In this episode of The Joe Rooz Show, Joe discusses the upcoming debut of the "Do No Harm" episode featuring Svetlana Rilkoff and Ezra Healing, a wellness movement focused on patient-centric care and disease prevention. He emphasizes the importance of transitioning to a healthcare model that prioritizes holistic health and wellness.
The first hour features an inspiring interview with guest Damian Bloss, who shares his journey from addiction to redemption. Damian opens up about the trauma of losing a family member to suicide and how it led him to alcohol addiction. Now five years sober, Damian mentors inmates, speaks at rehab facilities, and runs a mental health and addiction recovery group at his church. He discusses the importance of accountability, support systems, and faith in his recovery process. Damian also talks about his book "Breaking the Silence: My Journey from Addiction to Healing," and his commitment to helping others through their struggles.
First hour guest: Damian Bloss
https://linktr.ee/breakingthesilence0424?utm_source=linktree_profile_share
In the second hour, we dive into a fascinating conversation with Dr. David D. Schein, a scholar, attorney, entrepreneur, and public speaker who has significantly influenced leadership thinking in business, governance, and ethics. Dr. Schein shares insights from his extensive career, discussing his transition from corporate law to academia and his passion for addressing leadership failures and civic disconnects in America. He also touches on his books, "The Decline of America: 100 Years of Leadership Failures" and "Bad Deal for America," offering a critical look at U.S. governance over the past century.
Listeners are treated to a delightful exchange between Joe and Dr. Schein as they explore personal interests, including their shared love for cooking and healthy living. The conversation also delves into Dr. Schein's experiences in Washington, his views on the current political landscape, and his vision for America's future. With a mix of personal anecdotes and professional insights, this episode provides a thought-provoking look at leadership and governance in the United States.
Second hour guest: Dr. David Schein
www.claremontmanagementgroup.com
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschein/
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Special thanks to:
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Executive Producer Rosanna Rankin
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Ezra Healing https://ezrahealing.com
(00:01:01) Introduction to the Joe Ruse Show
(00:01:48) Upcoming Changes and Announcements
(00:02:36) Introduction to Ezra Healing
(00:06:18) Guest Introduction: Damian Bloss
(00:06:58) Damian Bloss' Journey Through Addiction
(00:17:36) Turning Point and Seeking Help
(00:26:41) Advice for Those Struggling with Addiction
(00:37:48) Writing and Mentoring: Giving Back
(00:50:59) Living a Fulfilling Sober Life
(01:03:44) Introduction to Dr. David Shine
(01:07:59) Dr. Shine's Background and Cooking Passion
(01:25:04) Transition from Corporate Law to Academia
(01:45:44) Concerns About U.S. Governance
(02:11:35) Dr. Shine's Vision for America's Future
- Wayne Rankin
- Rosanna Rankin
- Carolina Jimenez
[00:00:58]
Unknown:
Alrighty. Hey, folks. This is Joe Roos. It is nineteen hundred hours on Monday, 08/04/2025, and we are transmitting to you live from the Asylum Studios, broadcasting from the pimple on the backside of Texas, the beautiful city of Eagle Pass, and doing the very best we can to bring you the best quality talk radio we can muster without all the bluster. Welcome to the Joe Ruse Show. Alrighty. Well, folks, I hope you guys are doing alright. Hope you guys had a great weekend, and I hope you're ready for another week. We have a lot to do this week.
We got a bunch of stuff going on here with the show. We got a lot of changes, and programming, and scheduling, and all kinds of stuff. And, hey, folks, do me a favor, let me know. Drop a message in the chat if you could, how the audio sounds to you. I'm trying out, well, not that I'm trying out. Had a little problem with my regular mic, so I went to, my old standby here, my Shure SM seven. And, sounds a little bit different in the cans here. So let me know how it sounds to you. Drop a comment down below if you don't mind. I'd appreciate that. Alright. So, again, we got a lot of stuff going on this week. We got a lot of shows to do. We got a lot of things coming down. Wanna remind you of our show tomorrow, our debut show of the Do No Harm, episode of the Joe Russo. So we're looking forward to that. We'll be with Svetlana Ryilkov and our sponsors over at Ezra Healing. Now, folks, if you don't know who Ezra Healing is or what Ezra Healing is, Ezra Healing is a substantial part of the new wellness paradigm currently being born in North America and around the globe.
The global citizenry are no longer satisfied with the sick care version of so called health care. Band aid medicine, endlessly treating symptoms rather than root causes, must be abandoned as soon as possible. Patient centric care must be the priority. We need to transition to a do no harm model of private care that places humanity at the forefront of real health and wellness care. In this new model, your entire lifestyle is examined, analyzed to promote and support the totality of your body's integrated systems. Ezra Healing is a solutions based health promotion and die and disease prevention grassroots movement that is always evolving to best serve you and your family. So now if you want more information, just head over to ezrahealing.com.
That's ezrahealing.com. And, if you do reach out to anybody over there or speak to anybody, hey, let them know that you heard about it right here on the Joe Russo. Let them know that their money is being very well spent. Alright. Now, let's see what else we got here. Just a quick little bit of housekeeping before we, bring in our guest. So, so folks, head over to our website, joroos.com. That's joroos.com. And when you get over there, don't forget to check out our contact section, open up that thing. Send us over any questions, comments, cares, or concerns that you have. Also, don't forget don't forget.
Let us know what you're thinking. We have to keep talking, folks. We gotta keep dialogue going. You gotta let me know what you wanna hear. Let me know who you wanna hear from, and we'll do the very best we can to do that. Also, if you don't wanna use the web form, totally fine. Email me at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Also, don't forget that this is a value for value show. And all that means is that if you've received anything of value from what we're putting out as far as content goes, we're asking that you return that value to us in the form of a donation. Just click the support button on our homepage, and you can find out all the ways that you can help us out. And we'll highlight them later on when we do our shout outs for all of our, producers and executive producers, that have made these contributions to us. Alright.
Let's see. What else do we got here? Oh, Deb, don't forget. This is a live show, weeknights, 7PM central time, 8PM eastern time, available to you across all of your favorite podcast platforms, actually broadcasting live across several of your favorite podcasting platforms, and, also, it will help me download later on in the, in the evening. Also, we are we are streaming exclusively on Rumble. We're not on YouTube. We're not streaming to Facebook. Right now, we're on x and Twitch. But you know what? Rumble Premium. We are a Rumble Premium, member, so we are going to, be cutting those streams very, very soon. So if you wanna check out the content, you're gonna have to come on over to Rumble. So just head over to rumble.com/joeroos or download the app from your phone in your app store. It's free. It's free to download. It's free to sign up, and, free to follow the show. Alright? But if you wanna do it ad free, get a Rumble premium subscription, and you get exclusive content, and, also, no ads, which is always a lot it's always fun. Nice. Right? Yeah. Alright. And you can get that for as low as $9.99 a month or $99 for the year. Alright. And that's through Rumble.
Alright. Well, with that said, let's, let's bring in our guest. So tonight's guest has lived through chaos, guilt, addiction, and ultimately redemption. Damian Bloss spent twenty years in active addiction, silently battling the trauma of losing a close family member to suicide. He carried that secret and the guilt that came with it, numbing himself with alcohol until the pain could no longer be buried. Now five years sober, Damien has not only rebuilt his life, but he's using his life story to help others. He mentors inmates at his local detention center, speaks regularly at rehab facilities, runs a mental health and addiction recovery group at his church, and even has written a book detailing his journey.
Damien joins us tonight to talk about mental health, addiction, guilt, faith, and healing, and, of course, what it truly means to reclaim your life. Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to welcome Damien Bloss to the Joe Russo. Damien, are you out there? Hey, Joe. Hey. How are you? Damien, great to see you, man. Great great to thanks for being on the show tonight. Your Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Oh, no. It's it's a it's a privilege, believe me. Your story, has a lot of, a lot of personal things for me because I I've been through some of the things that, you've been gone you've gone through, and, similarly similarly went down a very, a path that you went down as well.
And, just, really starting to recover from all of that. So, so your story really resonated with me when I read it, and, that's why I wanted to get you on the show. And I'm I'm really glad you were able to, work that out. So, let me ask you this. So what what's something that most people don't know about you but should?
[00:07:59] Unknown:
Oh, man. I'm pretty much an open book nowadays, but I'd have to say I don't know if you should know it, but something interesting is that, you know, I'm I'm getting back to my my nerd roots, after, you know, I I like, with the comics behind me and and I got comics there. I got a mini arcade here and Those are comics. I thought I thought those I they look like video game cases. Oh, yeah. No. They're they're comics. So I'm just trying to get, like, you know, when I was when I was younger, I was into comics a lot, got rid of them. They they, you know, got ruined or whatever. So now I'm trying to get back to that. Some of those, comics though are a bit out of reach, financially,
[00:08:44] Unknown:
so maybe one day. But, you know I gotcha. I used to collect comics when I was a kid, and I was very upset when, after my parents passed away and we were going through, their attic. I had left a box of really expensive comic books up there, and, they were not in the attic where I thought I left them. And I have no idea what happened to them, where they are, and
[00:09:07] Unknown:
Yeah. That's the worst. I have some I'm trying to figure out, like, what if what if I had something really good? I had some really old Spider Man cart, comics.
[00:09:15] Unknown:
We're talking, early double digits in the Spider Man ones. Oh, wow. So, you know, it it was pretty decent collection. I'm really kinda disturbed by the fact that he disappeared. Like, I can't imagine my my would be I can't imagine my dad going through the attic and saying, oh, I'm gonna sell those comic books and not tell him. Okay. But then again, knowing my dad, you know, you never my dad had that kind of sense of humor, so you never know. You don't really know. But, let me just fix one thing here. Hold on. Okay. There we go. I got this tickle in my throat for the last few shows. It's driving me crazy. It kicks up at the worst possible time. So let me ask you this.
When life gets really hectic for you, what's what's your go to activity to help you unwind?
[00:10:05] Unknown:
I love playing golf, and and it it's something about it is very relaxing. Although it took me a while to get back into it because I used to associate that with my drinking. So Oh, really? It took me a while to get back to that and actually have love for it and, you know, take it in as a relaxing time. But that would be my go to, most definitely.
[00:10:30] Unknown:
I I I I a lot of a lot of the guests that I've had in the show, all talk about golf, and I I, you know, I don't play. I I I'm starting to get the hint that maybe, you know, maybe the Lord's telling me, you know, you need to start doing something to relax a little bit. So maybe I should take up golf. And I don't live too far. There's there's a really there's a really nice golf course not too far from here. It's a public course, that the city runs. So it's, it's not it's not too bad. So I'm I'm gonna have to go check it out. Hey. You should definitely check it out. It is very relaxing. Like, if if you can stand
[00:11:01] Unknown:
to hit a bad shot and not get not get upset, which, you know, it can happen. I'm done. Then, I'd say you're you're good. You you'll be able to do it. Well, I think I I think I'd be done already because, I I
[00:11:13] Unknown:
I I whatever I do has to be done as perfectly as possible. That's why I get so frustrated with the show sometimes because, you know, we you have little technical problems here and there, and it drives you crazy because you're pretty much a one man operation doing everything, you know, from the tech support to all that stuff. And little things happen, and I get frustrated, and I get aggravated, and I wanna throw it all out the window, you know. So I can only imagine what it would be like for me on a golf course if I miss a putt or something like that, because I also know how I get when I play miniature golf. So super competitive with that, you know. I argue over the little things. So it's it's it's enough though. Alright. So so, you're you're you're you have a great story. And, I really wanna kinda get into, you know, what the turning point for you was. You know, how how did losing your loved one, I guess, shape your path and, and and and that relationship that you eventually developed with alcohol?
[00:12:10] Unknown:
Yeah. So, like, my whole family has always been very close. You know, and I I've experienced death, of course, and things like that, but never to the extent of suicide. And, you know, I was young. I was 18, 18, 19 years old. And, it like, you see the, you know, movies and things like that, and you never think it's like that's that's gonna happen in my family or something like that. And it's like, when it happened, it completely wrecked me. And and for the simple fact that I was the only one that that he expressed that he wanted to do this, And I don't know why he would confide that in me, but he only expressed that to me. But, like, he would he would joke about it and say, I'm just I'm just kidding. That's not gonna happen. Don't but then he would also in turn say, don't tell anybody that I I said this. And, you know, being that young and not realizing, like, because it never happened to me, I didn't say anything. And when it when it actually did happen, you know, now I'm stuck with with this guilt and it's like, you know, I'm I'm mad at him for leaving this on me, but it's not his fault and, you know, realizing it now. It's not it's it it wasn't something that he purposefully did to me.
It wasn't an excuse for me to do what I did, but it it wrecked me. And, so, yeah, I I for about six months or so after, I would wake up. I I'd have nightmares. I'm waking up at at the same time midnight on the dot every single night. I can't sleep. I'm I'm literally driving myself crazy. And, you know, I turn to to alcohol to when I when I first got that feeling of, man, I don't I don't have to think about this anymore. I don't have to, feel guilty about this anymore. And I started really suppressing all those emotions to where it was nearly impossible or near nearly gone.
And, you know, that was that was the point where I was like, this is my solution. This is how I'm gonna forget about all of that. And it, you know, it snowballed from there. You know, I I cut I can understand that because, about three years ago,
[00:14:37] Unknown:
my my audience heard this story a 100 times already, so that's no no surprise to them. But, about three years ago, something very similar happened. I I lost, in the matter of a year and a half, I lost my dad in order. My dad, my grandmother six months later, while I was up up in New York burying my grandmother. I say my little boy, but everybody thinks I'm talking about a child. I'm not. I'm talking about my my dog. My little boy died while I was up burying my grandmother in New York. It was a horrible accident that that took his life. And then came back, lost my wife to, to a divorce within well, within six months of getting back from losing my grandmother, that's when she sprung that on me.
And then, right after I moved out into the into my into the house that I'm in now, which was just a few months later, my mother died. So through all of that, in less than in about a year and a half, I ended up going back to the bottle after I'd been away from it for twenty five years. And, it's taken me, so far now, three years to get away from it. So but doing great now, though, you know, but it it's, it's a struggle every day. There there are days, and I'm sure you understand, and I hope I'm not saying anything out of line for you. But, you know, there are days where that's what I want. I just, you know, I I need it, but I don't do it. So so we're, you know, it's a struggle, but we're there. I think that's why I did the podcast. That's why I couldn't get to stay away from it. You know? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, dang, man. I'm sorry to hear that. I mean, that's a that's a lot of things to happen.
[00:16:17] Unknown:
Like, in such a short amount of time, I could I can see, you know, this this disease is like it's it's always calling our name. It's always waiting there for us. Yeah. It's just waiting for that perfect opportunity. And, unfortunately, you know, it it I'm sure it wasn't a choice to go back, you know, but it happened because you were vulnerable, because all this stuff happened and you're like, you know, I need something to escape and I know how to escape because I did it for so long. You know? Exactly right. And you're absolutely right. Like, it's it's a constant battle no matter how how long you have in in recovery.
It it's always there. Just waiting for that opportunity and just, you know, just, you know, just
[00:17:03] Unknown:
I I can't wait for you. I or I'm gonna wait for you for as long as I can until you budge. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's a it's a tough tough thing to go through, but you know what? You got good people around you. You got good support around you. And, and that's that's the main thing. Plus, I have my faith, you know. I I did turn I did turn away from it a little bit. I got a little bit bitter, you know. But, you know, that was just, I think, is natural and normal for something to happen, and the lord understands. And, you know, but you're back on your feet again. That's the and that's the important thing. So, but but you take us back to, the moment that when you realized that you knew something had to change.
[00:17:36] Unknown:
Yeah. So, there were multiple times that I knew something had to change. I knew that I didn't wanna be I didn't wanna live this life, any longer. And, you know, so when it really got to the point to where I knew that I needed to, completely just stop. It was about five years ago, and I, I'm trying to think here. I had to I I I lost track of, you know, my faith. And in fact, I never really had that relationship with, with God at that point. And all it was was that, I'm sorry. Oh, you're fine. Something here. So, yeah, I I lost track of of faith, and my relationship with god was just it. I believed, and that's it.
So at the point where I was, I I had this pastor's phone number in my phone. My dad had given me his number because he wanted me to call him. And, because my dad didn't know how to get me out of this. And, he was just trying every everything he could. Right. So he gives me this pastor's number, and I, I never called him. And the day that I actually called him, it was by accident. And I, I was in the process of texting my wife to let her know that, I was not gonna be able to pick up the kids. And it was because I was no longer gonna be here. And it was at that moment, I was, you know, ruffling through my phone and everything, and I accidentally called this pastor. And I had never talked to him before. I saw the phone was ringing, and I couldn't do anything. I froze. I'm like, what am I gonna do? Why am I calling this guy? And he picks up and, you know, at that point, I just break down. I'm like, I don't know what to do. I I need help, some kind of help. I don't know what you can help me with, but I need that. And he agreed to, come with me, or meet with me at this coffee shop down the road.
And, we got there, and he asked me to pray. And I had never prayed ever before in my life, and I don't remember what what it was that I prayed about either. And, when I did, something felt great. Like, this whole weight was lifted off of me. And after that, we we parted our ways. We talked a lot, and I went home and I texted my wife. I was like, hey. I'm I'm not gonna be able to pick up the kids. But this time, it wasn't because I wasn't gonna be here. It was because I knew that I needed help, and I reached out to a rehab here locally, Ashley treatment center.
And I checked myself in, and, you know, that was that was the time that was when I knew. You know, I swore I would never do what I well, my family member did, to everyone in the family. Mhmm. And because that was not my mentality. Sober. I was never never wanted to do something like that. So, that was that was really the turning point where I I knew I needed help.
[00:21:23] Unknown:
How do you think that if how do you how do you think the that addiction, affected the way other people saw you?
[00:21:33] Unknown:
They just did not trust me. There was there was no trust. There was, you know, they they loved me and loved on me, but they never thought that that I was ever gonna change. You know, and and I'm very lucky that my wife stuck around. I I don't know how she did it. Even to this day, she'll tell me, and I'm just like, I I don't I don't understand. I'll never understand that. And that's the the greatest thing about her love for me, and then I can see that. But, I mean, I I've ruined relationships. I've ruined everybody I came in contact with Wow. Completely just lost every everybody pretty much.
And some relationships I've been able to get back, some I haven't, and I've had to deal with that. And, but, yeah, I I I've ruined a lot. And, you know, I would always my my always my go to always was, I'm sorry, you know Right. With no change behavior. Just I apologize, but I won't do it again, you know, things like that. And, but, yeah, that but now everything is is getting getting back to normal.
[00:22:56] Unknown:
How about how about yourself? How did you see yourself through the whole process?
[00:23:02] Unknown:
I I hated myself. Mhmm. I I couldn't look in the mirror and see someone who was gonna be something. When I looked in the mirror, I I saw, it was a look of just absolute disgust because I couldn't I couldn't even I didn't even know who that person was. And, you know, I I I I just did not feel welcome in my own skin. I know how you feel. Yeah. Which led and it it led to the depression to where I don't wanna be here anymore. And, you know, it was the disease was telling me this is gonna be your only way out. You've tried rehab. You've been to jail. Your only your only outlet now is to take yourself out, and, luckily, I, you know, did not.
[00:23:55] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, thank God for that, Miller. You know, that's again, you know, similar experiences, you know, the whole time that I was going through my problem, you know, I've thought about it many times, came close many times, to actually, you know, going through with it. And it's it's it's a tough thing, and a lot of people that people that don't go through stuff like that don't really understand it. And it's and it's hard to help it's hard to make them understand it or or or help them to understand it. Like you, I've I've, you know, I've lost friendships. I've lost relationships, over it over the course of the of these three years, you know, because it's it's, because it's a struggle to kind of find yourself again.
And, I know rehabs are great. I I, you know, I I never had gone through a rehab program. I just I kinda did it on my own, but, you know, a lot of people that I know that do go through rehabs, I mean, it's it's a tough, tough thing. I know somebody personally who's who's gone through rehab, just recently came out of rehab. And, I mean, thank God, you know, he's doing good. He's, you know, he's holding steady. But, you know, that that that it's just that one moment, that one opportunity that presents itself that says, hey. You know what? You can't do this. You're you know, who who do you think you are? You know, and you can fall right back into it. It's not the it's not as easy as, well, just stop. I mean, how many times have people said that to you? Well, just stop. Yeah. Tons. Just don't go get it. Tons. Don't go buy it. Don't go there. Go into yeah. Okay. Fine. I'll I'll keep that in mind. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Like like I I can do it. Why can't you? Like this is like like like I really wanna go and spend that money on a on a bottle and and and and and do that, you know.
It's a numbing thing that you look it's it's to take that pain and that that that sadness out of out of yourself. It's it's not it's not just as simple as saying, no. No. No. Yeah. You're right. I never thought about that. And I'm not gonna come. I'm just not gonna go to the store and get it. Yeah. It it's Right. It it it just makes you it makes you laugh. And then my sarcastic behind them, what I do is I'll go and get it, and I'll take pictures of it and send it to the person. Hey. Look. Guess what? You know?
So, you know, I'm not that I'm not like that now. I'm I'm fine now. You said I was drinking my blue stuff. I'm good. I'm, you know, I'm feeling good. Yeah. That's a plug, by the way. Absolutely. That was my plug. Put your your plug. Yeah. Yeah. For the alexjonesstore.com/joe. Get yourself some methylene blue. It's great.
[00:26:18] Unknown:
So
[00:26:20] Unknown:
Nice.
[00:26:21] Unknown:
You gotta get it in wherever you can, man. You know? Yeah. You gotta squeeze it in there. That's all good. Absolutely. So let me ask you. So so what what do you say to someone that's that's grieving silently and and then turning to substances, whether it's alcohol, drugs, whatever it is, to to try to cope with that? What would you say to someone?
[00:26:42] Unknown:
You're not alone, because in that moment, no matter how many people are around you, no matter how many people are in your life, you feel alone. And you're not. You know, that is the hardest place that you're ever gonna be is is in your own mind. You know, that's the like, they always say too, that's that's the worst prison you're ever gonna live in, is in your own mind. And what I would tell someone is that because I'd I'd lived in in silence for so long as well, and and most of us do. And it's because of the the judgments and things like that and, the the stigma behind everything. What I would tell that those people is that, you know, you aren't alone. There are there are ways to get out of this. And and to be honest, none of us want to be addicted. None of us wanna live in that hell. You know? So for, for someone to say or or think like, oh, they they chose to be there. It's not that we're choosing to be there.
And and the help that I would suggest getting is because addiction, is is brought on by so much mostly trauma. I felt I I've I had a great deal of of help in, trauma therapy. Mhmm. And, you know, getting to the root of that problem is what's gonna get you out of and and not out of addiction, but get you out of yourself. Find out what is going on deep within you. And you gotta get real with yourself. And and that's that's very hard too. You know? Try, you know, admitting that there is so much going on down there, you know, deep within you, it is very hard to to speak out loud. Yeah.
But, you know, that's that's the best way that I would say. And and also, when we get sober, don't just get sober. We've we have to grow. And, you know, our our greatest weapon is our mindset. Once you start shifting that mindset to a to a growth mindset, so many things will change. So don't stop at just getting sober if you're on that in on that journey.
