What was a large town into a crappy city. And that was one of the things that I liked about Austin when I moved here now 10 years ago or so, is that it was still a small town. It was not a city. It had a downtown area for sure. And it had a lot of, ambitions like a city, but it acted a lot more like a town. aside from the thing that I I'm sure people are getting tired of me talking about how parking used to be$2 on the street and you can find parking to now. It's$10 minimum anywhere for 15 minutes and most places. Yeah. And good luck finding it. Most places, the only option is Valley and Valley is going to run the 20 bucks.

Tina: 56:58

We just, we were just downtown on Sunday. We went to dinner and I had to park in a parking lot and my options were one hour per$7 or three hours for 20. That was my only two options. Yeah, it's crazy.

Gene: 57:13

It's still not quite Chicago level prices. I remember in the nineties going to Chicago and I was a little surprised by$20 parking for three hours, but, that's right rights, uh, in the middle of the city, a couple of blocks from the water. So you expected there, but in Austin? No, I think Austin has gotten ridiculous and it's gotten more expensive and dirtier and more unsafe all at the same time.

Tina: 57:44

And didn't, they defund the police budget and didn't, they reduce it by

Gene: 57:47

a hundred. He did. They reduced the police budget and then decided to spend that money on something related to giving homeless people more services. Yeah. so yeah, I mean that, I also think now I have no proof of this, but I suspect, because where the hell these people come from that a lot of the homeless population currently in Austin moved here as a result of the policy.

Tina: 58:14

Yeah.

Gene: 58:15

I don't know because other Texas cities don't have policies like that.

Tina: 58:19

Cause Dallas doesn't have this kind of problem. Do they know?

Gene: 58:23

Certainly didn't when I was there, last time I visited, it was very clean. It was there's no tents, anywhere Fort worth was always known for having cops that just beat up homeless people. Oh. Like that was a known thing that they will pick up anybody that looks like they're just wandering around and then drive them out to outside the city limits. And back in the day, they'd rough you up as well. So you don't come back. Yeah. There's right now, somebody asked me the other day, the homeless people coming here from California, and I kind of laughed at it. And then I thought, well, I don't know. Maybe they are, maybe everybody else is coming here from California. Maybe they're bringing some homeless people along with them in their luggage. Exactly. Make sure it feels that

Tina: 59:08

way. I would just like to see a better strategy of helping them. Obviously, a lot of them have, um, mental issues and substance abuse problems. And I don't see anything being addressed with that in that regard. I, I see that they're trying to buy all these old hotels and trying to convert them, which I think is a, just a disaster in the making. And they're thinking, and I'm referring to the city council, then housing is going to solve the issue. And I just. After learning more about mobile loaves and fishes, which Adam interviewed Alan Graham, who was the CEO. They're the ones that have the community first village. It takes the whole community. It takes them, uh, the ability to belong to a community and to rehabilitate them, not just give them housing. And so I just, the city has just wasted so much money, so much money, and it's, it's been devastating for the community. I

Gene: 59:58

just think we need to maybe instead of throwing money away, the way we have been, just build a new mental asylum.

Tina: 1:00:06

And that's the big thing. There are no mental health services. There are none I know. Yeah.

Gene: 1:00:12

Yeah. because there's certainly been plenty of. things that have been made fun of mental asylums and movies, like one flew over the Cuckoo's nest. Talk about the, that, and then the wolves that Angelina and jelly movie, grown through up to that also showed the negative side of, somebody in the mental asylum. But for the most part, if you compare life on the street with drugs to life in a mental asylum, I think most of these people actually would be better off living in a mental asylum.

Tina: 1:00:47

Hmm. Yeah. It'd be more structured environment. Yeah. To me,

Gene: 1:00:51

it would be safer. I mean, these guys are fighting each other. they're getting bad drugs and overdosing. you're basically taking people that are for the most part incapable of providing for themselves. And you're saying here, just go camp and live outdoors on your own with no support. Right, right. That is absolutely the wrong approach. That, that might seem to be a, maybe a libertarian type approach to where, you're, you're just letting people fend the Fern themselves, but, but they're not living just by themselves. They're fending for themselves in the middle of a society that is trying to get work done and go grocery shopping and raise children.

Tina: 1:01:37

I would be interested in knowing like, what is the common denominator that, um, That resulted in the homelessness. Like, what is it? Is it lack of family, a two-parent family? Like, what is it? Is, are there any studies out there that address that? Like, what is the

Gene: 1:01:54

common blink? The one that I saw was about a two hour documentary on Seattle and their answer to that question was drugs, a good chunk, not a majority necessarily, but a good chunk of the people that they had interviewed had a very normal lives. they went to college, they got married. They were, like they're not coming from a trailer park. they are very much normal middle America. And then somebody got a drug addiction, whether it was through prescription drugs, whether that was through street drugs, whatever way that drug addiction refocuses your mind. To crave the drug above everything else. And that's when the family falls apart, the job disappears, the supposed structure goes away. And the only thing you're left with is completely disregarding your body and only thinking about your next hit. Oh,

Tina: 1:02:59

wow. Hmm. Thank you. Big pharma.

Gene: 1:03:03

we've had drugs for a lot longer than we've had pharma, drugs have been with humans. some would say that the reason that humans, split off from the great apes, millions of years ago was because we were the apes that were eating rotten apples, which had alcohol. No, we were the apes that were munching on mushrooms. that were essentially the, were the drug abusing apes as a whole species. Now, I don't know if I quite buy into that, but it is interesting. It's an interesting idea because we certainly have managed to, to utilize poisons, like alcohol, like tobacco, like virtually every drug that's in existence. these are all substances that are poisonous and by poisonous, I mean that they change the normal function of our body to something that is abnormal. Now you could say we all alcohol makes me feel good. Yes. Getting poisoned sometimes does make you feel good. Maybe a little bit, of a cyanide will also make you feel yeah, exactly. Right? Yeah. In the right dose, you never know. How much cocaine totally makes you feel good, but how much cocaine does it take before your heart stops? Right, right. Not much. It's in milligrams, you know, it's, it's not announces. So we, as a species tend to be abusers of ourselves, way more so than any other animals on planet. But also historically the people that went too far in that direction, they, they took a Darwin award. They died off, they didn't reproduce, they, they didn't teach their children to keep doing the same thing. This is how we get onto one of my controversially favorite topics, uh, which is, eugenics, which is if you look at what humanity has been doing. Ever since the rise of modern medicine we have essentially been preventing people from Darwinism themselves. We have been creating a gene pool that ignores problems that people have mental problems in this case is what I'm talking about. And then, allows these people to, not only just keep on living and having an impact on society, I E voting but also having children that have similar genetic illnesses afterwards, our solution has been to just medicate everybody's kids. I'm not saying all these kids should be dead, but what I am saying is the fact that 45% of all children in America today are on some sort of a mood altering drug prescribed. Not, not like buying drugs off the street. These are their parents and doctors putting half of America's children on drugs to help them cope with life. And that is the end result of modern medicine, not allowing the natural evolutionary process of people that are born with particular mental, differences that make it difficult for them to live in a society. So by providing houses, by providing food to people, you're sustaining their physical bodies, but doing that at the cost to all of society. I think eugenics means that you want to maintain and enhance the ability of humanity to last a long time. You know what I mean, when I say, Darwin themselves, right? I believe so. Yeah. There's a Darwin award that is given out every year for people that die in the most, crazy and amusing ways that they themselves cause. So basically people doing stupid shit. And so that's called the Darwin award and that's what I'm referring to is that we've been creating a society that effectively takes people that want to jump off a building. And instead of letting them jump off a building and then kill themselves and not hinder society with other stupid things they might do in the future, instead of doing that, we're just sticking a whole bunch of mattresses underneath them. Whenever they try to jump off a building and we catch them. And then the next time maybe they'll take their girlfriend up there to jump with them. next time they might decide to do something even crazier and Wilder. And we keep trying to keep people alive in spite of themselves. And that's, I think, a major problem in the long run because who we are today as humans, genetically, Is the result of winners, of those genetic races over the last several million years. And in the last hundred years, we've now kept all the losers as well.

Tina: 1:08:18

You think that, you know, the, those mattresses that's represents big pharma? Don't you think?

Gene: 1:08:24

Absolutely.