[00:29:05] Unknown:
So what was rehab like for you?
[00:29:09] Unknown:
It it the I would say the first week or two, or week, maybe a couple days, was hell. I knew that while I was there, I this was it. Like, there there was no no way I could go back to that life any longer. So I knew that I had to do this. And so after after I got comfortable about a week, I started just paying attention. The counselors tell me they want me to do something. I'm gonna do it. I'm reading books. I'm doing research. I wanna find out what is actually going on with me. What made me go here? Like, I didn't know the reason why was the trauma that I that I ran into early on.
So I wanted to know everything. I paid attention. I didn't go there to make friends. I did what I had to do. And when I got out of there, I knew exactly what path I wanted to be on, and I stayed on that path. You know, things tried to knock me off, and, I had to deal with that. I I was able to get the resources and the tools that I needed in order to combat those those struggles that are gonna happen.
[00:30:26] Unknown:
What did you, what did you learn that that, while you were there that really sticks with you today?
[00:30:36] Unknown:
Well, the it's hard because there's not one single thing Yeah. That I was able to learn, you know, But I learned a lot about myself, about who I am and who I'm meant to be. You know, for for years, I was in a place where I was meant to be an addict or an alcoholic. That was that was who I was gonna be. Nothing was gonna change that. You know, growing up when I was younger, I wanted to be a professional baseball player, and I played for years playing baseball. And I just threw everything away. So it's like I knew what I wanted to be. Now I'm not gonna be that. You know, I'm not gonna be a professional baseball player, but I'm gonna be who I was meant to be all along, and that's a better person than I was.
[00:31:27] Unknown:
So, so what strategies did you did you did you learn that helped you the most in dealing with the, with the cravings, with the triggers, that that that we we all come across every single day?
[00:31:42] Unknown:
Yeah. Accountability, I learned, is is very huge. And when I say account accountability, I'm talking about when I do get those cravings or those urges to immediately speak up about it. Mhmm. Before you know, when I would try before, getting sober, I would never talk out loud about it, because I was mentally setting myself up to go back. That way, if I did, I wouldn't have to explain to anyone that I told already that I was gonna quit. Mhmm. I wouldn't have to explain it. I just, you know, continue doing what I was doing. So accountability was was huge for me, and it was it was tough. That was probably the toughest because I had lied. I mean, everything that came out of my mouth was always was was pretty much a lie at that you know, going through that.
So now I'm having to be honest with my not not only everyone else, but more importantly myself because I would lie to myself and and, you know, talk myself into things. So, yeah, I I would say that would be the the biggest thing that I learned, and it's very important.
[00:32:52] Unknown:
And, like, we talked before also about having a good support system, people around you that that that are that that that are there for you to help you, support you, lift you up when you when they see you starting to fall down or when you actually reach out to them and let them know, hey. Look. I'm having a problem. I need to do something about this. So for you, who were those key players that that were involved?
[00:33:11] Unknown:
My wife, number one. You know, she was through she was with me through the worst of it. But she knew me better than anyone else. So she was my rock. She understood. She went through a family wellness program to find out, you know, how to deal with me, going in recovery and what was going on with me in my addiction. You know, she she went through all that. And so she let me lean on her when I would have those cravings and instead of lashing out at me and saying, oh, you're gonna go right back to what you were doing, she would say, okay. Talk about it.
And it it gave me a sense of, you know, awareness, and and where I belong. And it it was so cool for her to be like that because she didn't have to. You know, She didn't she didn't have to love me. She didn't have to stay. She doesn't have to do half the things that she does. You know? She's involved with my, mental health and addiction group. You know? She doesn't have to do all that, but she does because she cares. Right. And, so she is definitely
[00:34:30] Unknown:
my my biggest support. And and that's so important to have that, especially from your wife, because a lot a lot of marriages fall apart, you know, because of these because of these problems, these addictions, and and alcoholism and all that. They they tend to wreck relationships. They tend to, to destroy your marriage. They destroy your relationship with your children, with spouse, anybody that that comes in contact, the potential is there. And that's tough. And re and and then when you and then when you're going through the problem and you're going through the process of of of recovery from these things, you know, you have to also look at the relationships that were damaged and try to rebuild those things, you know, and and try to gain that trust back. Now how do you do that though?
[00:35:14] Unknown:
Yeah. Much more than than apologizing. You know, your actions speak way louder. And that sounds cliche and things like that, but it's it's a 100% true. And I never realized that. I never realized that I could I could show somebody that that I mean what I say without having to to mouth the words, I I'm sorry or I apologize. You know, I've I've been able to rebuild that trust with my wife by those actions. And she was the biggest one that I needed to win that trust back. And it was it was something that I didn't I didn't have to force Yeah. To to happen.
It it came naturally with the the growing and and self awareness and and, you know, things that I was doing to repair myself. So, yeah, that that that was and and even with the relationships that I that I ruined, I was able to rebuild those without any words, with just by my actions, just how they can see the the person I am now was not the person I was. And, you know, and they may not forget what I've what I may have done it in the past, but
[00:36:36] Unknown:
they're able to forgive, and that was the the big thing. Now at what point did you did you decide that you were gonna sit down and write a book?
[00:36:46] Unknown:
It was about three, four years ago, because I I never planned on writing anything. Mhmm. What I would do first before I even thought about writing a book, I I would journal a lot. And, you know, I I learned that in therapy that, you know, writing those things down, it makes it more real. And, and it's very therapeutic. So as I'm writing, I'm like, I could probably put this into a book format and and help others because that was that was another thing that I wanted to do when I started this group is that I wanted to help others. I wanted because I knew there was others that were like me struggling in silence. And, so that was really how it came about is just me journaling and saying, how can I reach others outside of this community, outside of my group, outside of, you know, this state that I'm that I'm in?
So I decided I'm gonna write a book. And, and and therapeutic was that. That was that was even better than journaling because I had to, you know, I went I took myself back to that place for the first time in forever, that that got me there. So it was very, a lot of tears, a lot of a lot of,
[00:38:13] Unknown:
laughs, but, you know, a lot of tears. Right. And, you know, I I was looking through my notes here. I I I thought I I thought I included the name of your book. I don't have it in here. But so what was the name of your book?
[00:38:24] Unknown:
Sure. It's Breaking the Silence, My Journey from Addiction to Healing.
[00:38:29] Unknown:
And where can they get it?
[00:38:32] Unknown:
It's on, all major online retailers, but I've noticed that the most common is, Amazon. Surprise.
[00:38:40] Unknown:
Yeah. Right. Everybody's everybody gets everything from Amazon. Exactly. Okay. So we'll we'll I'll make sure that I have all that information included in the show notes, so folks can track it down and find it. So right in the book, it was therapeutic experience for you. It helped you through this whole thing. And, and now, you you mentor inmates and you run a church ministry. So what what called you to give back in in those specific kind of ways?
[00:39:10] Unknown:
Basically, because I knew there were other people like me. And, you know, when I help others, it also helps me. So, you know, it's kinda a a give and take kinda thing. But when I noticed that people were actually responding to the help that I was giving Mhmm. And, like, I don't need to be patted on the back or anything, you know, or it was nothing like that. But when people would say, oh, you what you're saying this, it kinda helped me and, you know, things like that. And I'm like, alright. I'm gonna I really wanna, you know, help others and and see what I can do. So, I started the group, first.
The and it's also breaking the silence. And my the the pastor that that helped me in the very beginning, he knew the chaplain at the local detention center, and, he reached out to them to see if they were doing anything, mentoring and things. And, so he got me into there, and now I go up there on a weekly basis. And I've been doing that for about four three three or four years now, going up there and, you know, everyone that has drug and alcohol offenses and, you know, things like that. The, the director for the mental health and addiction counseling up there will refer me, and then I'll go over there. And, it's a very eye opening experience because, especially for those guys where, you know, they're on the other side of the glass, and they think that everything is done. Their their world is completely over. Right. You know? Yeah. And, that that jumpsuit is defining them and and things like that.
And just letting them know that they're you can get a second chance.
[00:41:02] Unknown:
And, you know, I I've had very good responses from that. And how how how has helping other people like this helped you in your recovery?
[00:41:11] Unknown:
When I'm able to talk about it and able to share my story, it it reminds me because I never wanna forget where I came from. Mhmm. I'm afraid that if I ever forget where I came from, I'll go back. So for me to be able to, you know, tell my story and and tell my experiences and things like that, it it takes me it it reminds me of how good that I can I can have it and where I came from to where I am now and who I'm able to become? You know, it just keeps that reminder right there in the back of my mind. That's interesting that you said that too because,
[00:41:53] Unknown:
you said that not forgetting where you came from. I had a boss who who said that to me, before I I I left one position within the agency I worked for to another. And, you know, a lot of times when when you go through an addiction or or you you struggle with alcohol or or any type of drug, period, you you do tend to forget, you know, what you've been through and and just how strong you really are. And, that exact phrase is something that has been playing around in my mind up until the day up until had been playing around in my mind, up until the day that I decided, you know what? I'm done with this. I don't wanna do this anymore. Is that it just had a rattle around my head. You're forgetting who you are. You're forgetting yourself. You're forgetting the things that you've been through, that you've come through without this stuff.
Because don't because don't think that for twenty five years, there wasn't issues and problems that came up that were were were daunting and, really problematic, and I never fell back into it. You know? And so it's it's so interesting that you said that so that I had to write it down to to remind myself to mention it to you before I forgot it because my memory is getting to be like Swiss cheese these days. But, you know, it's it's, you know, but but that's that's such an important concept. Don't forget who you are. Don't forget where you came from. That is so important. So I I appreciate that. Thank you. I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, man. So Sure. Give us a give us a story of, of something that really stuck with you from, one of your mentorship experiences.
[00:43:35] Unknown:
There's a guy that, he was doing probably the longest time there. Mhmm. And, he when I first I met with him the first time, and he was he was there for two years, and then he was gonna go away, to actual prison. And, you know, he he when he would meet with his his mentor up there or not his mentor, but, the director of mental health and addiction, resources up there, he would always say, is Damien coming back next week? And she would tell me this and, you know, after a while, it just she stopped. But he would tell me or he would tell her, like, is he definitely coming up? I wanna see him and and, you know, I I love where his head's at and, like, we've we've grown this relationship as a friendship and things like that.
And, you know, she would tell me these things and I'm like, you know, I I I can't believe it at first because why me? Right? Yeah. I've never been someone to look up to as a leadership type or, you know, things like that. And this guy is actually looking up to me for guidance, and it made me feel really good. And he is the longest one that I've talked to. He still keeps in contact to this day. It's been about four years now. And, you know, even from prison and, you know, he's always like, you know, when we when I get out and, I'm definitely gonna hit your hit your meetings up and and I wanna stay in contact. You've you've shown me a a different way and, you know, a lot of a lot of guys can can say that when they're on the inside and and say these things and, you know, they could be full of crap. Yeah. I wholeheartedly believe this guy. And, you know, that is that is the definition of I'm gonna take advantage of my second chance, and you don't even you're not even out yet.
You know, it it's it's those those kinds of things, and that is the most, memorable and and still
[00:45:54] Unknown:
to this day. Isn't it an He he's a great guy. Isn't isn't it an amazing feeling to know that that that that something that you feel that you're doing to really help yourself is having such an impact on somebody else that that they they actually look to you almost like, in a in a lot of ways, almost like like, like, a like a like a mentor yourself or or or or or, you know, in in the church setting, you know, they say, like, your spiritual father or something like that. You know, somebody that might you might lead to Christ, you know, they you you kinda take them under your wing. It's an incredible feeling to to have that. It's also a big responsibility too, I think, you know, because you have to make sure that that you're walking straight and narrow. And I think I think God does that to us for that reason, to make sure that, you know, you're walking the straight and narrow. So you're present you're giving a good example to that person that's looking to you for for, advice and counsel and and whatnot. And that's that's a great that is fantastic. So and speaking of of things of faith, so what role has faith played in your recovery?
[00:46:55] Unknown:
I pray a lot more now. Absolutely. I'm involved with the church more. You know, my my greatest thing, was when I decided to do this this meeting and, with my group every week and and things that at my at my church, you know, the greatest thing was when they said, here is the key to the church so you can meet. You know, the the trust that they had in me I was just gonna say that. Give me the exactly. The to give me the key to the Lord's house. You know what I mean? Like, I never would have thought in in a million years that that I'd be, you know, at the point to where someone trusts me that much.
[00:47:43] Unknown:
Yeah. That that that and that's again another that's another blessing in in itself and the fact and it's also in a lot of ways too, it's kind of a a spiritual lift up for yourself as well because, hey, look, you know, people are seeing that I'm making this change and it's a positive change and things are going in a better direction for me. And that's and that that and that actually helps with your recovery as well because it's that it is that positive reinforcement of the things that you're doing. So that's that's that's great. Now, we talked earlier about your wife and and how supportive she was to the whole thing. And, and, so I guess I guess the question would be, like, so how has her support and perspective shaped your healing?
[00:48:27] Unknown:
I would have to say that I'm able to I'm able to be who I was meant to be, with her. You know, she always saw me as as somebody who you know, she had her own perspective of me. She she saw something different in me, something that I never did. You know, and and by the way that she, like, talks to me or she always wants to be around me Mhmm. You know, it it pretty much tells me that I'm I'm doing something right. Yeah. You know, and I'm I'm able to to live this life with her and and our kids. You know? She's she's an awesome mother too. You know, I I she has a lot to offer as well. So I I watch her a lot and and how she does things.
So I just I'm I'm able to look at at things so much different, you know, like the our household, the world pretty much Yeah. Because she sees the good in everybody. You know? And That's good. And I was I was I was no good, and she could still see the good in me. So, there's something to say about that. Absolutely.
[00:49:48] Unknown:
So, so at at this point, what what does a fulfilling sober life look like to you today?
[00:50:00] Unknown:
Being the dad that I would that I wanted to always be, being the husband that I should have been, you know, when I used to look at people in sobriety or in recovery, I would think, how can you have fun doing this? And, I've I've learned that there's a lot of fun to be had. You know, there's nothing that that I'm able to do now that I wouldn't have been able to do then. I just always had alcohol in me. But it it's such a more clear picture. I have a lot more fun. I'm able to remember things, and, you know, I I do hang out with other sober people. I I still go up to Ashley every year for their reunion.
Nice. You know, something that I never would have thought to do. Hanging out with my kids and and just watching a movie night. You know? Hanging out with the kids on the couch and we eating popcorn and having a good movie night and me not passing out. Nice. You know? That's that's a that's a fun one. That's a plus. You know, that's yeah. Exactly. And I I say it somewhat sarcastically, but but, you know, I don't mean it to make a hard sarcastic. Oh, no. No. But it's it's always a plus not to pass out with your kids around. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
[00:51:27] Unknown:
You know, because I have I mean My kids are older. My my I have two kids. They live they live up north. My my my son's in Pennsylvania. My daughter's in New York. But I have I have my two French bulldogs, and they're and they're my they're my kids now. You know? Yeah. My girl's four, my boy's three. And, while while you were talking about when you're saying that watching TV on the couch with the kids, eating popcorn and not passing out, I was thinking about I do the same thing with my dogs though. I mean, they they we hang out in the living room, we watch TV, we either on the floor or on the couch, and we eat popcorn together. They love popcorn, and, you know, and and it's it's a great it's great that you're not passed out because, like, I I could tell you many times where I I did actually pass out, and I would wake up on the floor with the dogs next to me, you know, looking absolutely terrified, you know. And you can only imagine that's that's that's a pet. That's an animal.
You can only imagine what it is, you know, when you if your kids see you that way, your human kids see the the the the effect that that has on them. You know? So not to be that way is it's it's a huge win. It's an absolutely huge win. Yeah. So, so at this point, what advice would you give to someone that's just starting out their recovery process? And, and and may maybe they come to you and say, you know what? I don't think I can do this. What what what kind of advice would you give them?
[00:52:47] Unknown:
Going back to just letting them know that they're not alone. Even even if it feels like it, you're you're really not. This community of, you know, recovery is so huge, and, you know, you're you're more than welcome. And no matter where you are in this journey, whether it's twenty four hours or twenty four years and beyond, and, you know, never diminish your progress. Never never use the word only when you're describing I'm only twenty four hours sober or I'm only two months sober. You know, we all start with with the with twenty four hours. Right. You know, never never stop at being sober.
You know, that's gonna be your main goal for every single day is to stay sober. However, only you don't you don't have to just be sober. There's no finish line to this thing. Yeah. You know, you wanna take your time, be patient, work on fixing your character defects every single day, creating a growth mindset,
[00:53:58] Unknown:
and, you know, you're gonna love yourself again. I can promise you that. That is a great point. There there is no finish line in all this. That that's a fantastic point. So what's one thing that you do now that the old version of you never would have imagined?
[00:54:16] Unknown:
Sticking to my commitments. Nice. And being, you know, accepting when when people say I'm proud of you or accepting when people say that you're better than this or something along those lines and believing it. You know, not in an arrogant way, but in a way that I'm confident about it. You know, I I never looked at myself as being a leader, and people tell me that I am people at my job want me to be, you know, in in management and things like that, and I never would have expected that. So,
[00:54:55] Unknown:
that is is definitely something that I would never would have imagined. Yeah. So alright. So what's next for you though? More writing, more speaking, anything else coming down the horizon for you? Yeah. I'm always,
[00:55:09] Unknown:
you know, doing some speakings. There may be another book in the future. I'm I'm debating on that right now. But, you know, just continuing to to meet every week with my group, with the inmates up at the the, detention center, and, continuing to do these podcasts. You know? I used to be very introverted, and, and so me being able to do this is just helping me grow and and helping me spread awareness,
[00:55:45] Unknown:
about this horrible disease. So I'm gonna continue doing that as well. Oh, I hope you do. I hope you do. Because I I I I love the message that you bring. I love the optimism that you bring through it. I think you're doing a great job. Thank you. You know, I definitely wanna check out your book, though. I mean, I'll be honest. I didn't have a chance to really read any. But, I do wanna read it and and and get to know it a little bit better. So I'm looking forward to doing that. Alright. Damien, so, where can others, where can the audience go and find your book, learn about your work, connect with you online, anything you wanna give out?
[00:56:15] Unknown:
Yeah. Sure. So, on Facebook, we, have our group Breaking the Silence, Instagram as well, Breaking the Silence. Our Linktree is on both. And, yeah, that that's the best place to get in touch with me, and we have all our stuff on there. With our group, we also meet virtually. So Okay. You know, if you can't make it if you're not in Maryland,
[00:56:42] Unknown:
you know, feel free to jump on there. The the link is on our Facebook page. Outstanding. So I'll be making sure that after the show, look for my, look for my follow. I'll be, I'll be I'll be checking out there. Alright. Well, Damien, thank you so much for being with us. I can't believe the this. We already flew through the whole thing. Our next our next guest is lined up already, so I we gotta we gotta get to the break and then get to the our next guest. So, Damien, again, thank you so much, man. I really appreciate you taking the time to be with us tonight. God bless you. Thank you so much for the work you're doing. And, hopefully, we get a chance to talk soon.
[00:57:14] Unknown:
Awesome. Yeah. I love that. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it, Joe. Alright, brother. You take care, and have a great night.
[00:57:20] Unknown:
You too, man. God bless you, man. Alright, folks. So Damien Blas. So thank you, again for being with us here, brother. Anyway, so now we are gonna take a break here. And when we come back from the break, we are going to, meet up with our next guest in the second hour, doctor David Shine, and, he'll be with us here momentarily. So in the meantime, folks, don't forget to head over to our website, joeroos.com. And when you get over there, open up that contact form, send us over any questions, comments, cares, or concerns that you might have, anything that comes to your mind. And if you wanna let us know of any ideas or suggestions for a guest, we would love to, to have that. We'd love to hear about it. So let us know. Also, don't forget that this is a value for value show. So if you have any, if if you're receiving anything of value from what we're doing here, we ask that you return that value to us in the form of a donation. It could be whatever it is. If you wanna donate a dollar, donate a dollar. Whatever the value is that you're you're getting from what we're doing, we're we're asking that you return that value to us in that in that form of a donation.
Also, don't forget to, to check out our socials on on Twitter, at Joe Ruse. Facebook is the Facebook group is Joe Ruse Podcast. Truth Social, Joe Ruse. All Joe Ruse. Minds.com, Joe Ruse. The only one that's not Joe Ruse is Instagram, which is not Joe Ruse. Alright. So you can find us over there as well. Alright. With all that said Oh, and don't forget that this is a live show, weeknights, 7PM central time, and, Saturdays at 3PM, Sundays at 6PM. And, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share it with your friends, your family, and your followers. Remember, we're not on YouTube. We're not on YouTube right now. So, just rumble or on x or on Twitch, and then, we'll post links later on on the other social media platforms after the show is over. Alright. Well, with that said, we're gonna take our break. And when we come back from the break, we'll have doctor David Shine. Alright, folks. We will see you momentarily.
Talk to you in a bit. Alright, folks. Welcome back to the Joe Root Show. First hour is in the books. Damian Bloss. Really enjoyed that conversation folks. I hope you guys did too. We ran out, got some extra coffee. I just spilled all over the board, but that's okay. Alright. Well, folks, again, I hope you enjoyed Damien Blas. We're back now for hour number two and we have our guest waiting for us, in the, waiting room and we'll bring him on here momentarily. So, folks, I wanna tell you a little bit about podhome.fm. Podhome.fm is the most modern and easy to use podcast host platform that's out there today.
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I mean, where else what other platform are you gonna get all of that for $15.99 a month? That's it. Just $15.99 a month. That's unbelievable. I was on another platform, a much, a much more well known platform, one of the big boys, and they were charging me almost twice three times that amount. And I got less than what I'm getting with Pod Home. Yes. Podhome.fm is my audio platform host, platform. And, it's great. I love it. The team there is fantastic. They really know their stuff. Customer service is amazing. They will walk you through anything that you need to get through. So check them out at podhome.fm. $15.99 a month. And if you subscribe today, you get thirty days free. You have thirty days to play with it. So you should really check them out. I think you'd be very, very, very happy with them. That's podhome.fm, podhome.fm.
Alright. Well, let's get some coffee. Because our second guest tonight is a scholar, an attorney, an entrepreneur, a public speaker who has quietly shaped leadership thinking in business, in governance, and ethics. Doctor David d Shine is the founder and CEO of Claremont Management Group and serves as associate dean and tenured professor at the University of Saint Thomas in Houston. He spent over thirty five years working with Fortune 500 firms, consults on HR policy and dispute resolution, and delivers keynote talks nationally, often described as the employment guru.
He writes about America's leadership failures and political mismanagement in books like The Decline of America, One Hundred Years of Leadership Failures, and, Bad Deal for America. So folks like to ask like to welcome doctor David Schein to the show. Doctor Schein, are you there? Doctor Shine? Yes. I am. Glad to join you. Just, punching the buttons across the bottom of the screen here. Yeah. That's all you need to do. You'll figure it'll all work out together. Don't worry about it. All things work together for good. Don't worry about
[01:07:37] Unknown:
that. Well Well, for that kind introduction,
[01:07:40] Unknown:
I I hope I can live up to that. I think you're gonna do fine. You'll do just fine. I'm I'm a really easy guy to talk to and get along with, so we'll be fine. So, what I always like to ask everybody at the start of every interview that I do is a very, very basic simple question, and that is, what is one thing that most people do not know about you, but should?