Tina: 1:08:26

We're not, uh, we're not, uh, uh, healthcare. We don't have a healthcare nation. We have a sick care nation, so just keep, keep everybody sick, keep them alive, but keep them sick.

Gene: 1:08:37

It's simply to prevent death. That's the only goal for pharma. It is not to make any kind of intelligent decisions about life and death. It is simply to prevent death and how that person feels and how they make other people feels completely irrelevant. Yeah.

Tina: 1:08:55

Yeah. I agree. I agree with you. Yep.

Gene: 1:08:58

When I say eugenics, that's what I'm referring to and if you want to watch a movie, maybe you've already seen it. That takes this exact idea that I'm describing to its natural end result conclusion. And that film is Idiocracy

Tina: 1:09:12

I've seen it. Yes. I've seen it.

Gene: 1:09:14

I think they go forward maybe 300 years in the future. Something like that

Tina: 1:09:18

when they're using Gatorade to water the plants,

Gene: 1:09:20

essentially. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Cause it's got electroids what your body needs. Exactly. Yeah. I think it was called, but yeah, there's an old movie. Oh, it is an old movie, but it was done the here in Austin. the guy that, that, made it from here, it, same guy that does, King of the Hill.

Tina: 1:09:41

Oh, okay. I have to watch it again. It's been years since I've seen

Gene: 1:09:44

it. That's a good rewatch. And I think it's actually on HBO rate though. I believe it's like one of their like old movies that they're recycling, but either way easy to find in a lot of people. Like it, there's two cult movies. I think that we find a lot of people, no agenda really like, and, office space and the accuracy are both on that. Yeah. Yeah.

Tina: 1:10:07

I'll have to look at that for sure. For sure.

Gene: 1:10:10

That's the natural conclusion. If you keep allowing people to act stupid and not hurt themselves by acting stupid, not to die by acting stupid, you're just diluting the rest of the population. And eventually what you end up with, like Idiocracy shows is the entire population being stupid. And I think that's kind of where we're going. Yeah. but it's it, but we're talking about stuff that I'm talking about. So we talked about prop two, right? That's what it be. Okay. I remember it. Wasn't the first one. So prop B. So I need to go and vote for, or against it

Tina: 1:10:48

or it for it, Adam and I are going today. Okay.

Gene: 1:10:51

Same place you voted normally, You

Tina: 1:10:53

know, the library that's close. Did we go? We went to that library. That's close to us. Yeah. Same place you can go there. Yeah. There's other, there's other, yeah. There's other props on there that I have to read through, but I'm only voting. Yes. For two of them, prop a and prop B prop a has something to do with the fight or firefighters. And if they get into negotiations to have. Some type of Arbor, a mediator or something. I don't know something similar to that, but everything else I'm voting against,

Gene: 1:11:19

let's get rid of firefighters too while we're at it. No police, no firefighters.

Tina: 1:11:25

No, we need those. So, yeah, so we're doing that today, but I wanted, I wanted to share with you a new venture that I've started with a new friend. So, um, as I mentioned earlier, I worked part time and retail and which I absolutely love cause it's, it's just a fun thing to do to get out of the house and talk to people. And, um, I met a woman there who recently moved from Brooklyn. She and her husband. Got out of New York because they saw what was happening with New York. And, um, she had come into the store and we S we struck up a conversation and she told me about a new, um, idea that she was launching and asked me if I would want to, um, learn more about it. And so of course I jumped on it. Kind of helps me continue to exercise my communication skills. So I like it. And so we're launching this digital platform, hopefully the summer it's called the counter edit. And, um, what we're going to be doing is we're going to be featuring women, um, who are kind of who their norms and their behaviors kind of differ from the mainstream and the cultural norms. So, because if you look at, uh, in the, I'm sure you're not privy to this, but a lot of publications for women tend to be extremely progressive. Not that this is going to be extremely conservative. It's going to be probably more center, but we're trying to feature voices that are not necessarily always so extremely progressive. So, um, I'm starting this venture with her and hopefully it's going to launch this summer. So we're going to feature women from all different walks of life. And we just want to hear about, we want to hear about their life and. But mainly we want to go back to what the whole branding is at the counter edit and talk about, like I said, what those behaviors are that differ from the mainstream cultural norm. So it's yeah. It's, like I said, it's an exciting thing for me to, to exercise my communication muscle and do what I do. Um, what I think I do best, which is writing and interviewing people and, and presenting stories out there.

Gene: 1:13:27

That's a lot of work. So you're, you're going to jump into this, huh?

Tina: 1:13:32

Yeah. We've already started. Yeah, we already have. We have, we've gotten we're, we're working on building the, the, um, the website and we've got the list of individuals that we're going to. Target. We've already got our communications together. Um, we've got our questions together. And so, uh, we have our, I suggested that the person, my friend be the first interview because she's the visionary behind this project. And I think that people need to, to understand why, you know, it was in her heart to launch it. And, um, yeah. And then we got a whole list and we're going to move forward from there. We're going to see what's going to happen. So I'm pretty excited about it.

Gene: 1:14:09

Wow. That's exciting. Absolutely. But as you're talking, I'm just mentally envisioning all the things that are required to kick off for publication, even if it's not a printed publication. Yeah. And that's a, it's going to be a lot of work. Yeah. I've

Tina: 1:14:23

got time. I've got time. I'm ready to do it. Like I said, a little bit, a lot of fun. Yeah, maybe, you know, and th that, then I had said to her, we had spoken yesterday and, um, it needs to get its legs underneath it. And then we need to talk about how we're going to monetize it. So, so we can do it inexpensively, just, you know, through the website and through social media platforms. But yeah, that's going to be the next piece. Once again, it gets its legs underneath it.

Gene: 1:14:49

I think there's a lot of women, especially younger women that are post-college age that are extremely lost right now, because when they look around what they keep seeing is essentially Marxist ideology that negates sex as any kind of a relevant, difference between men and women and encourages them to be activists and to be very vocal about what they're doing. The only counterpoint to that are the ultra conservative far, right. Religious messaging. Like there's literally a hole in the middle right now that says to women, you don't have to be religious to be a mother and a wife like. That's not a prerequisite to doing those things. neither do you do you have to give up being a mother and a wife, and I think that's a very timely topic. So hopefully you guys can fill that void that exists, but I've noticed this myself just from, you know, college students, they're always going to be crazy. That's the way you, that, that that's the post teenage years where you stretch the limits of where your interests and capabilities lie. So you don't expect too much self-control from them. but generally as people start moving through their twenties towards their thirties, early thirties, that's when you really pick a direction for the rest of your life, that you're going to continue expanding energy into. And one of those directions, historically for women has absolutely been. Family and yes, I may not be reading women's magazines. Uh, I do read Conde Nast publications because a lot of them have cooking and food stuff in there. But, I think, just a big hole in my opinion, that didn't used to exist like that. There used to be plenty of magazines, TV shows, movies, et cetera, that dealt with examples of a woman in her twenties, wanting to have a family, wanting to have a husband, wanting to have some solidity in her life, without having to be the 60 hour a week. Workaholic lawyer. Or, you know, CEO or whatever. And I think right now, good luck finding that that's all the messaging is on either one side extreme or the other extreme. Yeah.

Tina: 1:17:34

Hence the counter edit. That's why we're more creating this because we, we realized there was a, he or she realized it's really her vision. She brought me into it, um, that there was a huge void just wasn't there. And so, yeah, I'm pretty, I'm pretty stoked about it. She is. Oh, she works for a, she's a communications professional and she works for a consulting firm, but she. Has been on the same account. She works for Sloan Kettering. She does a lot of work for them right now, um, in all marketing communications. So, and she's very well connected cause she knows a lot of people who in New York and, and throughout the United States and her husband is he's a, um, he is a CEO with a major company. I don't want to mention, um, whom, uh, and he's connected as well. So we have a nice variety of women's voices that we're going to feature that doesn't necessarily tilt in one direction or the other. extremely I should say so. So yeah, so that's my, that's my newest venture. That sounds exciting. And I've done a lot of this and you know, in my, in my job at the house and other nonprofits and to me, it's, it's easy. And what I'm most excited about is seeing it. Being built from the ground up. Cause I've never, I've never done that. I've never done that myself. Uh, I've always walked into an organization that was already established, so it's nice to S to participate in building the house.