[01:08:00] Unknown:
Oh, that's, gosh. I am a really good cook, and I am self taught.
[01:08:07] Unknown:
See, we got along already because that's the same thing for the with me. I am I am a People are surprised. I I don't know why people are surprised. In my household,
[01:08:16] Unknown:
I do all the grocery shopping, and I fix virtually all the food. In fact, before we went live, I was coaching the little lady at home on how to get supper started, so it'll be kind of ready when I get home about 09:15 tonight, from the office here, from our studios. And, I started cooking, basically when I was in college for a very fundamental reason. I was a scholarship student at Penn College. And, you know, I I found out this thing about a full scholarship is kind of a misnomer because it means that the school is not taking tuition money from you, but you still gotta buy food and books and find a place to stay. Yes. You know? And it it it was a little challenging. And I realized that if I went out to eat, I'd I'd have trouble, you know, getting getting food. You know? It'd be I'd run out of money on Monday for the whole week. And so I began, cooking very modestly stuff that would be terrible today. I would never even think of fixing today.
But, over the years, I've I've trended towards, I I'm one of my specialties is I'm a low sodium cook, and and I've been doing that for a long time. Okay. And if you have some of my food, you will never sit there and say, gosh. This is awful. Where's the salt? Because there's a trick to it, and that's good seasonings. There's so many seasonings in the spice cabinet. So few people so many people just ignore what's available to them. That's true. That's very true. Pepper.
[01:09:50] Unknown:
That's very, very true. And I I find that also. I I I love to cook. It's one of my it's one of my, little, like, I call it my therapy. You know, when I especially on a weekend, I love to I've I've been kind of flirting with my Sicilian heritage, over the last couple of months. So every Sunday, I make a nice Sunday sauce, you know. And it's it's just me and my two my two dogs. So, you know, we we eat well. And, we and it it shows, you know, we we eat well. And, you know, we have a we we enjoy that. But, I love to cook. It's one like I said, one of my therapies and, I used to I used to hold dinner parties for friends. I would invite them over on a weekend and I would give them a a short menu, like, earlier in the week. Say, okay. So these are the choices that you have. What do you want?
And then I and then I would go out and I would prepare that. And, I got a lot of the skills that I've learned through my my mom and my grandmother. My grandmother was a professional cook And, so I learned, excuse me, an awful lot from her. And then, of course, my mom was just your your typical at home, you know, Italian mom, and she can cook, man. She was able to cook. And I learned so much from her as well. And then, of course, you know, you get those family recipes that are handed down generation to generation. And, one of the things that I discovered is that as these things were being handed down to me, they weren't giving me the whole recipe. They were leaving things out and letting me try to figure it out for myself, which, of course, you do. Now, I do the same thing. If anybody asks me for one of my recipes, yeah, I'll give it to you, but I'm not gonna tell you everything. You're gonna have to figure it out.
[01:11:23] Unknown:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Gotta gotta figure it out yourself. And yeah. And so I I went through two phases. I kinda had to recreate things. And then as I moved through the world of low sodium and then reduced fat cooking and then trying to make it super healthy with olive oil instead of other oils, I began to move the recipes around. And, whenever I wrote them down and I I do have kind of the equivalent of my own cookbook. My son was, visiting me the other day, and, he made ribs. So he took my, ribs recipe, which I have conveniently available. Mhmm. And, they came out pretty good. He he swapped out the hot the hot powder for the really hot powder. So it was, it was some pretty stunning stuff, but, good good batch of baby back ribs. Over this weekend, I made chicken salad from scratch Nice. On Saturday. I love it. And then last night, I, you'll love this. For Texas, I grilled,
[01:12:26] Unknown:
I I marinated chicken breasts for for two days I see. And then, grilled them. And I have a special approach to grilling the breasts, and they just came out great. And I'll I'll I froze four of the breasts, and I'll eat two of the breasts over the next few days. Oh, that's good. That's good. You know, a lot of people don't don't understand the patience that's involved with cooking sometimes. So you have to some there are some things you have to set aside for a couple of days you have to plan ahead for. And, yeah, I know. I I have a chicken recipe as well that that I that I I haven't made in a while, and now that you mentioned it, I probably should. But it it does require it marinating the chicken breast for, like, twenty twenty four to forty eight hours in the refrigerator, you know, sealed and wrapped and all that stuff. And it's, it it's absolutely perfect. I did it wrong. It should be, like, just to be this, you know. I'm Italian, so it should be that.
So, so doctor Shine, let me ask you. What's what's your go to beverage at the end of the day to help you unwind?
[01:13:20] Unknown:
Oh, gosh. I'm gonna be very unexciting on that. Everybody says that. I'm I'm a water drinker, and I drink, decaf. In fact, I have had, no regular coffee for two days. Occasionally, I'll reward myself with a cup of regular coffee in the middle of the day, but, part of being on a low sodium diet is, if you're familiar with, you know, trying to avoid taking drugs for high blood pressure, that, the two key elements are, to, avoid sodium and to, avoid caffeine as much as possible. And, I've I've been pretty successful at that, and, my doctors are pretty happy with me. But it takes the discipline of, I can go out to eat one night a week or, you know, a couple meals a week. It's hard on vacation where you're eating most of your meals out. Sure. Yeah. But, if I'm like, I'll be local this whole week, and, I can really control what I eat and how I prepare the food and stuff. And I know it sounds funny, but, my office is a apartment, and it has a kitchenette in it. And so I actually have my own food available to me for my own lunches, Unless I take clients out or we go out and do something tomorrow, I'm going out to lunch and dinner.
So, I probably won't be as tight on my diet, but, yeah, I'm I'm pretty serious about it. Well, you can give yourself a cheat day.
[01:14:53] Unknown:
Yeah. That's right. That's a cheat day tomorrow. There you go. And then you just gotta just gotta tighten it up for the rest of the week. That's it. That's right. All there is to it. And I know what you mean about watching the salt intake. And and, actually, one of my sponsors, we just recently started with them is a is a group called Ezra Healing. And, they're very much into the do no harm philosophy of of, medic of, medical care. And, very natural, great stuff. They they sent me a nice little care package of, some stuff to get me started with. And the goal is, of course, for me to get off the blood pressure medications and so on and so on. So I am I am weaning myself down off of them now, and I've been this doing this now for about three weeks. And, I'm getting close. I'm almost done. And, I feel good. You know, you you of course, you know, you you become so dependent on medication that you, you know, coming off of the stuff, you get little headaches here or there. But, you know, that's just a little let that's just a little bit to let you know that what you're taking in to try to control all that stuff really isn't good for you also. So I keep that in mind as well. Absolutely.
So, what's one personal routine or ritual, that keeps you grounded?
[01:15:59] Unknown:
Well, I go to the gym on a pretty regular basis. I'm recovering from surgery, so I'm I'm out of the gym. And, I'll tell you, I miss it if you get used to a a routine. One thing I wanna encourage people who are who are who are watching tonight is we have a lot of syndromes where people will not work out for a long period of time. And then they'll go to the gym, and I call them the weekend warriors. Yes. I know what you mean. And what they do is they go in and they hit the gym with all they can. And by Saturday or Sunday or Monday, they're so sore they can't move. Mhmm. And they say, oh, well, working out must have been terrible for me. I I can't do that. And and one of the things and I I was in the gym one day several years ago, and a nice lady was asked me. She she just she figured I was a regular, and she came up to me and she said, hey. I haven't been in the gym in a long time. And so I was coaching her with what I just said. I just said, do it easy.
Start slow. Don't try and move a 100 pound weights. You may be able to lift a 100 pounds once, but how about lifting 35 pounds 10 times and work your way up to lifting a 100 pounds? Right. Exactly. Stuff like that. And it it really has an impact. And it it also helps in terms of, your, you burn more calories that way, and you feel better. I know I don't feel great right now. It's not I'm pretty recovered from the surgery, but I'm not cleared to be back in the gym. And I'm in that intermediate spot, and I like I feel a hole in my life from that. You know? Yeah. I know I know what you mean. There was a period where I was I was on a one of those 90
[01:17:48] Unknown:
extreme workout routines. Mhmm. And, you know, so you're working out basically seven days a week, and and some days were were harder than others. There were days that were you were just doing stretching. And, you know what? I looked forward to the stretch days more than anything else because it just felt so good after pushing the weights and after doing all the resistance work and the cardio work and the jumping around, the kicking around, just to have a nice hour and a half of just stretching from the top of your head to the tip of your toes. It was the best. And then I got hurt, and I had to stop training for a while. And to get back just getting back into it was so hard. And, I'm getting back into it now. So I'm all I'm focusing on right now is doing the stretching and getting loose in order to get into the rest of the stuff. So we're getting there. We're we're working on it.
[01:18:34] Unknown:
It is, it is well worth it, and, I encourage anybody who's listening tonight that, having a fitness routine is really critical. And it's interesting because I'm on the opposite side of the political spectrum from, RFK Jr. Mhmm. But I like a lot of the things that he's done. I'm that crazy guy in the supermarket that you see that blocking your shopping cart because I read all of the ingredients in every single thing I buy, including things I buy for my grandchildren Mhmm. Because I don't wanna buy, a a fruit product and find out that it's really made out of, you know, high fructose corn syrup and things like that that are or have a lot of artificial colors in there that, are banned in Europe. So I I, don't like his if you if you've studied him, he's got a lot of publicity talking about health, which is great. Yes. If you study him, his political views are are fully in the left camp even, as far as I know, even today. Yes. But the the the couple things he's talked about is let's get all of this crap out of our food, to be rather blunt about it, because why should we have crap food when the Europeans who we compete with won't let this stuff be sold in their country? Exactly. And I I think that's a very relevant part. And then the other part of that is I think it's really, helpful for us to focus on healthy. And I think the new one is Maha, make America healthy again. And I am old enough to remember the early nineteen sixties fitness challenge.
And this is a true story. My I'm the oldest seven kids. My dad was career military, and we we lived in Massachusetts. It was an old house with a basement. Mhmm. And he actually lined us up in the basement, and we were doing jumping jacks and stuff like that. You could picture in a military family, it was almost a a mini clip of the the movie, Cheaper by the Dozen. I know the movie. Yeah. And we we did that for a while and all that. And I think one of the things that is we've got our kids, and, of course, I'm a grandparent today, is they're glued to their tablets. They're they're glued to their phones, and they're not outside getting that critical exercise.
[01:21:01] Unknown:
And that has a positive mental effect, not just a physical, but a positive also. Absolutely. Absolutely. No. It's because of of, RFK Jr that I started I switched to, using beef tallow instead of vegetable oils. Yes, which is amazing. It is first of all, it gives such a depth of flavor Yes. That you you can't there's nothing you can do to describe that, and it's it's so it's so much better for you than a lot of those, vegetable oils and the canola oils and those artificially processed oils. You know, so I basically, when I'm cooking, I'm using either olive oil, which is always the, extra virgin, the triple extra virgin, and the, and the beef tallow.
[01:21:43] Unknown:
That's pretty much all of these. For a good point because, one of the words that people aren't watching for, and I haven't heard him say this, but you may have heard him say that, is hydrant hydronate it. Yes. Can hydronate it applied to a a food product does not make it healthier for us. It makes it shelf stable. One of the things that's related to that, which he has not mentioned, is that I don't buy any meats that have either nitrates or nitrites. Yeah. I've been doing that for about five years, and it can be a little irritating. I I love bacon. I have to admit, bacon's not a great product for humans, but it it it's an awfully tasty product.
But, I can actually buy bacon that has no preservatives in it, no nitrates and nitrates. The only thing is you have to do something that we all do anyway. It's It's keep it in the refrigerator or the freezer till you cook it. That's not that hard. No. It's not. And and that and it's such a better healthy choice for you that,
[01:22:43] Unknown:
it just makes more sense. Absolutely. So now you you touched on something a few minutes ago that, that, I was gonna actually ask you as the first question I really have for you. Now you grew up as the oldest child in a in a in a Navy, in a Navy man's home. You Right. You earned your way into the University of Pennsylvania. How did that start your drive?
[01:23:04] Unknown:
Well, in kind of a backwards way, my parents my mom had a GED. My dad had a vocational high school degree. They don't do that anymore, but they had it at the time, and he went right in the military from high school. And, it's my parents emphasized to all seven of us, study, study, study. My dad used to say, your job is to study. You're all going to college, and we all went to college. And we have an amazing collection of graduate degrees and stuff. My sister, who's next oldest, also got a scholarship to Penn and, became a world class scientist. She's still working in science today.
But it it's a real interesting situation. And here's the problem. Sometimes when you're outstanding as a high school student, people assume you know what the heck you're doing. Right. And I got no guidance. My parents couldn't because they hadn't been there, and my guidance counselor was a a member of the woman's name is is missus Ridgewell, a lovely lady, but she was like, damn. This kid has and and his sister have way shot past the mark. You know, we we, you know, we don't need to worry about them. So what happened was is I actually won two full scholarships, one to Duke University and one to University of Pennsylvania. Frankly, I went to Penn because it was in the Ivy League, And it was like, darn. I'm gonna be that's the thing. Like, I'm gonna go to the Ivy League.
And when I got there, it was the time of the Vietnam War. And here I am, pro military, anti commie, which I view the Vietnam War as a battle between good and communism. I agree. And, no experience being on a a college campus, other than, you know, as an odd high school debate, and we went to some debates on college campuses. But that's not the same thing as living on a college campus. And it was an extraordinary experience. It's like, you know, early spring, you take your first swim, and you jump in the water, and it's just freaking cold. And it's like, what the hell was I doing? I think I'll wait another month. Well, I I kinda needed another month before I went to college at at UPenn.
I might have done better at Duke, which is an acquired place. Mhmm. But what happened was is that as I went through this bizarre experience of feeling out of place for years, I began to merge into the Philadelphia community in a bizarre in a very different way. I began to, I I I got on public radio, and the University of Pennsylvania had its own FM public radio station, which, by the way, is very popular. And of of all things, it was started by a very famous person, Broadway producer Hal Prince. Oh, okay. When he was a student at UPenn in the ninth late nineteen forties, started an FM radio station at UPenn, which was still operating. It was a nonprofit, not government supported, but university supported. Mhmm. And, they gave me a one hour show to talk about the arts, which was just an avocational interest. I have no training in the arts, so I'll be I'll admit that. And we began to interview artists and different performers.
You'll love this. I had a little portable reel to reel tape recorder originally and, would go and actually interviewed, touring stars and stuff like that with my little tape recorder, and they figured out how to put it into the radio thing. At at the time, it was reel to reel recorders. Mhmm. And, that I did that on the, w, the pen station, Wix pen, it was called. And about a year later, I got a phone call out of the blue. I don't even know how they got my phone number. And they said, this is, the program director at WHYY, which is the public radio, you know, PBS affiliate in Philadelphia, and they're still operating today as far as I know. Mhmm. And, she said, we'd like you to move your show over to our station.
And so I had been doing pretty good. Most of the local theaters and many art galleries and places welcomed me with open arms because, frankly, UPenn is a big deal in Philadelphia. So that was not a terrible disadvantage. But remember, I'm I'm not 20 years old yet. Right. I I was a young college student, and here I am, going to these things. I I wasn't getting, you know, the front row, you might say. But then when I hit the public radio station, which everybody knew in the three states because it reaches into New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, it opened the rest of the doors for me.
And, I, was on a they the station was a union station. So some some bits of trivia. The station was where the Dick Clark show started. Oh, okay. I know I've seen the whole show. Studios. And one day while I'm in there recording something, Dick Clark came by with a gorgeous girl. Now the funny story is we all noticed that great looking gal, and he was not a big guy. I know you've seen him on television before he passed away. Handsome guy, but not a big guy. And we were all paying attention to this gorgeous gal, and then, the engineer, it's a union because it had been donated to the public by Walter Annenberg when they built the new studios in suburban Philadelphia.
It stayed union, So I couldn't touch any of the mics or anything, which was great because on College Station, I had to come up with volunteer engineers and stuff. Because you do talk show, you've gotta have somebody running the board. Right? Yes. You do. You don't need that anymore, but you needed that in radio. Oh, you still kinda need it. Still helpful. What I'm saying is you gotta you gotta have that that backroom production. And so, anyway, it was it was very cool to have the but the union engineer says to me, hey. Do you know who that is? He says, that's Dick Clark.
And he and he was standing there telling the young lady, hey. I remember, you know, starting in radio and sitting in this booth here and stuff like that, and that was where I was recording the show after, the studio. That was our studio that had been, donated there. And Pop Singers, which people used to hang out, in the early days of Bandstand before it moved to Hollywood, Pop Singers was still next door, and, of course, all of that's gone today. But it was a it was a fascinating experience. And many of the names that I meant that I met at that time don't mean a lot today because they were so famous in their time period. I'll mention a couple names.
[01:30:13] Unknown:
Carol Channing. Oh, I know. Yeah.
[01:30:15] Unknown:
That was the biggest luncheon I went to. And even though I was well respected from the public radio station, I couldn't get within 20 feet of her. I mean, every big name television and radio station and newspaper was there ahead of me. A lot of the luncheons were not that well attended, and I was invited to the press luncheons and things like that. But, I remember vividly a luncheon with both the temptations and the supremes.
[01:30:47] Unknown:
Wow.
[01:30:49] Unknown:
And that was very cool. That was after Diana Ross had left the supremes, but I still remember vividly the the luncheon and the interview. And, that that was a is it that was pretty interesting. The other luncheon that I still vividly remember, is the, Bill Graham, the rock promoter, who, of course, sadly died in a helicopter crash, around in the nineteen nineties. Mhmm. He was on a promotional tour in the 1972 to promote his Fillmore. And what had happened is he had these small venues in Fill in San Francisco and in New York City, and the bands basically had outgrown the spaces. You couldn't make you couldn't pay the band enough to show up. And, of course, he had the greatest names in rock and roll were were showing up to to perform for him.
People that people are still playing on all these stations. I mean, these were the big people, but they needed, you know, big stadiums, they and all that. So he made the smart decision in early nineteen seventy two to have a series of going away concerts and shut both film wars down. And it's a triple album in This is the Days of Vinyl, And I still have that vinyl album, by the way Wow. The the box set. And, unfortunately, what probably would have been more valuable, they originally gave me a draft set, and I gave that away to one of my helpers, one of my producers when I got the the final set, you know, with all the fancy artwork and everything. Right. All the bells and whistles.
But I bet the draft one in the collector's world would have been different. But he was a very cool guy, a sharp guy, very easy to talk to. And the the one question I did get to I remember asking him was, who was the best live performer of all the people he had worked with? Remember, we're talking Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix and, I mean, just on and on. He said Otis Redding
[01:33:05] Unknown:
Oh, wow. Yeah. Who
[01:33:07] Unknown:
who posthumously, his biggest hit was Dock of the Bay, which actually hit the charts after he sadly died in an accident. Yeah. But it was just interesting. It's funny what you remember from that period. Part of the reason I'm tuned in on this is that I am in the process of putting that together right now. That book is gonna be called, and it's a play on my life at Penn, it's called A Cheap Education. Nice. Because, of course, Penn is still one of the most expensive schools in the country to attend, and it was then. And yet, I got a better education on the streets of Philadelphia.
And I met we're not mentioning it tonight, but I met so many wonderful people I'm sure. Who were part of the arts community or just just nice people, supporters of the arts. You know, I got invited to dinners and to do different stuff because I was helping the arts and people were promoting poetry and different fundraisers and stuff. And it was just a very interesting time period in my life. So I did graduate from Penn, but it does sounds like I I wandered off into the streets. But coming from where I came from, I knew that I had to punch my ticket. I knew that I had to finish college and and and do that. And some people didn't. A lot. I think Hal Prince, for instance, did not finish Penn, but, of course, you saw how incredibly successful he was. Absolutely. And he did let me interview him, either two or three times while I was once on the Penn radio station and once while I was on That's awesome. Public radio. That is awesome. You know, the great thing is, like, I I I grew up with my, my my dad,
[01:34:51] Unknown:
my mom, they listened to all of that stuff. They listened to Janis Joplin's and the Otis writings. They listened to Jimi Hendrix. It's hard to think about my dad listening to Jimi Hendrix, but he did. You know? But, you know, so I'm from I'm I know these artists, you know, intimately, you know, their catalogs intimately. I I followed them, you know, as a child, I would listen to them all the time, because that was was was in my house. That's what my dad would listen to. I'm also I love I love jazz. I love the old standards, you know, the the Sinatra and and, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Junior. I listened to all that stuff. My grandfather was very much my grandfather used to play guitar for us. He would sing, at at the family dinners on a Sunday. He would pull out the guitar and sing all the Italian songs, you know, Sicilian songs for us. It was like a tip it was like what you would expect to see in, like, The Godfather. You know? It was the way it was. Absolutely.
[01:35:45] Unknown:
And it's it's so wonderful, and it's great to have that family connection. Yeah. And, it it it is interesting to see how these pieces come together. And, I, I got a chance to see some people fairly close-up. One of the celebrities at the time was Dionne Warwick. Oh, yeah. Yeah. She was an interesting person. We had a close-up luncheon with her. Got to see her open a performance venue in the Philadelphia area. And, of course, she had some huge hits. She was, I think, at the time I met her, married to Bert Bachrach, the, producer and and writer who who wrote a lot of her hit songs and hit songs from Raindrops keep falling on my head.
Yes. Absolutely. And, so it it was it was kind of an interesting time period. And it does pass along because my my older son, who's, in his early forties now, is a huge fan of the, Led Zeppelin. Oh, yeah. And so he he he he he's into Led Zeppelin, and he introduced me to, Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses. So and and the old East station I listened to plays
[01:37:00] Unknown:
Led Zeppelin and Guns N' Roses. Isn't that crazy, though? Like, I that that's so funny. The music that I grew up with, the music that I'm familiar with is now being played on oldies stations. But when, you know, when I would listen to oldies stations, I was it was like, I'm from New York, so I listened to CBS FM, you know, one zero one CBS FM, and they played, you know, all of the oldies, the fifties, the sixties, you know, stuff that my parents listened to. That's where I got familiar with it. Now they're playing Sure. And now they're playing stuff that I grew up with in the nineties. Now are you are you post cousin Brucey if you listen to w a c? I listened to cousin Brucey. Yeah. He was still on when Sure. When I was a kid. He was awfully famous. Yes. He was. Yes. He was. He he I I remembered I remember taking these long drives with my family, to go visit my my aunt and uncle. They lived out in in Northern New Jersey. So we would drive from Brooklyn to Northern New Jersey, and that's all that my dad would listen to. It was the oldie station. That's all that would be playing.