Gene: 1:18:59

Oh yeah. Yeah, definitely. And I'm sure you've gotten some osmotic version of that watching Adam with podcasting 2.0

Tina: 1:19:06

yeah, absolutely. Yeah. From the periphery for sure. Yep. So, and I see how jazzed he is about it and how passionate he is. And I feel that way about this project too. So it'll be good experience.

Gene: 1:19:19

Yeah, absolutely. We'll definitely, let me know when, when there's something that's publicly visible when you guys are either releasing your first this year or whatever it is.

Tina: 1:19:30

Yeah. It'd be great for us to tap your brain too, because I know that a lot of this is you have a lot of expertise in the marketing. And women, so, yeah. So it'd be nice to kind of, yeah, we should get together and just kind of tap your brain once it starts to launch. Cause I'm sure you'll have perspectives. Yeah. I'm sure you'll have perspectives that we didn't think of.

Gene: 1:19:57

Yeah, well maybe, yeah, maybe I will. And I'm always, you know, I'm, I'm happy to be involved in whatever, uh, obviously, as you've, entered Adam's life, you and I have started to know each other, as well in the number of occasions and by the way, happy four 20. It is today.

Tina: 1:20:14

I'm sure Adam is outside celebrating right now.

Gene: 1:20:17

I'm not sure he really waited until this day to celebrate. I might celebrate today, as you all know, I'm not one of the we'd variety of folk. well, for two reasons, one, it takes an insanely strong amount of THC to have any kind of impact whatsoever on me. Uh, and the other one is, I like the fact that it produces is not really been useful to me.

Tina: 1:20:44

I told you when my sister was here, I took, uh, 20 milligrams and those that edible, Oh my, I was, I was so. So, hi, I was unbelievable. I've never been that high before. And it was just from 20 minutes. Yes. Well, I don't usually, I don't typically partake. Um, but all my, Oh my goodness. I don't ever remember being like that. And I was like, why would anybody want to feel this way? I just, it was just a little too

Gene: 1:21:14

much for me. Well, I did an, I told you guys, I don't think I've told the listener. So I did an experiment a while ago in, in when I was in Seattle, uh, visiting my parents. I figured, okay. I need to figure out exactly. Do I have any sensitivity to THC whatsoever or not? Because my previous times in Amsterdam, when I've tried, it there've been zero results, like nothing. And so I just bought a whole bunch of edibles and I started ramping up every 12 hours. The dose until I got to about a hundred. Was it micrograms milligrams probably micrograms, whatever it is. It's the 100. Yeah, it's the 100 and 100. I actually started feeling, what I expect other people feel it much lesser dose. Oh

Tina: 1:22:02

my gosh. I would be comatose.

Gene: 1:22:05

Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm sure. And so at a hundred, I was like, okay, well now I'm kind of starting to feel it. So I think I watched a movie or something and then it was on the internet. I D I definitely decided I wasn't going to drive when I had that amount than me, but it wasn't overwhelming for me to really get, I think, to a woozy level. I'd probably need at least one thing. When I've tried it a second time. Uh, just that amount specifically, I think I did a hundred again, and it was like from a single hundred microgram or milligram, whatever the hell that is a lozenge thing. And then I played some video games and I, I was way worse. And I was like, this sucks. What's the point of why do people do this? Like the reaction time becomes slower. Why would you want this? I want that. Not that I would do this, of course, but like cocaine at least has a, does a desirable result. Yeah. It makes you a sharper. It makes it twitchy as well, but it definitely like heightens your awareness. Whereas, THC just seems to put me into a similar state as alcohol, but with a much higher requirements.

Tina: 1:23:15

God I, yeah, for me, I felt like, gosh, I don't even, it's completely different from alcohol. I felt like all of my Mike, my physical functions were covered with vests. I felt like I was just kind of really? Yes.

Gene: 1:23:32

Yes. When was this? This was the day that I was over it. Yeah.