And, and I found that even even though even though you could still, even though the, you know, Walkman was were new, relatively new at the time. Walkman. You know, even though I had one, I I still and I I could have easily put it on, tuned it out, but I didn't. I sat there and listened to it. And, you know, and then I remember the drive home on Sunday nights with with cousin Brucey. It was it was great. It was great. I I missed that stuff. It
[01:38:22] Unknown:
is absolutely amazing. I don't think people today can relate to the impact of two things, Cousin Brucey on the radio Mhmm. And Johnny Carson on late night TV. And what I would do at I was doing theater reviews. I went to all the theater openings in Philadelphia, and we're first stop after Broadway. So a lot of the Broadway shows would make a a a a they we were their next stop. Now not always the original cast, but there was sometimes there were, sometimes there weren't. And so it it was, it was kind of interesting. And but that ended early in the evening relative to somebody who went to bed at 4AM, by the way, back then. And so what I would do is go home and watch the Johnny Carson show, then watch the late movie from 1AM. He was on from 11:30 to 1AM use New York time. Yep. And then there was a late movie from one to 3PM, and I got to watch all the classic old movies that they ran in the middle of the night and, then would go to bed after that. And it was kinda interesting to, you know, that kinda lifestyle. By the way, you mentioned jazz. Mhmm. One of the interesting things is in Philadelphia, there was a church. And in the basement of the church, they had a jazz club. It was actually on the Penn campus, and it was called Gino's Empty Foxhole, which was named sort of after the Ornette Coleman record of of which I think was called the Empty Foxhole. Yeah. I know that album. Yeah. They had an amazing run of jazz artists. So I got to see, Mingus, and this was a very small venue. I got to see Charlie Mingus close-up.
Nice. And Sun Ra and, I'm sure New York people who never hit it big, but were were were were really, really good artists, sax, trumpet players, and they would come in. These were basically artists that were featured on the Blue Note record label, and it was just cool. And Yeah. Because a member of the press I mean, I literally would go to the theater, get back to the Penn campus, go into the basement, and just walk in and just say, you know, hi, Gino. How you doing? And, That's awesome. You know, go and see these different, jazz performers. So it was it was, something that I was not grown up with and I was not familiar with.
I mean, I knew, Count Basie and the people that my parents grew up with, but I didn't know the the the you know, like Miles Davis, who I did see once live. And, you know, and I never saw Otis Redding live, but my favorite, I got to see him live three different times, was BB King. Oh, yes. How could you not? Great individual performer. He he his facial expressions when he was working his guitar, which, which, of course, he had named Lucille. He was unreal and captivated the audience. You did not wanna move. You did not want the show to end when BB King was on stage. He was that good. Oh, yeah. No. I I love BB King's stuff, and he he was so influential on on artists that came later. And even to today, you know,
[01:41:45] Unknown:
everybody gives BB King credit for for for their desire to play music. And, oh, I just love that stuff. That that's just great stuff. But we are way, way off the subject matter of the night, man. This is great, though. See, I love I love doing this because, you know, and, and I and I tell people all the time that I love doing these types of shows where we sit down, we just talk. Because I in reality, I probably would never have come across a gentleman like yourself to sit down and have a conversation with. And through this whole meeting, we get to do this and have a great time at it. And I'm I'm really enjoying this. This is this has been great. So, I'm gonna ask you this. I'm gonna get back to the subject. Okay? So you went from you went from corporate law to academia in midlife. What made that, that transition for you? What was what prompted the reinvention?
[01:42:32] Unknown:
Well, I had said to myself, graduating from law school, I think I'll do this for twenty five years, and then I will go into academia. So I actually had set a life goal for myself to do that, and I was pretty much on schedule. So I was ten years big corporate. I was with the Shell Oil Company right out of law school, which was a great opportunity, three states in three years. Wow. Literally living in three different states in three years with what we call the old oil company tour. Great company. No criticism of them at all. It's just that they had so many good people. I then went to a midsize oil company that was part of an even bigger company. It was part of a massive conglomerate, and I was their chief labor counsel for a number of, for for the rest of a decade.
And then I went into private practice, and I did private practice for about fifteen years. I was actually trial attorney. I actually did good at it. Never made any huge money, but I was I was a good attorney. And then I, decided that litigation was tedious and stressful, and I went into ADR and teaching. Mhmm. And, of all things, the lady that I was seeing at the time was tied in with Washington. Okay. She was I'll just tell you. I won't say her name, but her she was a staffer for congressman Bill Archer. Okay. You may remember that the Gingrich takeover Washington in the mid nineteen nineties, Bill Archer became chairman of Ways and Means. Yeah. And I was at his swearing in Washington in 1995.
[01:44:09] Unknown:
That was around the time I became politically aware.
[01:44:12] Unknown:
Right. And then in '99, she the gal who was working in Archer's Houston office was given the opportunity to work in DC. I see. And I had wanted to go to DC, so she and I moved to DC together. And, unfortunately, we didn't stay together. But, it was, while we were together, I got a chance to do something that very few people do, and that is to be the fly on the wall. Because I had no official position, but I could walk into the Rayburn Building, which is one of the con congressional office buildings Yes. And go through security and go walk around, which most you but you certainly can't do that after January 6. Alright. Yeah.
Me. Not not welcome, but, it was a little lower security then. But, I had a pass, and, I also hung out with something called the Texas Society, and I went to their inauguration ball in the year 2000 and the year 02/2004. And, that was a very interesting event to see, George w Bush up close. I got to meet him when he was running for, trying to remember president or governor. But, anyway, I got to meet some very interesting people in a very different environment than I had thirty years earlier when I was doing the arts, obviously. Gotcha. And it helped drive my interest in political management, which is the the source of my two books that I have out so far, is that we can do government better.
And I got to see the good and the bad, and I I have utmost respect for Bill Archer. He he was a great American. He served the country. He did a lot of good stuff, but I saw so much waste and ruin in Washington in my couple years of running the streets up there. And in any event, I was having difficulty making a living, but I was adjuncting. And my joke about adjuncting is because you get paid a pretty modest amount per course, you get no employee benefits, and they kept putting more and more obligations on us in terms of what you did outside the classroom to help that university.
So I was teaching courses for four different universities, and I said to people, I could bankrupt my way I could adjunct my way into bankruptcy, literally. Wow. And so, but the experience helped me, and I realized that, what I needed to do is to is to really make another big commitment like I had in high school to go to make get a scholarship to, nice colleges is, I went and took the, I I had zero because I've been out of school for twenty five years, literally. Mhmm. And, I had to take the GRE, the graduate record exam, which is how you get into, And, I did very well on the exam on people on. I had a lot of good experience in the years in between. Sure. And, I got some fellowship offers, and I got accepted at the University of Virginia, which is, was a top rated program.
Went down there for three years, did my PhD start to finish start to finish. My I was one year ahead of my cohort. I'm gonna give you an idea who the next oldest person in my cohort was twenty years younger than me. I mean, it was it was really interesting to be, you know, in that position. But, in any event, that was where I turned that switch and said, I'm gonna go focus on higher ed. I'm gonna become a tenured professor, and, this is what I'm gonna do. Fortunately, I was able to do, some, adjuncting while I was in graduate school in addition to my fellowship to allow me to, you know, keep the bills paid, during that time.
I do wanna volunteer one downside to this. When I finished my PhD, I was 55 years old, and, I filed about 100 applications and, got two interviews and no job offers. Oh, wow. And, it's called age discrimination. And I love it because, you know, higher ed is the DEI people and the all this stuff, and yet don't talk to them about age because, I don't care what color you are or what gender you are or what your sexual preference is. If you're over about 50 or 55 and certainly over 60, higher ed is not gonna give you a shot. And what happened was after recruiting for over two years, I was, I made a personal connection. So I networked my way into my first job, and I had a very good teaching assignment as a visiting professor for a year at a very good school. And, unfortunately, that was 08/2009.
And what happened in 08/2009? The big financial crash. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. The the market crash. And the university where I was work was working, teaching, their endowment went from, there was a big endowment. Their endowment went from $4,000,000,000 to $2,000,000,000 in a matter of months. Wow. And the university panicked and dumped all of their adjunct and visiting faculty, said, hey, guys. We're gonna focus on the people who already made tenure, and the rest of you have a nice life. So I was out of higher ed yet again for another year, and then, believe it or not, networked into a tenure track assignment Wow. At a university in the Greater Richmond area. And then three years later, networked my way into the current position at the University of Saint Thomas in Houston.
And I'm I'm very fortunate to be here in terms of, I'm very visible politically, and, they have been it's a relatively conservative school. I though interestingly, it's a Hispanic serving institution, but that just means that we're we have a lot of first gens. What's interesting for me talk about running full circle back to the beginning. Mhmm. I'm a first gen. My my dad and mom didn't go to college. In fact, I am the first person in my mother's family tree, as far as we know, to finish college. Oh, wow. And so when I talk to these kids and the the majority of these Hispanic students, we have about 35, 45 undergrads, sort of Hispanic.
Most of them have not have parents who have not been to college. That's the definition of first gen, and it's easy for me to relate to them. And that's why it's always interesting for me because people hear, oh, you're an Ivy Leaguer. You got three graduate degrees and all this jazz. But that doesn't mean that's where you came from. That means what you worked your butt off to get to. Right. Yeah.
[01:51:19] Unknown:
Well, I I understand what you're saying. I was a first gen, college student in my family. Mhmm. And, my daughter, actually, who I'm extremely proud of, my daughter graduated from Columbia with her master's, her MBA, last year. She graduated with honors, I think it was cum laude, all while all while taking care of her firstborn child, carrying her secondborn child, and working full time.
[01:51:42] Unknown:
You know, my phrase on that, women are absolutely, positively tougher than men. I mean, you you look at Amy Cullen Bryant on the on the Supreme Court. She's got six kids. Yeah. Yeah. We we see these women I mean, I'm I went to graduate school, before I had any kids, and then I went and got my PhD program after all the kids were out of the household. I had it easy compared to these working moms, and and it's it's so impressive. And, I had to help one of them get through my summer course, and, it it's amazing. A lady, is in her forties. She's come back to get her MBA.
Top student in my class, has adopted three
[01:52:30] Unknown:
challenged children. Oh, wow.
[01:52:32] Unknown:
I mean, it's like, I can't compete with first of all, you don't have to have a competition on it, but I can't compete with that. No. I I I agree with you. That that that's that's insane.
[01:52:43] Unknown:
So, you you, I wanna ask you a couple of questions about your books, because I'm I'm I've just noticed really how how much time we have left. So your books take a really hard look at US leadership over the last century. Yes. What's your core concern about how America's being governed today?
[01:53:00] Unknown:
Oh, hell. First of all, I I gave letter grades to presidents, Wilson through Obama, and that was because when the book was released in 2018, Trump had barely started his regime. And, we're gonna redo the book, and it's gonna be called Report Card on America, and it'll include Trump and Biden Okay. As best we can tell. But
[01:53:24] Unknown:
Biden or the auto patent?
[01:53:26] Unknown:
Yes. Well, all of that will be in there. And and, I'm not gonna talk about the grades, but the grades for, Biden are already in. Mhmm. The grade for Trump is not in yet because it's it's it's so up and down. I wanna really evaluate that, and, we may issue them a grade for first term versus second term. I'm still we're still debating some of that. Some of the stuff you go through in preproduction Oh, sure. Yeah. We're working on I can imagine. But, I think that our entire political system has gotten out of connection with America, and both of my books are focused on that.
One of the things I say in Bad Deal for America, which is a focus on the congress, is we've got to positively have term limits, number one. Agreed. Number two, we've gotta send those folks home. You know what? They should be living in their home district. Agreed. We've got all the encrypted communications that we could ever want today. They can have entire committee meetings and stuff. And you know what? What I observed in back when I was there in Washington, you know, twenty five years ago now, is let's get them separated from the lobbyists.
Let's get them separated from because they're you know, part of the justification, they make $200,000 a year, and they get all these bennies on top of it. It's equivalent to making 4 or 500,000 a year, is they don't need two houses. Because they'll say to you, oh, it's really expensive to live in DC. You know, I've gotta have a house here, and I have a house in my district. Of course, you heard about this Yeah. Is that, Schiff, you know, all these people are claiming two principal households to get mortgages and stuff. That's a big scandal, of course, that's recently blown up. But the point is, no. They don't need a principal residence. We we could build a dormitory or buy a couple old hotels in Washington when you absolutely have to be in Washington.
We'll put you up in a in a in a company paid barren little hotel room with a cafeteria in it. Hey. I know how to do this because that's what I lived in going through college. Right. Yeah. Living on $10 a week for food. And these guys can do it themselves, but I I we've got to reconnect their, their their life their commitment to us, the voters, and the taxpayers. That's that's a big concern. And I think the national debt is a symptom of the lack of connection. And one of the concerns that I have just even with the current administration, and I'm talking both about the Democrats and Republicans, this is a bipartisan colossal train wreck.
This successful, fantastic country of some of the hardest working people on the planet, Americans work more hours and put more in and are more productive than just about any other society in history. Yeah. And, and and and it's ridiculous that we've got 37,000,000,000,000 in in national debt. And what's interesting is that is not a fair number. Let me tell you why. And by the way, I wanna give credit to, somebody who's on your station, by the way, is is, is you may have heard across the country is Glenn Beck. Yes. Glenn Glenn Beck and a co author wrote a book, I I don't remember exactly, but came out around twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen that focuses on the the the
[01:57:06] Unknown:
indebtedness of The United States. I know the book you're talking about. I actually have a copy of it. I just cannot remember the name of it. Right. But, basically,
[01:57:14] Unknown:
the obligation at that time, ten years ago, was a $100,000,000,000,000 because what is not the national debt figure is like your checkbook. Mhmm. So they've got a negative checkbook of $37,000,000,000,000, but they have promised lifetime federal pensions to everybody who served in the military, which included my dad. Admittedly, my dad got a a federal pension.
[01:57:40] Unknown:
Which which is a 100% I agree with. They it should be. Yeah.
[01:57:44] Unknown:
Served in the navy for twenty eight and a half years, had a service connected disability. And then all those federal pensions that we've, offered to people over the years, that, by the way, does not include the incredible shortfall in Social Security That's right. And, and and, Medicaid and and Medicare. And one of the things is people talk about the entitlement. No. It's not an entitlement. You and I, since the time we were making our first paycheck in college or or high school, have been paying into that damn system. And ever since Medicare started, you and I have been paying into Medicare. Mhmm. That's not an entitlement.
That's called I bought insurance from these clowns in the federal government. Mhmm. Again, this is a bipartisan comment, and they have cheated us because they did something that they won't let private industry do. And, you know, I teach, in business law, I talk about ERISA. That's the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act. And, basically, it's a 1974 law that says you corporations, when you tell an employee they're gonna have a pension, that money has to be funded, and it has to be there when they get there. And and it protects it. The reason that's there is because in 1964, I'm a used to be an old car buff, not anymore.
Studebaker went broke. Right. And the union members found out that as Studebaker was going under, it was writing IOUs to its pension fund. Oh, wow. And only a certain percentage of those union members who thought they'd earned a pension ever got a pension. So they went screaming to Washington, remember, union members Mhmm. And said, you have got to make sure this never happens again. So as I say it in my classroom, congress, realizing this incredibly important situation, rushed to action. And a decade later, they passed ERISA. A decade. It took them to say, thou shalt not steal from your employee pension plan. What?
A decade to write that? And by the way, I'm I took a two hour course in law school on ERISA. It is the most complicated law you've ever seen for a very simple point, which is don't steal from your employees. Now the interesting thing is so in 1974, we say to corporations, if you promise a guy a pension, you better sure as hell have that money when the person is eligible for that pension under your rules. Why did we not do for the federal government at the same time and say, you have been promising since 1935 that if I pay into Social Security, it'll be there. It'll really be there. Right now, they're telling us that in 2030, and that's that's a short four and a half years from now Yeah. That they're gonna cut our benefits by one third because they've run us out of money. Well, why are we run out of money? Where did the the billions and billions and billions of dollars that we paid in the Social Security go? It is inexcusable
[02:01:04] Unknown:
in America that that has happened to us. The other thing too is that you don't even have a choice to really to to to get involved with Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid, whichever it is. I always get them confused. You're you're basically you gotta basically, got a gun pointed to your head and saying, you know, you will pay into this, and you may get something out of it later on. Yes. Which is which is horrible when you think about it. That's that's not the American way of doing things, and it should not be the American way of doing things. I'm gonna don't get me started on taxes and stuff like that too because I I I taxation is theft and it's immoral, but that's another issue. But, and I just wanna go back really quick to something you said about Congress because I I I like what you said about having, you know, set up dormitories, have them go there for a short period of time, do the business of government, and go back to the districts.
That is very important to me because if I remember correctly, doctor Meeby, you can correct my memory on this one. Maybe I'm right, wrong. I don't know. But originally, that's what Congress did. They went to they went to Philadelphia. They went to, and then eventually Washington. Only for a short period of time, and then they went back to their constituents. And that's where they stayed until they had to come back in session again. They didn't permanently stay at the capitol. They left. And on top of that, originally, they weren't given a salary. That's right. They had a stipend for while they were there, and that was it. And then they went back to their districts and continued on with their business. Right.
When did that change?
[02:02:32] Unknown:
Well, I don't know exactly when it changed, but there is a good reason to pay people because the people that were originally are the so called founding fathers and people like that were white guys of wealth. I mean, let's be blunt about it. In fact, a good half dozen of them were also slave owners, and, you know, my my my black friends won't let me forget that part either. And I'm not forgiving that. I understand. But the the point is is that, it it was part of the reality of the time. In order to allow all people to participate in government, we have to give them some type of of of stipend.
But one of the things I would do is take away one of my proposals, the Shine proposals to balance the US government budget, is to take away all federal pensions except the military. Mhmm. And the military pensions would be reworked because you can come out of high school, be in the military for twenty years, and then take a lifetime pension. No place in the world do we do that. Usually, then your pension, you've earned it. When you turn 65, then you start the pension. Right. That's not how a military pension works. Many of the people who come out of the military, not my dad personally, but I have a friend who, was a young officer, came out of college at 22, did years as a nuclear consultant.
[02:04:07] Unknown:
Yeah. We had a little little hiccup there. Lost you. I'm back.
[02:04:13] Unknown:
Yeah. But, anyway, it was it was kinda interesting. So we call that double dipping, but I I would not, I I think there's some controls that we could put in on that. But outside of the military, I would completely eliminate pensions. Virtually less than 10% of the private sector have pensions. I do not have a pension. Mhmm. And, I have a savings plan, and I've funded that as hard as I can. There's a tax break under for that, of course. And, I am really careful about how I plan my future because I have to be. And so I would replace the federal pension system with a, savings plan, and I think all of the state governments should follow suit because if we evaluate things, a lot of our state governments and a lot of our big cities are in trouble also.
[02:05:07] Unknown:
No. I agree with you. I totally agree with you in that. In, in Bad Deal for America, you critique Congress, and you use a lot of direct quotes from both parties. So what what common errors do you see, among our elected officials?
[02:05:21] Unknown:
Well, the first thing is most of these people have from both parties, and I I'll mention Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Chuck Grassley, one from each party. Mhmm. They have been in Washington far too long. They're disconnected, from the the real world. And then we have been electing some real bozos. I'm I'm gonna single out, Cory Booker as, he he he he gave a ridiculous speech the other day, just completely ridiculous. And, I do another webcast called Unscripted Politics Mhmm. Where, we have two liberals and me. We go at it for an hour Nice. With no script. Just we just go after it.
And one of the things I said to him is, look. If you look at the so called big beautiful bill, and I call it the I use the the Elon Musk terminology. It's an abomination. Yeah. Because I'm I'm so hardcore conservative. I want us to just cut, cut, cut. Agree. But in any event, there's an awful lot of stuff in there that sound like Democrat talking points. And I said, why don't you guys at least admit there's a whole lot of stuff? I mean, no tax on tips. As soon as that came out of Trump's month mouth, Kamala Harris picked it up the very next day. Right. Both of them ran on no tax on tips. It's now law and stuff like that. So I think that, it it's interesting. I would like to see us move towards, amateur politicians.
No no more lifetime politicians. Remember, Joe Biden was in politics over fifty years Yeah. Until he was mentally incompetent, obviously. Not all of them are. And and Trump's obviously I mean, Trump's just turned 79 years old. He's obviously sharp. Nancy Pelosi is four years older than Trump. She's perfectly sharp. I think she's a a greedy, nasty blank blank, but, she's, she's she's, she's she's kicking along there. So, I mean, the point is I think we we've got to get control. We, the people, have got to control the government. If it sounds like I'm a spokesman for conventional states, I'm not. But, unfortunately, I think that we are gonna need something like the conventional states to, to get to get term limits. And I and I'm my proposal is five years for president, one term, two years in the senate, ten years in the house, and those are max, max, max.
And, one of the things that's also been suggested, is age limit for the supreme court, the federal judges. Mhmm. And I I would support, something like that. Again, a lot of people are still sharp at 75. I sure hope I am when I get there as I I'm reasonably close and think I'm still pretty damn sharp. But the point is is that on average, you're gonna have people who have medical issues and things like that. In fact, Trump just had an age related medical issue. He has, venous insufficiency, which just means that his, he's sitting around too long, and his veins aren't working as well as they should to drive the blood back up to his heart. Right. And, of course, the left is running rampant with this.
[02:08:43] Unknown:
I I I scanned through some of the liberal rags, and and and you see you see all these head you know, Trump's health, worse than it is worse than it's being reported, his he looks terrible. He looks come on. Because they're trying to they're trying to, you know, get get back at at the conservatives for, you know, talking about Joe Biden and and all of his his issues. And, just to touch back on something you said with the with the no tax on tips and, you know, when when if it were a Democrat that put that forward and was in office and actually was trying to push this through, every single Democrat would be in line, lockstep behind it, pushing it, not getting all the blowback that they're getting or they did get, because it was Donald Trump putting it through.
[02:09:30] Unknown:
And that's my point exactly, is that that should not have happened at all. And it it was it's it's inexcusable what what was done there. I mean, it's just it's just inexcusable. And and I think this is part of where we've gotten today. This is the most whacked out in my lifetime that I've seen Democrat party. And I grew up close to Democrat party. My mom was voted Democrat. She's an Irish Catholic, and that was her thing. And, I grew up in Massachusetts, which was, you know, a bastion of liberalism. And, I saw the evils of it, but, you know, that was I was, I'm a outlier in my family for a while there.
And, so, hopefully, the there there's there's gonna be a return to some type of normalcy, on the sides of both political parties. And I do not feel that the, that the current Republican party has gone too far to the right. I think they've gone too far to the center in my opinion, and I agree with that. I'd like them to be more again, my long term criticism of the BBB, big beautiful bill, is that, we we gave them way too much, and yet
[02:10:48] Unknown:
no Democrat support. That's not that's not acceptable. That's ridiculous. I agree with you. I I totally agree with you. Well, we're over the 09:00 hour. Do you wanna you wanna go on for just a couple more minutes? I just have a few more questions that I'd like to throw your way. Hey. You're the host. I I I I'm glad to take a call. Well, I know you said earlier you need you want them to get home by 09:15. So I I yeah. I do wanna go home and get dinner. I haven't eaten dinner yet. I people say to me, well, why don't you take break at dinner?
[02:11:14] Unknown:
I usually eat late anyway because I usually work until about eight in the evening.