Tina: 1:23:36

Oh, was it, or was it the day before? I don't remember, but I thought that they were only five. I don't know if they're micrograms or milligrams, but I thought they were only five. And so I took one and I'm like, Oh, I've taken 10 before. And I said to my sister, give me another one. And she gave me another one. And then I was, yeah, I was wasted. And I didn't realize until the next day it was,

Gene: 1:23:56

but they were each 20 or they were each from, no, they were each 10. I thought they were, Oh, I didn't even notice it. That was just like, yeah, this is candy.

Tina: 1:24:06

I must be a lightweight. I'm just a lightweight, I guess. Oh my God. I think

Gene: 1:24:10

it all depends. Yeah. I mean, there there's different things that affect people differently. Like, no, I think I've told you this before. It's the Novacane doesn't work on me, Ella doesn't know which I have to always tell the dentist beforehand, because otherwise they're going to assume that they're going to numb my, my jaw with no again.

Tina: 1:24:29

So you, you don't get any Novacane when you have dental work?

Gene: 1:24:33

Uh, well, no, they, they have stronger, uh, substances. The though it's just, uh, Novacane is, you know, it's, it's old and cheap and easy and it works for most people. whereas, for me it like it, I shouldn't say it doesn't work at all. There's a slight numbness, but very slight. Wow. Yeah.

Tina: 1:24:55

Yeah. Interesting. Huh? No, I'll take a, I'll take two dirty martinis over 10, 10. Micrograms of, of an edible any day. Yeah, no, I'm done.

Gene: 1:25:07

Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Yeah, no, I, and I've always been a fan of, of what I've heard other people describing as OPM. So I've always thought, you know, when I'm retired and I'm living in the orient somewhere or something like that, I wouldn't mind starting up in the opium habit.

Tina: 1:25:31

It just opiate. I just remember it like in high school. I remember it being like a tar that you smoked. Is that still the form? Yeah.

Gene: 1:25:39

Okay. High school, what the hell? Wait a minute.

Tina: 1:25:44

My sisters were potheads and I, my high school boyfriend was a hue. I did every kind of drug you could possibly imagine in high school, he was huge into yeah. No. Yeah. My daughter once asked me, she said, mom, um, what trucks did you do when you were younger? I said, why don't we start with what drugs I didn't do when I was younger? Cause that'll narrow it down. Oh yeah. We tried everything, everything. So, so I guess I don't need to do anything

Gene: 1:26:10

anymore. Yeah. What did you try a PCP?

Tina: 1:26:15

I know I did not do that. Okay. I would be

Gene: 1:26:18

surprised if you were still coherent. If you did PCP,

Tina: 1:26:23

this was in the eighties too. So, but I mean, we used to do

Gene: 1:26:26

a PCP has been around since the eighties. I think that's the only time people were doing that shit.

Tina: 1:26:30

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. So no, it was definitely speed. And it was Quaaludes and Coke and acid and mushrooms and uh, definitely weed. Yeah. It was just like, we would just try anything. I mean, we just thought we were invincible when we were younger. Well, that's how

Gene: 1:26:48

it works. Yeah. Yeah. Now that was the time point at which. Humans go through their trials for, Dharma. Yeah. The ones that survive there. He's got some, their genes. They're

Tina: 1:27:00

perfect way to segue that, to

Gene: 1:27:03

close that circle. Yeah. Yeah. Well, this has been fun. I enjoyed it. Chatting with you always and this time round with a microphone in front of our faces, but I think that, uh, I'm sure people will be very interested to hear more about you since you haven't been particularly public about stuff. No. And now you're admitting to all kinds of

Tina: 1:27:25

drug use. Look at that. Oh gosh. I'll tell ya. Yeah. Well, I feel like I have a very enriched history. How

Gene: 1:27:31

about that? Hey, whatever, whatever, uh, you, did it get you to where you are? That's the point.

Tina: 1:27:35

There you go. No regrets. Absolutely. So thank you, Jean. I really enjoyed it

Gene: 1:27:39

as well. Good. Well, I'm glad you did, and I'd love to have you back on at some point, whether it's when you launch your, your first issue or, some other thing comes up, you've been a very, fun and easy guest. And I think we also covered some issues that, are important to both of us actually like the, uh, the homeless population you're not. Yeah.

Tina: 1:28:02

Yeah, definitely. So perfect. All right, well, thank you again.