[02:11:18] Unknown:
I gotcha. I gotcha. Alright. So, let me ask you just, just one more question here, and then, and then we'll we'll wrap it up so you can get home. Alright. So, so you spent your whole life tackling leadership failures, bureaucracies, civic disconnect. What legacy do you hope to leave behind?
[02:11:36] Unknown:
Well, I have a couple more books out there, and I call my, webcast, which airs on Saturday. We air a new show each Saturday. It's called Saving America. And, I have a very modest objective. I I wanna help save America. We can't do it by ourselves, but to encourage people to think about some of the big ideas that I've talked about, which is, eliminating federal pensions and maybe in in turn eliminating state pensions, having everybody on the same type of system, which are savings plans, not pensions, unless you work for a very wealthy company, and to, pay off the national debt before my grandchildren have to start paying on it and my great grandchildren and our great grandchildren.
People have no idea how much money we're talking about. It's gotten so disconnected from reality. And I'm trying to remember. I was reading a book that that told me if you had a million dollars in thousand dollar bills, it's a stack this tall. If you have a billion dollars in thousand dollar bills, it's like the height of the the, Washington Monument. Imagine a trillion dollars in thousand dollar bills. I mean, it it's we can't conceive of that high a stack of dollars is we are really and the only reason that we're not Greece, that we're not some of these other countries that have literally run out of money is because we're The United States.
And most of the world respects the hell out of us and is willing to let us and is willing to buy our debt, including at least 2,000,000,000,000 of that debt is held by our mortal enemy, China. That's right. Yeah. I was gonna comment on that when you said that. Yeah. Yeah. And and so we we we've got to part of our security has gotta be getting control of things. And we do need to spend money smarter. And people say, well, don't you know, you're a hardcore pro military anti commie person. You know, what about all the money we dump in the military? I actually think that we can run the military for a great deal less, and I'm hoping that Pete Hegseth, during his term, will make some improvements because we don't need we're not gonna fight the you know, I know Ukraine and Russia are fighting an old war.
Guess what? Most of the war is now being fought with drones and missiles. That's right. Yeah. And so and and we've gotta come up with cheaper ways to make drones and missiles. Yes. The the things that I think are gonna be the key things we need to spend money on are not aircraft carriers, by the way, not aircraft carriers, which are very expensive. They're just big sitting ducks, is we need nuclear submarines. Yeah. You notice Trump just put two nuclear submarines over toward Russia. Yeah. What's the message there? Nuclear submarines, incredibly hard to defend against, and we make the best in the world. We need to make a bunch more.
And something that's controversial, we need to control space. And I know I'm gonna sound like I've watched too many episodes of Star Wars or Star Trek. For the record, I've never seen any of any of those movies. Really? Yeah. It's just not of interest to me. But we have to be in a situation where when the so called pushing the red button, you know, the president travels with the special phone Yeah. We blow up every every capsule that's up there that doesn't belong to one of us or our allies. We have the technology to do that, and it doesn't cost a trillion dollars a year. But I think we need to focus our money. We don't need to have as many people working for us because it's a war of technology. It's not gonna be a war of people standing in the trenches. Yeah. And so I I think I envision a very different future for us and a more affordable future. And I think if we do this right, we're gonna win what I called Cold War two because that's where we are today. We're in the second Cold War. I vividly remember because I grew up my entire life or until the 1990 under Cold War one. All of my sentient life, I was aware we were in the Cold War, especially coming from a military family.
And we're back in it, and, we need to win it again. I agree with you. Alright. Doctor. Schein,
[02:16:08] Unknown:
one thing before I say goodbye, I I do wanna extend another invitation to you to come on the show again. I have a lot of stuff that I still wanna talk to you about. I wanna talk to you about Claremont Management. I wanna talk to you still about more about your books, the two podcasts that you do, the Saving America and, what's the other one the other was a Business Law one zero one or or something to that effect? We have average over 900,000
[02:16:29] Unknown:
hits a month for business law one zero one. So two and a half minute segment on current legal developments that runs after the new news on the Apple Brushwood network. Oh, awesome. And, that's been pretty cool. And then we I'd in in addition, I do saving America. And as I mentioned, I'm cohosted with, great guy Kevin McDonald as our lead liberal, and, he and I go at it for an hour each Saturday on unscripted politics.
[02:16:57] Unknown:
That's awesome. And so, again, again, like I said, I'll reach out to your folks, and we'll we'll get you back on the show so we can talk about all that stuff in more detail. So, in the in the interim, where can we go to find your books? Where can we get your podcast, your consulting services?
[02:17:11] Unknown:
Well, I'm I'm everywhere, but, basically, both books are available on Amazon. That's the easiest, fastest place. I am at clairemontmanagementgroup.com.
[02:17:22] Unknown:
That's the easiest thing. I'm active on LinkedIn and other social media. And the only thing everybody needs to know is my last name is spelled s c h e I n, six letters, and you'll be able to find me. Outstanding. And we'll make sure we have all of that included in the show notes. I think they already are, but we'll we'll just make sure that they're all in there and double check on that. Doctor Schein, thank you so much for spending your evening with us. Now go home, get something to eat, and, we'll, we'll get in touch with you and and get you back on the show again soon.
[02:17:49] Unknown:
I'm looking forward to it. And thank you so much, Joe. I appreciate the invitation. It's been great visiting with you. I appreciate it, sir. Thank you very much. You have a great night. Take care. You too now. Alright, folks.
[02:18:00] Unknown:
This is The Joe Russo. It's a live show every every Wednesday. Listen to me. Weeknights weeknights 7PM central time. Make sure you check it out, live on Rumble. And, just get the Rumble app. Just download it on your phone. It is absolutely free, free to watch the show. And just don't forget, though, we are now part of the Rumble Creators Program. So that means that some of our show is gonna be shut off at some point and going over to a Rumble premium service, which you can click that little button on the bottom of your window there that says Rumble Premium. You get to all the details about that. Alright, folks. So as always, just wanna give our shout outs to our executive producer, Wayne Rankin, Rosanna Rankin, Carolina Jimenez. And I said it incorrectly on purpose because I know that she's watching and she always corrects me when I say it wrong. Marissa Lee, and then of course to our our fabulous producer, anonymous Angela, which a long story doctor, he'll have to explain to you at the time. So, anonymous Angela, thank you so much for all the work that you guys have been doing, with the show. Thank you very much for all of your help. And if you wanna get involved and help us out, remember this is a value for value show.
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Alright. Well, folks, I think that will just about do it for us for tonight. So, again, thank you for taking the time to be with us tonight. Head on over to the website, joeroos.com. Joeroos.com. Click on that contact section. Send us over any questions, comments, cares, concerns. Let us know what you're thinking. And folks, listen. Let's make Texas independent again. Go podcasting. Keep a steady stride and keep talking. Good night, folks.
Alrighty. Hey, folks. This is Joe Roos. It is nineteen hundred hours on Monday, 08/04/2025, and we are transmitting to you live from the Asylum Studios, broadcasting from the pimple on the backside of Texas, the beautiful city of Eagle Pass, and doing the very best we can to bring you the best quality talk radio we can muster without all the bluster. Welcome to the Joe Ruse Show. Alrighty. Well, folks, I hope you guys are doing alright. Hope you guys had a great weekend, and I hope you're ready for another week. We have a lot to do this week.
We got a bunch of stuff going on here with the show. We got a lot of changes, and programming, and scheduling, and all kinds of stuff. And, hey, folks, do me a favor, let me know. Drop a message in the chat if you could, how the audio sounds to you. I'm trying out, well, not that I'm trying out. Had a little problem with my regular mic, so I went to, my old standby here, my Shure SM seven. And, sounds a little bit different in the cans here. So let me know how it sounds to you. Drop a comment down below if you don't mind. I'd appreciate that. Alright. So, again, we got a lot of stuff going on this week. We got a lot of shows to do. We got a lot of things coming down. Wanna remind you of our show tomorrow, our debut show of the Do No Harm, episode of the Joe Russo. So we're looking forward to that. We'll be with Svetlana Ryilkov and our sponsors over at Ezra Healing. Now, folks, if you don't know who Ezra Healing is or what Ezra Healing is, Ezra Healing is a substantial part of the new wellness paradigm currently being born in North America and around the globe.
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That's ezrahealing.com. And, if you do reach out to anybody over there or speak to anybody, hey, let them know that you heard about it right here on the Joe Russo. Let them know that their money is being very well spent. Alright. Now, let's see what else we got here. Just a quick little bit of housekeeping before we, bring in our guest. So, so folks, head over to our website, joroos.com. That's joroos.com. And when you get over there, don't forget to check out our contact section, open up that thing. Send us over any questions, comments, cares, or concerns that you have. Also, don't forget don't forget.
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Let's see. What else do we got here? Oh, Deb, don't forget. This is a live show, weeknights, 7PM central time, 8PM eastern time, available to you across all of your favorite podcast platforms, actually broadcasting live across several of your favorite podcasting platforms, and, also, it will help me download later on in the, in the evening. Also, we are we are streaming exclusively on Rumble. We're not on YouTube. We're not streaming to Facebook. Right now, we're on x and Twitch. But you know what? Rumble Premium. We are a Rumble Premium, member, so we are going to, be cutting those streams very, very soon. So if you wanna check out the content, you're gonna have to come on over to Rumble. So just head over to rumble.com/joeroos or download the app from your phone in your app store. It's free. It's free to download. It's free to sign up, and, free to follow the show. Alright? But if you wanna do it ad free, get a Rumble premium subscription, and you get exclusive content, and, also, no ads, which is always a lot it's always fun. Nice. Right? Yeah. Alright. And you can get that for as low as $9.99 a month or $99 for the year. Alright. And that's through Rumble.
Alright. Well, with that said, let's, let's bring in our guest. So tonight's guest has lived through chaos, guilt, addiction, and ultimately redemption. Damian Bloss spent twenty years in active addiction, silently battling the trauma of losing a close family member to suicide. He carried that secret and the guilt that came with it, numbing himself with alcohol until the pain could no longer be buried. Now five years sober, Damien has not only rebuilt his life, but he's using his life story to help others. He mentors inmates at his local detention center, speaks regularly at rehab facilities, runs a mental health and addiction recovery group at his church, and even has written a book detailing his journey.
Damien joins us tonight to talk about mental health, addiction, guilt, faith, and healing, and, of course, what it truly means to reclaim your life. Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to welcome Damien Bloss to the Joe Russo. Damien, are you out there? Hey, Joe. Hey. How are you? Damien, great to see you, man. Great great to thanks for being on the show tonight. Your Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Oh, no. It's it's a it's a privilege, believe me. Your story, has a lot of, a lot of personal things for me because I I've been through some of the things that, you've been gone you've gone through, and, similarly similarly went down a very, a path that you went down as well.
And, just, really starting to recover from all of that. So, so your story really resonated with me when I read it, and, that's why I wanted to get you on the show. And I'm I'm really glad you were able to, work that out. So, let me ask you this. So what what's something that most people don't know about you but should?
[00:07:59] Unknown:
Oh, man. I'm pretty much an open book nowadays, but I'd have to say I don't know if you should know it, but something interesting is that, you know, I'm I'm getting back to my my nerd roots, after, you know, I I like, with the comics behind me and and I got comics there. I got a mini arcade here and Those are comics. I thought I thought those I they look like video game cases. Oh, yeah. No. They're they're comics. So I'm just trying to get, like, you know, when I was when I was younger, I was into comics a lot, got rid of them. They they, you know, got ruined or whatever. So now I'm trying to get back to that. Some of those, comics though are a bit out of reach, financially,
[00:08:44] Unknown:
so maybe one day. But, you know I gotcha. I used to collect comics when I was a kid, and I was very upset when, after my parents passed away and we were going through, their attic. I had left a box of really expensive comic books up there, and, they were not in the attic where I thought I left them. And I have no idea what happened to them, where they are, and
[00:09:07] Unknown:
Yeah. That's the worst. I have some I'm trying to figure out, like, what if what if I had something really good? I had some really old Spider Man cart, comics.
[00:09:15] Unknown:
We're talking, early double digits in the Spider Man ones. Oh, wow. So, you know, it it was pretty decent collection. I'm really kinda disturbed by the fact that he disappeared. Like, I can't imagine my my would be I can't imagine my dad going through the attic and saying, oh, I'm gonna sell those comic books and not tell him. Okay. But then again, knowing my dad, you know, you never my dad had that kind of sense of humor, so you never know. You don't really know. But, let me just fix one thing here. Hold on. Okay. There we go. I got this tickle in my throat for the last few shows. It's driving me crazy. It kicks up at the worst possible time. So let me ask you this.
When life gets really hectic for you, what's what's your go to activity to help you unwind?
[00:10:05] Unknown:
I love playing golf, and and it it's something about it is very relaxing. Although it took me a while to get back into it because I used to associate that with my drinking. So Oh, really? It took me a while to get back to that and actually have love for it and, you know, take it in as a relaxing time. But that would be my go to, most definitely.
[00:10:30] Unknown:
I I I I a lot of a lot of the guests that I've had in the show, all talk about golf, and I I, you know, I don't play. I I I'm starting to get the hint that maybe, you know, maybe the Lord's telling me, you know, you need to start doing something to relax a little bit. So maybe I should take up golf. And I don't live too far. There's there's a really there's a really nice golf course not too far from here. It's a public course, that the city runs. So it's, it's not it's not too bad. So I'm I'm gonna have to go check it out. Hey. You should definitely check it out. It is very relaxing. Like, if if you can stand
[00:11:01] Unknown:
to hit a bad shot and not get not get upset, which, you know, it can happen. I'm done. Then, I'd say you're you're good. You you'll be able to do it. Well, I think I I think I'd be done already because, I I
[00:11:13] Unknown:
I I whatever I do has to be done as perfectly as possible. That's why I get so frustrated with the show sometimes because, you know, we you have little technical problems here and there, and it drives you crazy because you're pretty much a one man operation doing everything, you know, from the tech support to all that stuff. And little things happen, and I get frustrated, and I get aggravated, and I wanna throw it all out the window, you know. So I can only imagine what it would be like for me on a golf course if I miss a putt or something like that, because I also know how I get when I play miniature golf. So super competitive with that, you know. I argue over the little things. So it's it's it's enough though. Alright. So so, you're you're you're you have a great story. And, I really wanna kinda get into, you know, what the turning point for you was. You know, how how did losing your loved one, I guess, shape your path and, and and and that relationship that you eventually developed with alcohol?
[00:12:10] Unknown:
Yeah. So, like, my whole family has always been very close. You know, and I I've experienced death, of course, and things like that, but never to the extent of suicide. And, you know, I was young. I was 18, 18, 19 years old. And, it like, you see the, you know, movies and things like that, and you never think it's like that's that's gonna happen in my family or something like that. And it's like, when it happened, it completely wrecked me. And and for the simple fact that I was the only one that that he expressed that he wanted to do this, And I don't know why he would confide that in me, but he only expressed that to me. But, like, he would he would joke about it and say, I'm just I'm just kidding. That's not gonna happen. Don't but then he would also in turn say, don't tell anybody that I I said this. And, you know, being that young and not realizing, like, because it never happened to me, I didn't say anything. And when it when it actually did happen, you know, now I'm stuck with with this guilt and it's like, you know, I'm I'm mad at him for leaving this on me, but it's not his fault and, you know, realizing it now. It's not it's it it wasn't something that he purposefully did to me.
It wasn't an excuse for me to do what I did, but it it wrecked me. And, so, yeah, I I for about six months or so after, I would wake up. I I'd have nightmares. I'm waking up at at the same time midnight on the dot every single night. I can't sleep. I'm I'm literally driving myself crazy. And, you know, I turn to to alcohol to when I when I first got that feeling of, man, I don't I don't have to think about this anymore. I don't have to, feel guilty about this anymore. And I started really suppressing all those emotions to where it was nearly impossible or near nearly gone.
And, you know, that was that was the point where I was like, this is my solution. This is how I'm gonna forget about all of that. And it, you know, it snowballed from there. You know, I I cut I can understand that because, about three years ago,
[00:14:37] Unknown:
my my audience heard this story a 100 times already, so that's no no surprise to them. But, about three years ago, something very similar happened. I I lost, in the matter of a year and a half, I lost my dad in order. My dad, my grandmother six months later, while I was up up in New York burying my grandmother. I say my little boy, but everybody thinks I'm talking about a child. I'm not. I'm talking about my my dog. My little boy died while I was up burying my grandmother in New York. It was a horrible accident that that took his life. And then came back, lost my wife to, to a divorce within well, within six months of getting back from losing my grandmother, that's when she sprung that on me.
And then, right after I moved out into the into my into the house that I'm in now, which was just a few months later, my mother died. So through all of that, in less than in about a year and a half, I ended up going back to the bottle after I'd been away from it for twenty five years. And, it's taken me, so far now, three years to get away from it. So but doing great now, though, you know, but it it's, it's a struggle every day. There there are days, and I'm sure you understand, and I hope I'm not saying anything out of line for you. But, you know, there are days where that's what I want. I just, you know, I I need it, but I don't do it. So so we're, you know, it's a struggle, but we're there. I think that's why I did the podcast. That's why I couldn't get to stay away from it. You know? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, dang, man. I'm sorry to hear that. I mean, that's a that's a lot of things to happen.
[00:16:17] Unknown:
Like, in such a short amount of time, I could I can see, you know, this this disease is like it's it's always calling our name. It's always waiting there for us. Yeah. It's just waiting for that perfect opportunity. And, unfortunately, you know, it it I'm sure it wasn't a choice to go back, you know, but it happened because you were vulnerable, because all this stuff happened and you're like, you know, I need something to escape and I know how to escape because I did it for so long. You know? Exactly right. And you're absolutely right. Like, it's it's a constant battle no matter how how long you have in in recovery.
It it's always there. Just waiting for that opportunity and just, you know, just, you know, just
[00:17:03] Unknown:
I I can't wait for you. I or I'm gonna wait for you for as long as I can until you budge. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's a it's a tough tough thing to go through, but you know what? You got good people around you. You got good support around you. And, and that's that's the main thing. Plus, I have my faith, you know. I I did turn I did turn away from it a little bit. I got a little bit bitter, you know. But, you know, that was just, I think, is natural and normal for something to happen, and the lord understands. And, you know, but you're back on your feet again. That's the and that's the important thing. So, but but you take us back to, the moment that when you realized that you knew something had to change.
[00:17:36] Unknown:
Yeah. So, there were multiple times that I knew something had to change. I knew that I didn't wanna be I didn't wanna live this life, any longer. And, you know, so when it really got to the point to where I knew that I needed to, completely just stop. It was about five years ago, and I, I'm trying to think here. I had to I I I lost track of, you know, my faith. And in fact, I never really had that relationship with, with God at that point. And all it was was that, I'm sorry. Oh, you're fine. Something here. So, yeah, I I lost track of of faith, and my relationship with god was just it. I believed, and that's it.
So at the point where I was, I I had this pastor's phone number in my phone. My dad had given me his number because he wanted me to call him. And, because my dad didn't know how to get me out of this. And, he was just trying every everything he could. Right. So he gives me this pastor's number, and I, I never called him. And the day that I actually called him, it was by accident. And I, I was in the process of texting my wife to let her know that, I was not gonna be able to pick up the kids. And it was because I was no longer gonna be here. And it was at that moment, I was, you know, ruffling through my phone and everything, and I accidentally called this pastor. And I had never talked to him before. I saw the phone was ringing, and I couldn't do anything. I froze. I'm like, what am I gonna do? Why am I calling this guy? And he picks up and, you know, at that point, I just break down. I'm like, I don't know what to do. I I need help, some kind of help. I don't know what you can help me with, but I need that. And he agreed to, come with me, or meet with me at this coffee shop down the road.
And, we got there, and he asked me to pray. And I had never prayed ever before in my life, and I don't remember what what it was that I prayed about either. And, when I did, something felt great. Like, this whole weight was lifted off of me. And after that, we we parted our ways. We talked a lot, and I went home and I texted my wife. I was like, hey. I'm I'm not gonna be able to pick up the kids. But this time, it wasn't because I wasn't gonna be here. It was because I knew that I needed help, and I reached out to a rehab here locally, Ashley treatment center.
And I checked myself in, and, you know, that was that was the time that was when I knew. You know, I swore I would never do what I well, my family member did, to everyone in the family. Mhmm. And because that was not my mentality. Sober. I was never never wanted to do something like that. So, that was that was really the turning point where I I knew I needed help.
[00:21:23] Unknown:
How do you think that if how do you how do you think the that addiction, affected the way other people saw you?
[00:21:33] Unknown:
They just did not trust me. There was there was no trust. There was, you know, they they loved me and loved on me, but they never thought that that I was ever gonna change. You know, and and I'm very lucky that my wife stuck around. I I don't know how she did it. Even to this day, she'll tell me, and I'm just like, I I don't I don't understand. I'll never understand that. And that's the the greatest thing about her love for me, and then I can see that. But, I mean, I I've ruined relationships. I've ruined everybody I came in contact with Wow. Completely just lost every everybody pretty much.
And some relationships I've been able to get back, some I haven't, and I've had to deal with that. And, but, yeah, I I I've ruined a lot. And, you know, I would always my my always my go to always was, I'm sorry, you know Right. With no change behavior. Just I apologize, but I won't do it again, you know, things like that. And, but, yeah, that but now everything is is getting getting back to normal.
[00:22:56] Unknown:
How about how about yourself? How did you see yourself through the whole process?
[00:23:02] Unknown:
I I hated myself. Mhmm. I I couldn't look in the mirror and see someone who was gonna be something. When I looked in the mirror, I I saw, it was a look of just absolute disgust because I couldn't I couldn't even I didn't even know who that person was. And, you know, I I I I just did not feel welcome in my own skin. I know how you feel. Yeah. Which led and it it led to the depression to where I don't wanna be here anymore. And, you know, it was the disease was telling me this is gonna be your only way out. You've tried rehab. You've been to jail. Your only your only outlet now is to take yourself out, and, luckily, I, you know, did not.
[00:23:55] Unknown:
Yeah. Well, thank God for that, Miller. You know, that's again, you know, similar experiences, you know, the whole time that I was going through my problem, you know, I've thought about it many times, came close many times, to actually, you know, going through with it. And it's it's it's a tough thing, and a lot of people that people that don't go through stuff like that don't really understand it. And it's and it's hard to help it's hard to make them understand it or or or help them to understand it. Like you, I've I've, you know, I've lost friendships. I've lost relationships, over it over the course of the of these three years, you know, because it's it's, because it's a struggle to kind of find yourself again.
And, I know rehabs are great. I I, you know, I I never had gone through a rehab program. I just I kinda did it on my own, but, you know, a lot of people that I know that do go through rehabs, I mean, it's it's a tough, tough thing. I know somebody personally who's who's gone through rehab, just recently came out of rehab. And, I mean, thank God, you know, he's doing good. He's, you know, he's holding steady. But, you know, that that that it's just that one moment, that one opportunity that presents itself that says, hey. You know what? You can't do this. You're you know, who who do you think you are? You know, and you can fall right back into it. It's not the it's not as easy as, well, just stop. I mean, how many times have people said that to you? Well, just stop. Yeah. Tons. Just don't go get it. Tons. Don't go buy it. Don't go there. Go into yeah. Okay. Fine. I'll I'll keep that in mind. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Like like I I can do it. Why can't you? Like this is like like like I really wanna go and spend that money on a on a bottle and and and and and do that, you know.
It's a numbing thing that you look it's it's to take that pain and that that that sadness out of out of yourself. It's it's not it's not just as simple as saying, no. No. No. Yeah. You're right. I never thought about that. And I'm not gonna come. I'm just not gonna go to the store and get it. Yeah. It it's Right. It it it just makes you it makes you laugh. And then my sarcastic behind them, what I do is I'll go and get it, and I'll take pictures of it and send it to the person. Hey. Look. Guess what? You know?
So, you know, I'm not that I'm not like that now. I'm I'm fine now. You said I was drinking my blue stuff. I'm good. I'm, you know, I'm feeling good. Yeah. That's a plug, by the way. Absolutely. That was my plug. Put your your plug. Yeah. Yeah. For the alexjonesstore.com/joe. Get yourself some methylene blue. It's great.
[00:26:18] Unknown:
So
[00:26:20] Unknown:
Nice.
[00:26:21] Unknown:
You gotta get it in wherever you can, man. You know? Yeah. You gotta squeeze it in there. That's all good. Absolutely. So let me ask you. So so what what do you say to someone that's that's grieving silently and and then turning to substances, whether it's alcohol, drugs, whatever it is, to to try to cope with that? What would you say to someone?
[00:26:42] Unknown:
You're not alone, because in that moment, no matter how many people are around you, no matter how many people are in your life, you feel alone. And you're not. You know, that is the hardest place that you're ever gonna be is is in your own mind. You know, that's the like, they always say too, that's that's the worst prison you're ever gonna live in, is in your own mind. And what I would tell someone is that because I'd I'd lived in in silence for so long as well, and and most of us do. And it's because of the the judgments and things like that and, the the stigma behind everything. What I would tell that those people is that, you know, you aren't alone. There are there are ways to get out of this. And and to be honest, none of us want to be addicted. None of us wanna live in that hell. You know? So for, for someone to say or or think like, oh, they they chose to be there. It's not that we're choosing to be there.
And and the help that I would suggest getting is because addiction, is is brought on by so much mostly trauma. I felt I I've I had a great deal of of help in, trauma therapy. Mhmm. And, you know, getting to the root of that problem is what's gonna get you out of and and not out of addiction, but get you out of yourself. Find out what is going on deep within you. And you gotta get real with yourself. And and that's that's very hard too. You know? Try, you know, admitting that there is so much going on down there, you know, deep within you, it is very hard to to speak out loud. Yeah.
But, you know, that's that's the best way that I would say. And and also, when we get sober, don't just get sober. We've we have to grow. And, you know, our our greatest weapon is our mindset. Once you start shifting that mindset to a to a growth mindset, so many things will change. So don't stop at just getting sober if you're on that in on that journey.
[00:29:05] Unknown:
So what was rehab like for you?
[00:29:09] Unknown:
It it the I would say the first week or two, or week, maybe a couple days, was hell. I knew that while I was there, I this was it. Like, there there was no no way I could go back to that life any longer. So I knew that I had to do this. And so after after I got comfortable about a week, I started just paying attention. The counselors tell me they want me to do something. I'm gonna do it. I'm reading books. I'm doing research. I wanna find out what is actually going on with me. What made me go here? Like, I didn't know the reason why was the trauma that I that I ran into early on.
So I wanted to know everything. I paid attention. I didn't go there to make friends. I did what I had to do. And when I got out of there, I knew exactly what path I wanted to be on, and I stayed on that path. You know, things tried to knock me off, and, I had to deal with that. I I was able to get the resources and the tools that I needed in order to combat those those struggles that are gonna happen.
[00:30:26] Unknown:
What did you, what did you learn that that, while you were there that really sticks with you today?
[00:30:36] Unknown:
Well, the it's hard because there's not one single thing Yeah. That I was able to learn, you know, But I learned a lot about myself, about who I am and who I'm meant to be. You know, for for years, I was in a place where I was meant to be an addict or an alcoholic. That was that was who I was gonna be. Nothing was gonna change that. You know, growing up when I was younger, I wanted to be a professional baseball player, and I played for years playing baseball. And I just threw everything away. So it's like I knew what I wanted to be. Now I'm not gonna be that. You know, I'm not gonna be a professional baseball player, but I'm gonna be who I was meant to be all along, and that's a better person than I was.
[00:31:27] Unknown:
So, so what strategies did you did you did you learn that helped you the most in dealing with the, with the cravings, with the triggers, that that that we we all come across every single day?
[00:31:42] Unknown:
Yeah. Accountability, I learned, is is very huge. And when I say account accountability, I'm talking about when I do get those cravings or those urges to immediately speak up about it. Mhmm. Before you know, when I would try before, getting sober, I would never talk out loud about it, because I was mentally setting myself up to go back. That way, if I did, I wouldn't have to explain to anyone that I told already that I was gonna quit. Mhmm. I wouldn't have to explain it. I just, you know, continue doing what I was doing. So accountability was was huge for me, and it was it was tough. That was probably the toughest because I had lied. I mean, everything that came out of my mouth was always was was pretty much a lie at that you know, going through that.
So now I'm having to be honest with my not not only everyone else, but more importantly myself because I would lie to myself and and, you know, talk myself into things. So, yeah, I I would say that would be the the biggest thing that I learned, and it's very important.
[00:32:52] Unknown:
And, like, we talked before also about having a good support system, people around you that that that are that that that are there for you to help you, support you, lift you up when you when they see you starting to fall down or when you actually reach out to them and let them know, hey. Look. I'm having a problem. I need to do something about this. So for you, who were those key players that that were involved?
[00:33:11] Unknown:
My wife, number one. You know, she was through she was with me through the worst of it. But she knew me better than anyone else. So she was my rock. She understood. She went through a family wellness program to find out, you know, how to deal with me, going in recovery and what was going on with me in my addiction. You know, she she went through all that. And so she let me lean on her when I would have those cravings and instead of lashing out at me and saying, oh, you're gonna go right back to what you were doing, she would say, okay. Talk about it.
And it it gave me a sense of, you know, awareness, and and where I belong. And it it was so cool for her to be like that because she didn't have to. You know, She didn't she didn't have to love me. She didn't have to stay. She doesn't have to do half the things that she does. You know? She's involved with my, mental health and addiction group. You know? She doesn't have to do all that, but she does because she cares. Right. And, so she is definitely
[00:34:30] Unknown:
my my biggest support. And and that's so important to have that, especially from your wife, because a lot a lot of marriages fall apart, you know, because of these because of these problems, these addictions, and and alcoholism and all that. They they tend to wreck relationships. They tend to, to destroy your marriage. They destroy your relationship with your children, with spouse, anybody that that comes in contact, the potential is there. And that's tough. And re and and then when you and then when you're going through the problem and you're going through the process of of of recovery from these things, you know, you have to also look at the relationships that were damaged and try to rebuild those things, you know, and and try to gain that trust back. Now how do you do that though?
[00:35:14] Unknown:
Yeah. Much more than than apologizing. You know, your actions speak way louder. And that sounds cliche and things like that, but it's it's a 100% true. And I never realized that. I never realized that I could I could show somebody that that I mean what I say without having to to mouth the words, I I'm sorry or I apologize. You know, I've I've been able to rebuild that trust with my wife by those actions. And she was the biggest one that I needed to win that trust back. And it was it was something that I didn't I didn't have to force Yeah. To to happen.
It it came naturally with the the growing and and self awareness and and, you know, things that I was doing to repair myself. So, yeah, that that that was and and even with the relationships that I that I ruined, I was able to rebuild those without any words, with just by my actions, just how they can see the the person I am now was not the person I was. And, you know, and they may not forget what I've what I may have done it in the past, but
[00:36:36] Unknown:
they're able to forgive, and that was the the big thing. Now at what point did you did you decide that you were gonna sit down and write a book?
[00:36:46] Unknown:
It was about three, four years ago, because I I never planned on writing anything. Mhmm. What I would do first before I even thought about writing a book, I I would journal a lot. And, you know, I I learned that in therapy that, you know, writing those things down, it makes it more real. And, and it's very therapeutic. So as I'm writing, I'm like, I could probably put this into a book format and and help others because that was that was another thing that I wanted to do when I started this group is that I wanted to help others. I wanted because I knew there was others that were like me struggling in silence. And, so that was really how it came about is just me journaling and saying, how can I reach others outside of this community, outside of my group, outside of, you know, this state that I'm that I'm in?
So I decided I'm gonna write a book. And, and and therapeutic was that. That was that was even better than journaling because I had to, you know, I went I took myself back to that place for the first time in forever, that that got me there. So it was very, a lot of tears, a lot of a lot of,
[00:38:13] Unknown:
laughs, but, you know, a lot of tears. Right. And, you know, I I was looking through my notes here. I I I thought I I thought I included the name of your book. I don't have it in here. But so what was the name of your book?
[00:38:24] Unknown:
Sure. It's Breaking the Silence, My Journey from Addiction to Healing.
[00:38:29] Unknown:
And where can they get it?
[00:38:32] Unknown:
It's on, all major online retailers, but I've noticed that the most common is, Amazon. Surprise.
[00:38:40] Unknown:
Yeah. Right. Everybody's everybody gets everything from Amazon. Exactly. Okay. So we'll we'll I'll make sure that I have all that information included in the show notes, so folks can track it down and find it. So right in the book, it was therapeutic experience for you. It helped you through this whole thing. And, and now, you you mentor inmates and you run a church ministry. So what what called you to give back in in those specific kind of ways?
[00:39:10] Unknown:
Basically, because I knew there were other people like me. And, you know, when I help others, it also helps me. So, you know, it's kinda a a give and take kinda thing. But when I noticed that people were actually responding to the help that I was giving Mhmm. And, like, I don't need to be patted on the back or anything, you know, or it was nothing like that. But when people would say, oh, you what you're saying this, it kinda helped me and, you know, things like that. And I'm like, alright. I'm gonna I really wanna, you know, help others and and see what I can do. So, I started the group, first.
The and it's also breaking the silence. And my the the pastor that that helped me in the very beginning, he knew the chaplain at the local detention center, and, he reached out to them to see if they were doing anything, mentoring and things. And, so he got me into there, and now I go up there on a weekly basis. And I've been doing that for about four three three or four years now, going up there and, you know, everyone that has drug and alcohol offenses and, you know, things like that. The, the director for the mental health and addiction counseling up there will refer me, and then I'll go over there. And, it's a very eye opening experience because, especially for those guys where, you know, they're on the other side of the glass, and they think that everything is done. Their their world is completely over. Right. You know? Yeah. And, that that jumpsuit is defining them and and things like that.
And just letting them know that they're you can get a second chance.
[00:41:02] Unknown:
And, you know, I I've had very good responses from that. And how how how has helping other people like this helped you in your recovery?
[00:41:11] Unknown:
When I'm able to talk about it and able to share my story, it it reminds me because I never wanna forget where I came from. Mhmm. I'm afraid that if I ever forget where I came from, I'll go back. So for me to be able to, you know, tell my story and and tell my experiences and things like that, it it takes me it it reminds me of how good that I can I can have it and where I came from to where I am now and who I'm able to become? You know, it just keeps that reminder right there in the back of my mind. That's interesting that you said that too because,
[00:41:53] Unknown:
you said that not forgetting where you came from. I had a boss who who said that to me, before I I I left one position within the agency I worked for to another. And, you know, a lot of times when when you go through an addiction or or you you struggle with alcohol or or any type of drug, period, you you do tend to forget, you know, what you've been through and and just how strong you really are. And, that exact phrase is something that has been playing around in my mind up until the day up until had been playing around in my mind, up until the day that I decided, you know what? I'm done with this. I don't wanna do this anymore. Is that it just had a rattle around my head. You're forgetting who you are. You're forgetting yourself. You're forgetting the things that you've been through, that you've come through without this stuff.
Because don't because don't think that for twenty five years, there wasn't issues and problems that came up that were were were daunting and, really problematic, and I never fell back into it. You know? And so it's it's so interesting that you said that so that I had to write it down to to remind myself to mention it to you before I forgot it because my memory is getting to be like Swiss cheese these days. But, you know, it's it's, you know, but but that's that's such an important concept. Don't forget who you are. Don't forget where you came from. That is so important. So I I appreciate that. Thank you. I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, man. So Sure. Give us a give us a story of, of something that really stuck with you from, one of your mentorship experiences.
[00:43:35] Unknown:
There's a guy that, he was doing probably the longest time there. Mhmm. And, he when I first I met with him the first time, and he was he was there for two years, and then he was gonna go away, to actual prison. And, you know, he he when he would meet with his his mentor up there or not his mentor, but, the director of mental health and addiction, resources up there, he would always say, is Damien coming back next week? And she would tell me this and, you know, after a while, it just she stopped. But he would tell me or he would tell her, like, is he definitely coming up? I wanna see him and and, you know, I I love where his head's at and, like, we've we've grown this relationship as a friendship and things like that.
And, you know, she would tell me these things and I'm like, you know, I I I can't believe it at first because why me? Right? Yeah. I've never been someone to look up to as a leadership type or, you know, things like that. And this guy is actually looking up to me for guidance, and it made me feel really good. And he is the longest one that I've talked to. He still keeps in contact to this day. It's been about four years now. And, you know, even from prison and, you know, he's always like, you know, when we when I get out and, I'm definitely gonna hit your hit your meetings up and and I wanna stay in contact. You've you've shown me a a different way and, you know, a lot of a lot of guys can can say that when they're on the inside and and say these things and, you know, they could be full of crap. Yeah. I wholeheartedly believe this guy. And, you know, that is that is the definition of I'm gonna take advantage of my second chance, and you don't even you're not even out yet.
You know, it it's it's those those kinds of things, and that is the most, memorable and and still
[00:45:54] Unknown:
to this day. Isn't it an He he's a great guy. Isn't isn't it an amazing feeling to know that that that that something that you feel that you're doing to really help yourself is having such an impact on somebody else that that they they actually look to you almost like, in a in a lot of ways, almost like like, like, a like a like a mentor yourself or or or or or, you know, in in the church setting, you know, they say, like, your spiritual father or something like that. You know, somebody that might you might lead to Christ, you know, they you you kinda take them under your wing. It's an incredible feeling to to have that. It's also a big responsibility too, I think, you know, because you have to make sure that that you're walking straight and narrow. And I think I think God does that to us for that reason, to make sure that, you know, you're walking the straight and narrow. So you're present you're giving a good example to that person that's looking to you for for, advice and counsel and and whatnot. And that's that's a great that is fantastic. So and speaking of of things of faith, so what role has faith played in your recovery?
[00:46:55] Unknown:
I pray a lot more now. Absolutely. I'm involved with the church more. You know, my my greatest thing, was when I decided to do this this meeting and, with my group every week and and things that at my at my church, you know, the greatest thing was when they said, here is the key to the church so you can meet. You know, the the trust that they had in me I was just gonna say that. Give me the exactly. The to give me the key to the Lord's house. You know what I mean? Like, I never would have thought in in a million years that that I'd be, you know, at the point to where someone trusts me that much.
[00:47:43] Unknown:
Yeah. That that that and that's again another that's another blessing in in itself and the fact and it's also in a lot of ways too, it's kind of a a spiritual lift up for yourself as well because, hey, look, you know, people are seeing that I'm making this change and it's a positive change and things are going in a better direction for me. And that's and that that and that actually helps with your recovery as well because it's that it is that positive reinforcement of the things that you're doing. So that's that's that's great. Now, we talked earlier about your wife and and how supportive she was to the whole thing. And, and, so I guess I guess the question would be, like, so how has her support and perspective shaped your healing?
[00:48:27] Unknown:
I would have to say that I'm able to I'm able to be who I was meant to be, with her. You know, she always saw me as as somebody who you know, she had her own perspective of me. She she saw something different in me, something that I never did. You know, and and by the way that she, like, talks to me or she always wants to be around me Mhmm. You know, it it pretty much tells me that I'm I'm doing something right. Yeah. You know, and I'm I'm able to to live this life with her and and our kids. You know? She's she's an awesome mother too. You know, I I she has a lot to offer as well. So I I watch her a lot and and how she does things.
So I just I'm I'm able to look at at things so much different, you know, like the our household, the world pretty much Yeah. Because she sees the good in everybody. You know? And That's good. And I was I was I was no good, and she could still see the good in me. So, there's something to say about that. Absolutely.
[00:49:48] Unknown:
So, so at at this point, what what does a fulfilling sober life look like to you today?
[00:50:00] Unknown:
Being the dad that I would that I wanted to always be, being the husband that I should have been, you know, when I used to look at people in sobriety or in recovery, I would think, how can you have fun doing this? And, I've I've learned that there's a lot of fun to be had. You know, there's nothing that that I'm able to do now that I wouldn't have been able to do then. I just always had alcohol in me. But it it's such a more clear picture. I have a lot more fun. I'm able to remember things, and, you know, I I do hang out with other sober people. I I still go up to Ashley every year for their reunion.
Nice. You know, something that I never would have thought to do. Hanging out with my kids and and just watching a movie night. You know? Hanging out with the kids on the couch and we eating popcorn and having a good movie night and me not passing out. Nice. You know? That's that's a that's a fun one. That's a plus. You know, that's yeah. Exactly. And I I say it somewhat sarcastically, but but, you know, I don't mean it to make a hard sarcastic. Oh, no. No. But it's it's always a plus not to pass out with your kids around. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
[00:51:27] Unknown:
You know, because I have I mean My kids are older. My my I have two kids. They live they live up north. My my my son's in Pennsylvania. My daughter's in New York. But I have I have my two French bulldogs, and they're and they're my they're my kids now. You know? Yeah. My girl's four, my boy's three. And, while while you were talking about when you're saying that watching TV on the couch with the kids, eating popcorn and not passing out, I was thinking about I do the same thing with my dogs though. I mean, they they we hang out in the living room, we watch TV, we either on the floor or on the couch, and we eat popcorn together. They love popcorn, and, you know, and and it's it's a great it's great that you're not passed out because, like, I I could tell you many times where I I did actually pass out, and I would wake up on the floor with the dogs next to me, you know, looking absolutely terrified, you know. And you can only imagine that's that's that's a pet. That's an animal.
You can only imagine what it is, you know, when you if your kids see you that way, your human kids see the the the the effect that that has on them. You know? So not to be that way is it's it's a huge win. It's an absolutely huge win. Yeah. So, so at this point, what advice would you give to someone that's just starting out their recovery process? And, and and may maybe they come to you and say, you know what? I don't think I can do this. What what what kind of advice would you give them?
[00:52:47] Unknown:
Going back to just letting them know that they're not alone. Even even if it feels like it, you're you're really not. This community of, you know, recovery is so huge, and, you know, you're you're more than welcome. And no matter where you are in this journey, whether it's twenty four hours or twenty four years and beyond, and, you know, never diminish your progress. Never never use the word only when you're describing I'm only twenty four hours sober or I'm only two months sober. You know, we all start with with the with twenty four hours. Right. You know, never never stop at being sober.
You know, that's gonna be your main goal for every single day is to stay sober. However, only you don't you don't have to just be sober. There's no finish line to this thing. Yeah. You know, you wanna take your time, be patient, work on fixing your character defects every single day, creating a growth mindset,
[00:53:58] Unknown:
and, you know, you're gonna love yourself again. I can promise you that. That is a great point. There there is no finish line in all this. That that's a fantastic point. So what's one thing that you do now that the old version of you never would have imagined?
[00:54:16] Unknown:
Sticking to my commitments. Nice. And being, you know, accepting when when people say I'm proud of you or accepting when people say that you're better than this or something along those lines and believing it. You know, not in an arrogant way, but in a way that I'm confident about it. You know, I I never looked at myself as being a leader, and people tell me that I am people at my job want me to be, you know, in in management and things like that, and I never would have expected that. So,
[00:54:55] Unknown:
that is is definitely something that I would never would have imagined. Yeah. So alright. So what's next for you though? More writing, more speaking, anything else coming down the horizon for you? Yeah. I'm always,
[00:55:09] Unknown:
you know, doing some speakings. There may be another book in the future. I'm I'm debating on that right now. But, you know, just continuing to to meet every week with my group, with the inmates up at the the, detention center, and, continuing to do these podcasts. You know? I used to be very introverted, and, and so me being able to do this is just helping me grow and and helping me spread awareness,
[00:55:45] Unknown:
about this horrible disease. So I'm gonna continue doing that as well. Oh, I hope you do. I hope you do. Because I I I I love the message that you bring. I love the optimism that you bring through it. I think you're doing a great job. Thank you. You know, I definitely wanna check out your book, though. I mean, I'll be honest. I didn't have a chance to really read any. But, I do wanna read it and and and get to know it a little bit better. So I'm looking forward to doing that. Alright. Damien, so, where can others, where can the audience go and find your book, learn about your work, connect with you online, anything you wanna give out?
[00:56:15] Unknown:
Yeah. Sure. So, on Facebook, we, have our group Breaking the Silence, Instagram as well, Breaking the Silence. Our Linktree is on both. And, yeah, that that's the best place to get in touch with me, and we have all our stuff on there. With our group, we also meet virtually. So Okay. You know, if you can't make it if you're not in Maryland,
[00:56:42] Unknown:
you know, feel free to jump on there. The the link is on our Facebook page. Outstanding. So I'll be making sure that after the show, look for my, look for my follow. I'll be, I'll be I'll be checking out there. Alright. Well, Damien, thank you so much for being with us. I can't believe the this. We already flew through the whole thing. Our next our next guest is lined up already, so I we gotta we gotta get to the break and then get to the our next guest. So, Damien, again, thank you so much, man. I really appreciate you taking the time to be with us tonight. God bless you. Thank you so much for the work you're doing. And, hopefully, we get a chance to talk soon.
[00:57:14] Unknown:
Awesome. Yeah. I love that. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it, Joe. Alright, brother. You take care, and have a great night.
[00:57:20] Unknown:
You too, man. God bless you, man. Alright, folks. So Damien Blas. So thank you, again for being with us here, brother. Anyway, so now we are gonna take a break here. And when we come back from the break, we are going to, meet up with our next guest in the second hour, doctor David Shine, and, he'll be with us here momentarily. So in the meantime, folks, don't forget to head over to our website, joeroos.com. And when you get over there, open up that contact form, send us over any questions, comments, cares, or concerns that you might have, anything that comes to your mind. And if you wanna let us know of any ideas or suggestions for a guest, we would love to, to have that. We'd love to hear about it. So let us know. Also, don't forget that this is a value for value show. So if you have any, if if you're receiving anything of value from what we're doing here, we ask that you return that value to us in the form of a donation. It could be whatever it is. If you wanna donate a dollar, donate a dollar. Whatever the value is that you're you're getting from what we're doing, we're we're asking that you return that value to us in that in that form of a donation.
Also, don't forget to, to check out our socials on on Twitter, at Joe Ruse. Facebook is the Facebook group is Joe Ruse Podcast. Truth Social, Joe Ruse. All Joe Ruse. Minds.com, Joe Ruse. The only one that's not Joe Ruse is Instagram, which is not Joe Ruse. Alright. So you can find us over there as well. Alright. With all that said Oh, and don't forget that this is a live show, weeknights, 7PM central time, and, Saturdays at 3PM, Sundays at 6PM. And, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share it with your friends, your family, and your followers. Remember, we're not on YouTube. We're not on YouTube right now. So, just rumble or on x or on Twitch, and then, we'll post links later on on the other social media platforms after the show is over. Alright. Well, with that said, we're gonna take our break. And when we come back from the break, we'll have doctor David Shine. Alright, folks. We will see you momentarily.
Talk to you in a bit. Alright, folks. Welcome back to the Joe Root Show. First hour is in the books. Damian Bloss. Really enjoyed that conversation folks. I hope you guys did too. We ran out, got some extra coffee. I just spilled all over the board, but that's okay. Alright. Well, folks, again, I hope you enjoyed Damien Blas. We're back now for hour number two and we have our guest waiting for us, in the, waiting room and we'll bring him on here momentarily. So, folks, I wanna tell you a little bit about podhome.fm. Podhome.fm is the most modern and easy to use podcast host platform that's out there today.
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I mean, where else what other platform are you gonna get all of that for $15.99 a month? That's it. Just $15.99 a month. That's unbelievable. I was on another platform, a much, a much more well known platform, one of the big boys, and they were charging me almost twice three times that amount. And I got less than what I'm getting with Pod Home. Yes. Podhome.fm is my audio platform host, platform. And, it's great. I love it. The team there is fantastic. They really know their stuff. Customer service is amazing. They will walk you through anything that you need to get through. So check them out at podhome.fm. $15.99 a month. And if you subscribe today, you get thirty days free. You have thirty days to play with it. So you should really check them out. I think you'd be very, very, very happy with them. That's podhome.fm, podhome.fm.
Alright. Well, let's get some coffee. Because our second guest tonight is a scholar, an attorney, an entrepreneur, a public speaker who has quietly shaped leadership thinking in business, in governance, and ethics. Doctor David d Shine is the founder and CEO of Claremont Management Group and serves as associate dean and tenured professor at the University of Saint Thomas in Houston. He spent over thirty five years working with Fortune 500 firms, consults on HR policy and dispute resolution, and delivers keynote talks nationally, often described as the employment guru.
He writes about America's leadership failures and political mismanagement in books like The Decline of America, One Hundred Years of Leadership Failures, and, Bad Deal for America. So folks like to ask like to welcome doctor David Schein to the show. Doctor Schein, are you there? Doctor Shine? Yes. I am. Glad to join you. Just, punching the buttons across the bottom of the screen here. Yeah. That's all you need to do. You'll figure it'll all work out together. Don't worry about it. All things work together for good. Don't worry about
[01:07:37] Unknown:
that. Well Well, for that kind introduction,
[01:07:40] Unknown:
I I hope I can live up to that. I think you're gonna do fine. You'll do just fine. I'm I'm a really easy guy to talk to and get along with, so we'll be fine. So, what I always like to ask everybody at the start of every interview that I do is a very, very basic simple question, and that is, what is one thing that most people do not know about you, but should?
[01:08:00] Unknown:
Oh, that's, gosh. I am a really good cook, and I am self taught.
[01:08:07] Unknown:
See, we got along already because that's the same thing for the with me. I am I am a People are surprised. I I don't know why people are surprised. In my household,
[01:08:16] Unknown:
I do all the grocery shopping, and I fix virtually all the food. In fact, before we went live, I was coaching the little lady at home on how to get supper started, so it'll be kind of ready when I get home about 09:15 tonight, from the office here, from our studios. And, I started cooking, basically when I was in college for a very fundamental reason. I was a scholarship student at Penn College. And, you know, I I found out this thing about a full scholarship is kind of a misnomer because it means that the school is not taking tuition money from you, but you still gotta buy food and books and find a place to stay. Yes. You know? And it it it was a little challenging. And I realized that if I went out to eat, I'd I'd have trouble, you know, getting getting food. You know? It'd be I'd run out of money on Monday for the whole week. And so I began, cooking very modestly stuff that would be terrible today. I would never even think of fixing today.
But, over the years, I've I've trended towards, I I'm one of my specialties is I'm a low sodium cook, and and I've been doing that for a long time. Okay. And if you have some of my food, you will never sit there and say, gosh. This is awful. Where's the salt? Because there's a trick to it, and that's good seasonings. There's so many seasonings in the spice cabinet. So few people so many people just ignore what's available to them. That's true. That's very true. Pepper.
[01:09:50] Unknown:
That's very, very true. And I I find that also. I I I love to cook. It's one of my it's one of my, little, like, I call it my therapy. You know, when I especially on a weekend, I love to I've I've been kind of flirting with my Sicilian heritage, over the last couple of months. So every Sunday, I make a nice Sunday sauce, you know. And it's it's just me and my two my two dogs. So, you know, we we eat well. And, we and it it shows, you know, we we eat well. And, you know, we have a we we enjoy that. But, I love to cook. It's one like I said, one of my therapies and, I used to I used to hold dinner parties for friends. I would invite them over on a weekend and I would give them a a short menu, like, earlier in the week. Say, okay. So these are the choices that you have. What do you want?
And then I and then I would go out and I would prepare that. And, I got a lot of the skills that I've learned through my my mom and my grandmother. My grandmother was a professional cook And, so I learned, excuse me, an awful lot from her. And then, of course, my mom was just your your typical at home, you know, Italian mom, and she can cook, man. She was able to cook. And I learned so much from her as well. And then, of course, you know, you get those family recipes that are handed down generation to generation. And, one of the things that I discovered is that as these things were being handed down to me, they weren't giving me the whole recipe. They were leaving things out and letting me try to figure it out for myself, which, of course, you do. Now, I do the same thing. If anybody asks me for one of my recipes, yeah, I'll give it to you, but I'm not gonna tell you everything. You're gonna have to figure it out.
[01:11:23] Unknown:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Gotta gotta figure it out yourself. And yeah. And so I I went through two phases. I kinda had to recreate things. And then as I moved through the world of low sodium and then reduced fat cooking and then trying to make it super healthy with olive oil instead of other oils, I began to move the recipes around. And, whenever I wrote them down and I I do have kind of the equivalent of my own cookbook. My son was, visiting me the other day, and, he made ribs. So he took my, ribs recipe, which I have conveniently available. Mhmm. And, they came out pretty good. He he swapped out the hot the hot powder for the really hot powder. So it was, it was some pretty stunning stuff, but, good good batch of baby back ribs. Over this weekend, I made chicken salad from scratch Nice. On Saturday. I love it. And then last night, I, you'll love this. For Texas, I grilled,
[01:12:26] Unknown:
I I marinated chicken breasts for for two days I see. And then, grilled them. And I have a special approach to grilling the breasts, and they just came out great. And I'll I'll I froze four of the breasts, and I'll eat two of the breasts over the next few days. Oh, that's good. That's good. You know, a lot of people don't don't understand the patience that's involved with cooking sometimes. So you have to some there are some things you have to set aside for a couple of days you have to plan ahead for. And, yeah, I know. I I have a chicken recipe as well that that I that I I haven't made in a while, and now that you mentioned it, I probably should. But it it does require it marinating the chicken breast for, like, twenty twenty four to forty eight hours in the refrigerator, you know, sealed and wrapped and all that stuff. And it's, it it's absolutely perfect. I did it wrong. It should be, like, just to be this, you know. I'm Italian, so it should be that.
So, so doctor Shine, let me ask you. What's what's your go to beverage at the end of the day to help you unwind?
[01:13:20] Unknown:
Oh, gosh. I'm gonna be very unexciting on that. Everybody says that. I'm I'm a water drinker, and I drink, decaf. In fact, I have had, no regular coffee for two days. Occasionally, I'll reward myself with a cup of regular coffee in the middle of the day, but, part of being on a low sodium diet is, if you're familiar with, you know, trying to avoid taking drugs for high blood pressure, that, the two key elements are, to, avoid sodium and to, avoid caffeine as much as possible. And, I've I've been pretty successful at that, and, my doctors are pretty happy with me. But it takes the discipline of, I can go out to eat one night a week or, you know, a couple meals a week. It's hard on vacation where you're eating most of your meals out. Sure. Yeah. But, if I'm like, I'll be local this whole week, and, I can really control what I eat and how I prepare the food and stuff. And I know it sounds funny, but, my office is a apartment, and it has a kitchenette in it. And so I actually have my own food available to me for my own lunches, Unless I take clients out or we go out and do something tomorrow, I'm going out to lunch and dinner.
So, I probably won't be as tight on my diet, but, yeah, I'm I'm pretty serious about it. Well, you can give yourself a cheat day.
[01:14:53] Unknown:
Yeah. That's right. That's a cheat day tomorrow. There you go. And then you just gotta just gotta tighten it up for the rest of the week. That's it. That's right. All there is to it. And I know what you mean about watching the salt intake. And and, actually, one of my sponsors, we just recently started with them is a is a group called Ezra Healing. And, they're very much into the do no harm philosophy of of, medic of, medical care. And, very natural, great stuff. They they sent me a nice little care package of, some stuff to get me started with. And the goal is, of course, for me to get off the blood pressure medications and so on and so on. So I am I am weaning myself down off of them now, and I've been this doing this now for about three weeks. And, I'm getting close. I'm almost done. And, I feel good. You know, you you of course, you know, you you become so dependent on medication that you, you know, coming off of the stuff, you get little headaches here or there. But, you know, that's just a little let that's just a little bit to let you know that what you're taking in to try to control all that stuff really isn't good for you also. So I keep that in mind as well. Absolutely.
So, what's one personal routine or ritual, that keeps you grounded?
[01:15:59] Unknown:
Well, I go to the gym on a pretty regular basis. I'm recovering from surgery, so I'm I'm out of the gym. And, I'll tell you, I miss it if you get used to a a routine. One thing I wanna encourage people who are who are who are watching tonight is we have a lot of syndromes where people will not work out for a long period of time. And then they'll go to the gym, and I call them the weekend warriors. Yes. I know what you mean. And what they do is they go in and they hit the gym with all they can. And by Saturday or Sunday or Monday, they're so sore they can't move. Mhmm. And they say, oh, well, working out must have been terrible for me. I I can't do that. And and one of the things and I I was in the gym one day several years ago, and a nice lady was asked me. She she just she figured I was a regular, and she came up to me and she said, hey. I haven't been in the gym in a long time. And so I was coaching her with what I just said. I just said, do it easy.
Start slow. Don't try and move a 100 pound weights. You may be able to lift a 100 pounds once, but how about lifting 35 pounds 10 times and work your way up to lifting a 100 pounds? Right. Exactly. Stuff like that. And it it really has an impact. And it it also helps in terms of, your, you burn more calories that way, and you feel better. I know I don't feel great right now. It's not I'm pretty recovered from the surgery, but I'm not cleared to be back in the gym. And I'm in that intermediate spot, and I like I feel a hole in my life from that. You know? Yeah. I know I know what you mean. There was a period where I was I was on a one of those 90
[01:17:48] Unknown:
extreme workout routines. Mhmm. And, you know, so you're working out basically seven days a week, and and some days were were harder than others. There were days that were you were just doing stretching. And, you know what? I looked forward to the stretch days more than anything else because it just felt so good after pushing the weights and after doing all the resistance work and the cardio work and the jumping around, the kicking around, just to have a nice hour and a half of just stretching from the top of your head to the tip of your toes. It was the best. And then I got hurt, and I had to stop training for a while. And to get back just getting back into it was so hard. And, I'm getting back into it now. So I'm all I'm focusing on right now is doing the stretching and getting loose in order to get into the rest of the stuff. So we're getting there. We're we're working on it.
[01:18:34] Unknown:
It is, it is well worth it, and, I encourage anybody who's listening tonight that, having a fitness routine is really critical. And it's interesting because I'm on the opposite side of the political spectrum from, RFK Jr. Mhmm. But I like a lot of the things that he's done. I'm that crazy guy in the supermarket that you see that blocking your shopping cart because I read all of the ingredients in every single thing I buy, including things I buy for my grandchildren Mhmm. Because I don't wanna buy, a a fruit product and find out that it's really made out of, you know, high fructose corn syrup and things like that that are or have a lot of artificial colors in there that, are banned in Europe. So I I, don't like his if you if you've studied him, he's got a lot of publicity talking about health, which is great. Yes. If you study him, his political views are are fully in the left camp even, as far as I know, even today. Yes. But the the the couple things he's talked about is let's get all of this crap out of our food, to be rather blunt about it, because why should we have crap food when the Europeans who we compete with won't let this stuff be sold in their country? Exactly. And I I think that's a very relevant part. And then the other part of that is I think it's really, helpful for us to focus on healthy. And I think the new one is Maha, make America healthy again. And I am old enough to remember the early nineteen sixties fitness challenge.
And this is a true story. My I'm the oldest seven kids. My dad was career military, and we we lived in Massachusetts. It was an old house with a basement. Mhmm. And he actually lined us up in the basement, and we were doing jumping jacks and stuff like that. You could picture in a military family, it was almost a a mini clip of the the movie, Cheaper by the Dozen. I know the movie. Yeah. And we we did that for a while and all that. And I think one of the things that is we've got our kids, and, of course, I'm a grandparent today, is they're glued to their tablets. They're they're glued to their phones, and they're not outside getting that critical exercise.
[01:21:01] Unknown:
And that has a positive mental effect, not just a physical, but a positive also. Absolutely. Absolutely. No. It's because of of, RFK Jr that I started I switched to, using beef tallow instead of vegetable oils. Yes, which is amazing. It is first of all, it gives such a depth of flavor Yes. That you you can't there's nothing you can do to describe that, and it's it's so it's so much better for you than a lot of those, vegetable oils and the canola oils and those artificially processed oils. You know, so I basically, when I'm cooking, I'm using either olive oil, which is always the, extra virgin, the triple extra virgin, and the, and the beef tallow.
[01:21:43] Unknown:
That's pretty much all of these. For a good point because, one of the words that people aren't watching for, and I haven't heard him say this, but you may have heard him say that, is hydrant hydronate it. Yes. Can hydronate it applied to a a food product does not make it healthier for us. It makes it shelf stable. One of the things that's related to that, which he has not mentioned, is that I don't buy any meats that have either nitrates or nitrites. Yeah. I've been doing that for about five years, and it can be a little irritating. I I love bacon. I have to admit, bacon's not a great product for humans, but it it it's an awfully tasty product.
But, I can actually buy bacon that has no preservatives in it, no nitrates and nitrates. The only thing is you have to do something that we all do anyway. It's It's keep it in the refrigerator or the freezer till you cook it. That's not that hard. No. It's not. And and that and it's such a better healthy choice for you that,
[01:22:43] Unknown:
it just makes more sense. Absolutely. So now you you touched on something a few minutes ago that, that, I was gonna actually ask you as the first question I really have for you. Now you grew up as the oldest child in a in a in a Navy, in a Navy man's home. You Right. You earned your way into the University of Pennsylvania. How did that start your drive?
[01:23:04] Unknown:
Well, in kind of a backwards way, my parents my mom had a GED. My dad had a vocational high school degree. They don't do that anymore, but they had it at the time, and he went right in the military from high school. And, it's my parents emphasized to all seven of us, study, study, study. My dad used to say, your job is to study. You're all going to college, and we all went to college. And we have an amazing collection of graduate degrees and stuff. My sister, who's next oldest, also got a scholarship to Penn and, became a world class scientist. She's still working in science today.
But it it's a real interesting situation. And here's the problem. Sometimes when you're outstanding as a high school student, people assume you know what the heck you're doing. Right. And I got no guidance. My parents couldn't because they hadn't been there, and my guidance counselor was a a member of the woman's name is is missus Ridgewell, a lovely lady, but she was like, damn. This kid has and and his sister have way shot past the mark. You know, we we, you know, we don't need to worry about them. So what happened was is I actually won two full scholarships, one to Duke University and one to University of Pennsylvania. Frankly, I went to Penn because it was in the Ivy League, And it was like, darn. I'm gonna be that's the thing. Like, I'm gonna go to the Ivy League.
And when I got there, it was the time of the Vietnam War. And here I am, pro military, anti commie, which I view the Vietnam War as a battle between good and communism. I agree. And, no experience being on a a college campus, other than, you know, as an odd high school debate, and we went to some debates on college campuses. But that's not the same thing as living on a college campus. And it was an extraordinary experience. It's like, you know, early spring, you take your first swim, and you jump in the water, and it's just freaking cold. And it's like, what the hell was I doing? I think I'll wait another month. Well, I I kinda needed another month before I went to college at at UPenn.
I might have done better at Duke, which is an acquired place. Mhmm. But what happened was is that as I went through this bizarre experience of feeling out of place for years, I began to merge into the Philadelphia community in a bizarre in a very different way. I began to, I I I got on public radio, and the University of Pennsylvania had its own FM public radio station, which, by the way, is very popular. And of of all things, it was started by a very famous person, Broadway producer Hal Prince. Oh, okay. When he was a student at UPenn in the ninth late nineteen forties, started an FM radio station at UPenn, which was still operating. It was a nonprofit, not government supported, but university supported. Mhmm. And, they gave me a one hour show to talk about the arts, which was just an avocational interest. I have no training in the arts, so I'll be I'll admit that. And we began to interview artists and different performers.
You'll love this. I had a little portable reel to reel tape recorder originally and, would go and actually interviewed, touring stars and stuff like that with my little tape recorder, and they figured out how to put it into the radio thing. At at the time, it was reel to reel recorders. Mhmm. And, that I did that on the, w, the pen station, Wix pen, it was called. And about a year later, I got a phone call out of the blue. I don't even know how they got my phone number. And they said, this is, the program director at WHYY, which is the public radio, you know, PBS affiliate in Philadelphia, and they're still operating today as far as I know. Mhmm. And, she said, we'd like you to move your show over to our station.
And so I had been doing pretty good. Most of the local theaters and many art galleries and places welcomed me with open arms because, frankly, UPenn is a big deal in Philadelphia. So that was not a terrible disadvantage. But remember, I'm I'm not 20 years old yet. Right. I I was a young college student, and here I am, going to these things. I I wasn't getting, you know, the front row, you might say. But then when I hit the public radio station, which everybody knew in the three states because it reaches into New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, it opened the rest of the doors for me.
And, I, was on a they the station was a union station. So some some bits of trivia. The station was where the Dick Clark show started. Oh, okay. I know I've seen the whole show. Studios. And one day while I'm in there recording something, Dick Clark came by with a gorgeous girl. Now the funny story is we all noticed that great looking gal, and he was not a big guy. I know you've seen him on television before he passed away. Handsome guy, but not a big guy. And we were all paying attention to this gorgeous gal, and then, the engineer, it's a union because it had been donated to the public by Walter Annenberg when they built the new studios in suburban Philadelphia.
It stayed union, So I couldn't touch any of the mics or anything, which was great because on College Station, I had to come up with volunteer engineers and stuff. Because you do talk show, you've gotta have somebody running the board. Right? Yes. You do. You don't need that anymore, but you needed that in radio. Oh, you still kinda need it. Still helpful. What I'm saying is you gotta you gotta have that that backroom production. And so, anyway, it was it was very cool to have the but the union engineer says to me, hey. Do you know who that is? He says, that's Dick Clark.
And he and he was standing there telling the young lady, hey. I remember, you know, starting in radio and sitting in this booth here and stuff like that, and that was where I was recording the show after, the studio. That was our studio that had been, donated there. And Pop Singers, which people used to hang out, in the early days of Bandstand before it moved to Hollywood, Pop Singers was still next door, and, of course, all of that's gone today. But it was a it was a fascinating experience. And many of the names that I meant that I met at that time don't mean a lot today because they were so famous in their time period. I'll mention a couple names.
[01:30:13] Unknown:
Carol Channing. Oh, I know. Yeah.
[01:30:15] Unknown:
That was the biggest luncheon I went to. And even though I was well respected from the public radio station, I couldn't get within 20 feet of her. I mean, every big name television and radio station and newspaper was there ahead of me. A lot of the luncheons were not that well attended, and I was invited to the press luncheons and things like that. But, I remember vividly a luncheon with both the temptations and the supremes.
[01:30:47] Unknown:
Wow.
[01:30:49] Unknown:
And that was very cool. That was after Diana Ross had left the supremes, but I still remember vividly the the luncheon and the interview. And, that that was a is it that was pretty interesting. The other luncheon that I still vividly remember, is the, Bill Graham, the rock promoter, who, of course, sadly died in a helicopter crash, around in the nineteen nineties. Mhmm. He was on a promotional tour in the 1972 to promote his Fillmore. And what had happened is he had these small venues in Fill in San Francisco and in New York City, and the bands basically had outgrown the spaces. You couldn't make you couldn't pay the band enough to show up. And, of course, he had the greatest names in rock and roll were were showing up to to perform for him.
People that people are still playing on all these stations. I mean, these were the big people, but they needed, you know, big stadiums, they and all that. So he made the smart decision in early nineteen seventy two to have a series of going away concerts and shut both film wars down. And it's a triple album in This is the Days of Vinyl, And I still have that vinyl album, by the way Wow. The the box set. And, unfortunately, what probably would have been more valuable, they originally gave me a draft set, and I gave that away to one of my helpers, one of my producers when I got the the final set, you know, with all the fancy artwork and everything. Right. All the bells and whistles.
But I bet the draft one in the collector's world would have been different. But he was a very cool guy, a sharp guy, very easy to talk to. And the the one question I did get to I remember asking him was, who was the best live performer of all the people he had worked with? Remember, we're talking Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix and, I mean, just on and on. He said Otis Redding
[01:33:05] Unknown:
Oh, wow. Yeah. Who
[01:33:07] Unknown:
who posthumously, his biggest hit was Dock of the Bay, which actually hit the charts after he sadly died in an accident. Yeah. But it was just interesting. It's funny what you remember from that period. Part of the reason I'm tuned in on this is that I am in the process of putting that together right now. That book is gonna be called, and it's a play on my life at Penn, it's called A Cheap Education. Nice. Because, of course, Penn is still one of the most expensive schools in the country to attend, and it was then. And yet, I got a better education on the streets of Philadelphia.
And I met we're not mentioning it tonight, but I met so many wonderful people I'm sure. Who were part of the arts community or just just nice people, supporters of the arts. You know, I got invited to dinners and to do different stuff because I was helping the arts and people were promoting poetry and different fundraisers and stuff. And it was just a very interesting time period in my life. So I did graduate from Penn, but it does sounds like I I wandered off into the streets. But coming from where I came from, I knew that I had to punch my ticket. I knew that I had to finish college and and and do that. And some people didn't. A lot. I think Hal Prince, for instance, did not finish Penn, but, of course, you saw how incredibly successful he was. Absolutely. And he did let me interview him, either two or three times while I was once on the Penn radio station and once while I was on That's awesome. Public radio. That is awesome. You know, the great thing is, like, I I I grew up with my, my my dad,
[01:34:51] Unknown:
my mom, they listened to all of that stuff. They listened to Janis Joplin's and the Otis writings. They listened to Jimi Hendrix. It's hard to think about my dad listening to Jimi Hendrix, but he did. You know? But, you know, so I'm from I'm I know these artists, you know, intimately, you know, their catalogs intimately. I I followed them, you know, as a child, I would listen to them all the time, because that was was was in my house. That's what my dad would listen to. I'm also I love I love jazz. I love the old standards, you know, the the Sinatra and and, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Junior. I listened to all that stuff. My grandfather was very much my grandfather used to play guitar for us. He would sing, at at the family dinners on a Sunday. He would pull out the guitar and sing all the Italian songs, you know, Sicilian songs for us. It was like a tip it was like what you would expect to see in, like, The Godfather. You know? It was the way it was. Absolutely.
[01:35:45] Unknown:
And it's it's so wonderful, and it's great to have that family connection. Yeah. And, it it it is interesting to see how these pieces come together. And, I, I got a chance to see some people fairly close-up. One of the celebrities at the time was Dionne Warwick. Oh, yeah. Yeah. She was an interesting person. We had a close-up luncheon with her. Got to see her open a performance venue in the Philadelphia area. And, of course, she had some huge hits. She was, I think, at the time I met her, married to Bert Bachrach, the, producer and and writer who who wrote a lot of her hit songs and hit songs from Raindrops keep falling on my head.
Yes. Absolutely. And, so it it was it was kind of an interesting time period. And it does pass along because my my older son, who's, in his early forties now, is a huge fan of the, Led Zeppelin. Oh, yeah. And so he he he he he's into Led Zeppelin, and he introduced me to, Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses. So and and the old East station I listened to plays
[01:37:00] Unknown:
Led Zeppelin and Guns N' Roses. Isn't that crazy, though? Like, I that that's so funny. The music that I grew up with, the music that I'm familiar with is now being played on oldies stations. But when, you know, when I would listen to oldies stations, I was it was like, I'm from New York, so I listened to CBS FM, you know, one zero one CBS FM, and they played, you know, all of the oldies, the fifties, the sixties, you know, stuff that my parents listened to. That's where I got familiar with it. Now they're playing Sure. And now they're playing stuff that I grew up with in the nineties. Now are you are you post cousin Brucey if you listen to w a c? I listened to cousin Brucey. Yeah. He was still on when Sure. When I was a kid. He was awfully famous. Yes. He was. Yes. He was. He he I I remembered I remember taking these long drives with my family, to go visit my my aunt and uncle. They lived out in in Northern New Jersey. So we would drive from Brooklyn to Northern New Jersey, and that's all that my dad would listen to. It was the oldie station. That's all that would be playing.
And, and I found that even even though even though you could still, even though the, you know, Walkman was were new, relatively new at the time. Walkman. You know, even though I had one, I I still and I I could have easily put it on, tuned it out, but I didn't. I sat there and listened to it. And, you know, and then I remember the drive home on Sunday nights with with cousin Brucey. It was it was great. It was great. I I missed that stuff. It
[01:38:22] Unknown:
is absolutely amazing. I don't think people today can relate to the impact of two things, Cousin Brucey on the radio Mhmm. And Johnny Carson on late night TV. And what I would do at I was doing theater reviews. I went to all the theater openings in Philadelphia, and we're first stop after Broadway. So a lot of the Broadway shows would make a a a a they we were their next stop. Now not always the original cast, but there was sometimes there were, sometimes there weren't. And so it it was, it was kind of interesting. And but that ended early in the evening relative to somebody who went to bed at 4AM, by the way, back then. And so what I would do is go home and watch the Johnny Carson show, then watch the late movie from 1AM. He was on from 11:30 to 1AM use New York time. Yep. And then there was a late movie from one to 3PM, and I got to watch all the classic old movies that they ran in the middle of the night and, then would go to bed after that. And it was kinda interesting to, you know, that kinda lifestyle. By the way, you mentioned jazz. Mhmm. One of the interesting things is in Philadelphia, there was a church. And in the basement of the church, they had a jazz club. It was actually on the Penn campus, and it was called Gino's Empty Foxhole, which was named sort of after the Ornette Coleman record of of which I think was called the Empty Foxhole. Yeah. I know that album. Yeah. They had an amazing run of jazz artists. So I got to see, Mingus, and this was a very small venue. I got to see Charlie Mingus close-up.
Nice. And Sun Ra and, I'm sure New York people who never hit it big, but were were were were really, really good artists, sax, trumpet players, and they would come in. These were basically artists that were featured on the Blue Note record label, and it was just cool. And Yeah. Because a member of the press I mean, I literally would go to the theater, get back to the Penn campus, go into the basement, and just walk in and just say, you know, hi, Gino. How you doing? And, That's awesome. You know, go and see these different, jazz performers. So it was it was, something that I was not grown up with and I was not familiar with.
I mean, I knew, Count Basie and the people that my parents grew up with, but I didn't know the the the you know, like Miles Davis, who I did see once live. And, you know, and I never saw Otis Redding live, but my favorite, I got to see him live three different times, was BB King. Oh, yes. How could you not? Great individual performer. He he his facial expressions when he was working his guitar, which, which, of course, he had named Lucille. He was unreal and captivated the audience. You did not wanna move. You did not want the show to end when BB King was on stage. He was that good. Oh, yeah. No. I I love BB King's stuff, and he he was so influential on on artists that came later. And even to today, you know,
[01:41:45] Unknown:
everybody gives BB King credit for for for their desire to play music. And, oh, I just love that stuff. That that's just great stuff. But we are way, way off the subject matter of the night, man. This is great, though. See, I love I love doing this because, you know, and, and I and I tell people all the time that I love doing these types of shows where we sit down, we just talk. Because I in reality, I probably would never have come across a gentleman like yourself to sit down and have a conversation with. And through this whole meeting, we get to do this and have a great time at it. And I'm I'm really enjoying this. This is this has been great. So, I'm gonna ask you this. I'm gonna get back to the subject. Okay? So you went from you went from corporate law to academia in midlife. What made that, that transition for you? What was what prompted the reinvention?
[01:42:32] Unknown:
Well, I had said to myself, graduating from law school, I think I'll do this for twenty five years, and then I will go into academia. So I actually had set a life goal for myself to do that, and I was pretty much on schedule. So I was ten years big corporate. I was with the Shell Oil Company right out of law school, which was a great opportunity, three states in three years. Wow. Literally living in three different states in three years with what we call the old oil company tour. Great company. No criticism of them at all. It's just that they had so many good people. I then went to a midsize oil company that was part of an even bigger company. It was part of a massive conglomerate, and I was their chief labor counsel for a number of, for for the rest of a decade.
And then I went into private practice, and I did private practice for about fifteen years. I was actually trial attorney. I actually did good at it. Never made any huge money, but I was I was a good attorney. And then I, decided that litigation was tedious and stressful, and I went into ADR and teaching. Mhmm. And, of all things, the lady that I was seeing at the time was tied in with Washington. Okay. She was I'll just tell you. I won't say her name, but her she was a staffer for congressman Bill Archer. Okay. You may remember that the Gingrich takeover Washington in the mid nineteen nineties, Bill Archer became chairman of Ways and Means. Yeah. And I was at his swearing in Washington in 1995.
[01:44:09] Unknown:
That was around the time I became politically aware.
[01:44:12] Unknown:
Right. And then in '99, she the gal who was working in Archer's Houston office was given the opportunity to work in DC. I see. And I had wanted to go to DC, so she and I moved to DC together. And, unfortunately, we didn't stay together. But, it was, while we were together, I got a chance to do something that very few people do, and that is to be the fly on the wall. Because I had no official position, but I could walk into the Rayburn Building, which is one of the con congressional office buildings Yes. And go through security and go walk around, which most you but you certainly can't do that after January 6. Alright. Yeah.
Me. Not not welcome, but, it was a little lower security then. But, I had a pass, and, I also hung out with something called the Texas Society, and I went to their inauguration ball in the year 2000 and the year 02/2004. And, that was a very interesting event to see, George w Bush up close. I got to meet him when he was running for, trying to remember president or governor. But, anyway, I got to meet some very interesting people in a very different environment than I had thirty years earlier when I was doing the arts, obviously. Gotcha. And it helped drive my interest in political management, which is the the source of my two books that I have out so far, is that we can do government better.
And I got to see the good and the bad, and I I have utmost respect for Bill Archer. He he was a great American. He served the country. He did a lot of good stuff, but I saw so much waste and ruin in Washington in my couple years of running the streets up there. And in any event, I was having difficulty making a living, but I was adjuncting. And my joke about adjuncting is because you get paid a pretty modest amount per course, you get no employee benefits, and they kept putting more and more obligations on us in terms of what you did outside the classroom to help that university.
So I was teaching courses for four different universities, and I said to people, I could bankrupt my way I could adjunct my way into bankruptcy, literally. Wow. And so, but the experience helped me, and I realized that, what I needed to do is to is to really make another big commitment like I had in high school to go to make get a scholarship to, nice colleges is, I went and took the, I I had zero because I've been out of school for twenty five years, literally. Mhmm. And, I had to take the GRE, the graduate record exam, which is how you get into, And, I did very well on the exam on people on. I had a lot of good experience in the years in between. Sure. And, I got some fellowship offers, and I got accepted at the University of Virginia, which is, was a top rated program.
Went down there for three years, did my PhD start to finish start to finish. My I was one year ahead of my cohort. I'm gonna give you an idea who the next oldest person in my cohort was twenty years younger than me. I mean, it was it was really interesting to be, you know, in that position. But, in any event, that was where I turned that switch and said, I'm gonna go focus on higher ed. I'm gonna become a tenured professor, and, this is what I'm gonna do. Fortunately, I was able to do, some, adjuncting while I was in graduate school in addition to my fellowship to allow me to, you know, keep the bills paid, during that time.
I do wanna volunteer one downside to this. When I finished my PhD, I was 55 years old, and, I filed about 100 applications and, got two interviews and no job offers. Oh, wow. And, it's called age discrimination. And I love it because, you know, higher ed is the DEI people and the all this stuff, and yet don't talk to them about age because, I don't care what color you are or what gender you are or what your sexual preference is. If you're over about 50 or 55 and certainly over 60, higher ed is not gonna give you a shot. And what happened was after recruiting for over two years, I was, I made a personal connection. So I networked my way into my first job, and I had a very good teaching assignment as a visiting professor for a year at a very good school. And, unfortunately, that was 08/2009.
And what happened in 08/2009? The big financial crash. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. The the market crash. And the university where I was work was working, teaching, their endowment went from, there was a big endowment. Their endowment went from $4,000,000,000 to $2,000,000,000 in a matter of months. Wow. And the university panicked and dumped all of their adjunct and visiting faculty, said, hey, guys. We're gonna focus on the people who already made tenure, and the rest of you have a nice life. So I was out of higher ed yet again for another year, and then, believe it or not, networked into a tenure track assignment Wow. At a university in the Greater Richmond area. And then three years later, networked my way into the current position at the University of Saint Thomas in Houston.
And I'm I'm very fortunate to be here in terms of, I'm very visible politically, and, they have been it's a relatively conservative school. I though interestingly, it's a Hispanic serving institution, but that just means that we're we have a lot of first gens. What's interesting for me talk about running full circle back to the beginning. Mhmm. I'm a first gen. My my dad and mom didn't go to college. In fact, I am the first person in my mother's family tree, as far as we know, to finish college. Oh, wow. And so when I talk to these kids and the the majority of these Hispanic students, we have about 35, 45 undergrads, sort of Hispanic.
Most of them have not have parents who have not been to college. That's the definition of first gen, and it's easy for me to relate to them. And that's why it's always interesting for me because people hear, oh, you're an Ivy Leaguer. You got three graduate degrees and all this jazz. But that doesn't mean that's where you came from. That means what you worked your butt off to get to. Right. Yeah.
[01:51:19] Unknown:
Well, I I understand what you're saying. I was a first gen, college student in my family. Mhmm. And, my daughter, actually, who I'm extremely proud of, my daughter graduated from Columbia with her master's, her MBA, last year. She graduated with honors, I think it was cum laude, all while all while taking care of her firstborn child, carrying her secondborn child, and working full time.
[01:51:42] Unknown:
You know, my phrase on that, women are absolutely, positively tougher than men. I mean, you you look at Amy Cullen Bryant on the on the Supreme Court. She's got six kids. Yeah. Yeah. We we see these women I mean, I'm I went to graduate school, before I had any kids, and then I went and got my PhD program after all the kids were out of the household. I had it easy compared to these working moms, and and it's it's so impressive. And, I had to help one of them get through my summer course, and, it it's amazing. A lady, is in her forties. She's come back to get her MBA.
Top student in my class, has adopted three
[01:52:30] Unknown:
challenged children. Oh, wow.
[01:52:32] Unknown:
I mean, it's like, I can't compete with first of all, you don't have to have a competition on it, but I can't compete with that. No. I I I agree with you. That that that's that's insane.
[01:52:43] Unknown:
So, you you, I wanna ask you a couple of questions about your books, because I'm I'm I've just noticed really how how much time we have left. So your books take a really hard look at US leadership over the last century. Yes. What's your core concern about how America's being governed today?
[01:53:00] Unknown:
Oh, hell. First of all, I I gave letter grades to presidents, Wilson through Obama, and that was because when the book was released in 2018, Trump had barely started his regime. And, we're gonna redo the book, and it's gonna be called Report Card on America, and it'll include Trump and Biden Okay. As best we can tell. But
[01:53:24] Unknown:
Biden or the auto patent?
[01:53:26] Unknown:
Yes. Well, all of that will be in there. And and, I'm not gonna talk about the grades, but the grades for, Biden are already in. Mhmm. The grade for Trump is not in yet because it's it's it's so up and down. I wanna really evaluate that, and, we may issue them a grade for first term versus second term. I'm still we're still debating some of that. Some of the stuff you go through in preproduction Oh, sure. Yeah. We're working on I can imagine. But, I think that our entire political system has gotten out of connection with America, and both of my books are focused on that.
One of the things I say in Bad Deal for America, which is a focus on the congress, is we've got to positively have term limits, number one. Agreed. Number two, we've gotta send those folks home. You know what? They should be living in their home district. Agreed. We've got all the encrypted communications that we could ever want today. They can have entire committee meetings and stuff. And you know what? What I observed in back when I was there in Washington, you know, twenty five years ago now, is let's get them separated from the lobbyists.
Let's get them separated from because they're you know, part of the justification, they make $200,000 a year, and they get all these bennies on top of it. It's equivalent to making 4 or 500,000 a year, is they don't need two houses. Because they'll say to you, oh, it's really expensive to live in DC. You know, I've gotta have a house here, and I have a house in my district. Of course, you heard about this Yeah. Is that, Schiff, you know, all these people are claiming two principal households to get mortgages and stuff. That's a big scandal, of course, that's recently blown up. But the point is, no. They don't need a principal residence. We we could build a dormitory or buy a couple old hotels in Washington when you absolutely have to be in Washington.
We'll put you up in a in a in a company paid barren little hotel room with a cafeteria in it. Hey. I know how to do this because that's what I lived in going through college. Right. Yeah. Living on $10 a week for food. And these guys can do it themselves, but I I we've got to reconnect their, their their life their commitment to us, the voters, and the taxpayers. That's that's a big concern. And I think the national debt is a symptom of the lack of connection. And one of the concerns that I have just even with the current administration, and I'm talking both about the Democrats and Republicans, this is a bipartisan colossal train wreck.
This successful, fantastic country of some of the hardest working people on the planet, Americans work more hours and put more in and are more productive than just about any other society in history. Yeah. And, and and and it's ridiculous that we've got 37,000,000,000,000 in in national debt. And what's interesting is that is not a fair number. Let me tell you why. And by the way, I wanna give credit to, somebody who's on your station, by the way, is is, is you may have heard across the country is Glenn Beck. Yes. Glenn Glenn Beck and a co author wrote a book, I I don't remember exactly, but came out around twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen that focuses on the the the
[01:57:06] Unknown:
indebtedness of The United States. I know the book you're talking about. I actually have a copy of it. I just cannot remember the name of it. Right. But, basically,
[01:57:14] Unknown:
the obligation at that time, ten years ago, was a $100,000,000,000,000 because what is not the national debt figure is like your checkbook. Mhmm. So they've got a negative checkbook of $37,000,000,000,000, but they have promised lifetime federal pensions to everybody who served in the military, which included my dad. Admittedly, my dad got a a federal pension.
[01:57:40] Unknown:
Which which is a 100% I agree with. They it should be. Yeah.
[01:57:44] Unknown:
Served in the navy for twenty eight and a half years, had a service connected disability. And then all those federal pensions that we've, offered to people over the years, that, by the way, does not include the incredible shortfall in Social Security That's right. And, and and, Medicaid and and Medicare. And one of the things is people talk about the entitlement. No. It's not an entitlement. You and I, since the time we were making our first paycheck in college or or high school, have been paying into that damn system. And ever since Medicare started, you and I have been paying into Medicare. Mhmm. That's not an entitlement.
That's called I bought insurance from these clowns in the federal government. Mhmm. Again, this is a bipartisan comment, and they have cheated us because they did something that they won't let private industry do. And, you know, I teach, in business law, I talk about ERISA. That's the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act. And, basically, it's a 1974 law that says you corporations, when you tell an employee they're gonna have a pension, that money has to be funded, and it has to be there when they get there. And and it protects it. The reason that's there is because in 1964, I'm a used to be an old car buff, not anymore.
Studebaker went broke. Right. And the union members found out that as Studebaker was going under, it was writing IOUs to its pension fund. Oh, wow. And only a certain percentage of those union members who thought they'd earned a pension ever got a pension. So they went screaming to Washington, remember, union members Mhmm. And said, you have got to make sure this never happens again. So as I say it in my classroom, congress, realizing this incredibly important situation, rushed to action. And a decade later, they passed ERISA. A decade. It took them to say, thou shalt not steal from your employee pension plan. What?
A decade to write that? And by the way, I'm I took a two hour course in law school on ERISA. It is the most complicated law you've ever seen for a very simple point, which is don't steal from your employees. Now the interesting thing is so in 1974, we say to corporations, if you promise a guy a pension, you better sure as hell have that money when the person is eligible for that pension under your rules. Why did we not do for the federal government at the same time and say, you have been promising since 1935 that if I pay into Social Security, it'll be there. It'll really be there. Right now, they're telling us that in 2030, and that's that's a short four and a half years from now Yeah. That they're gonna cut our benefits by one third because they've run us out of money. Well, why are we run out of money? Where did the the billions and billions and billions of dollars that we paid in the Social Security go? It is inexcusable
[02:01:04] Unknown:
in America that that has happened to us. The other thing too is that you don't even have a choice to really to to to get involved with Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid, whichever it is. I always get them confused. You're you're basically you gotta basically, got a gun pointed to your head and saying, you know, you will pay into this, and you may get something out of it later on. Yes. Which is which is horrible when you think about it. That's that's not the American way of doing things, and it should not be the American way of doing things. I'm gonna don't get me started on taxes and stuff like that too because I I I taxation is theft and it's immoral, but that's another issue. But, and I just wanna go back really quick to something you said about Congress because I I I like what you said about having, you know, set up dormitories, have them go there for a short period of time, do the business of government, and go back to the districts.
That is very important to me because if I remember correctly, doctor Meeby, you can correct my memory on this one. Maybe I'm right, wrong. I don't know. But originally, that's what Congress did. They went to they went to Philadelphia. They went to, and then eventually Washington. Only for a short period of time, and then they went back to their constituents. And that's where they stayed until they had to come back in session again. They didn't permanently stay at the capitol. They left. And on top of that, originally, they weren't given a salary. That's right. They had a stipend for while they were there, and that was it. And then they went back to their districts and continued on with their business. Right.
When did that change?
[02:02:32] Unknown:
Well, I don't know exactly when it changed, but there is a good reason to pay people because the people that were originally are the so called founding fathers and people like that were white guys of wealth. I mean, let's be blunt about it. In fact, a good half dozen of them were also slave owners, and, you know, my my my black friends won't let me forget that part either. And I'm not forgiving that. I understand. But the the point is is that, it it was part of the reality of the time. In order to allow all people to participate in government, we have to give them some type of of of stipend.
But one of the things I would do is take away one of my proposals, the Shine proposals to balance the US government budget, is to take away all federal pensions except the military. Mhmm. And the military pensions would be reworked because you can come out of high school, be in the military for twenty years, and then take a lifetime pension. No place in the world do we do that. Usually, then your pension, you've earned it. When you turn 65, then you start the pension. Right. That's not how a military pension works. Many of the people who come out of the military, not my dad personally, but I have a friend who, was a young officer, came out of college at 22, did years as a nuclear consultant.
[02:04:07] Unknown:
Yeah. We had a little little hiccup there. Lost you. I'm back.
[02:04:13] Unknown:
Yeah. But, anyway, it was it was kinda interesting. So we call that double dipping, but I I would not, I I think there's some controls that we could put in on that. But outside of the military, I would completely eliminate pensions. Virtually less than 10% of the private sector have pensions. I do not have a pension. Mhmm. And, I have a savings plan, and I've funded that as hard as I can. There's a tax break under for that, of course. And, I am really careful about how I plan my future because I have to be. And so I would replace the federal pension system with a, savings plan, and I think all of the state governments should follow suit because if we evaluate things, a lot of our state governments and a lot of our big cities are in trouble also.
[02:05:07] Unknown:
No. I agree with you. I totally agree with you in that. In, in Bad Deal for America, you critique Congress, and you use a lot of direct quotes from both parties. So what what common errors do you see, among our elected officials?
[02:05:21] Unknown:
Well, the first thing is most of these people have from both parties, and I I'll mention Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Chuck Grassley, one from each party. Mhmm. They have been in Washington far too long. They're disconnected, from the the real world. And then we have been electing some real bozos. I'm I'm gonna single out, Cory Booker as, he he he he gave a ridiculous speech the other day, just completely ridiculous. And, I do another webcast called Unscripted Politics Mhmm. Where, we have two liberals and me. We go at it for an hour Nice. With no script. Just we just go after it.
And one of the things I said to him is, look. If you look at the so called big beautiful bill, and I call it the I use the the Elon Musk terminology. It's an abomination. Yeah. Because I'm I'm so hardcore conservative. I want us to just cut, cut, cut. Agree. But in any event, there's an awful lot of stuff in there that sound like Democrat talking points. And I said, why don't you guys at least admit there's a whole lot of stuff? I mean, no tax on tips. As soon as that came out of Trump's month mouth, Kamala Harris picked it up the very next day. Right. Both of them ran on no tax on tips. It's now law and stuff like that. So I think that, it it's interesting. I would like to see us move towards, amateur politicians.
No no more lifetime politicians. Remember, Joe Biden was in politics over fifty years Yeah. Until he was mentally incompetent, obviously. Not all of them are. And and Trump's obviously I mean, Trump's just turned 79 years old. He's obviously sharp. Nancy Pelosi is four years older than Trump. She's perfectly sharp. I think she's a a greedy, nasty blank blank, but, she's, she's she's, she's she's kicking along there. So, I mean, the point is I think we we've got to get control. We, the people, have got to control the government. If it sounds like I'm a spokesman for conventional states, I'm not. But, unfortunately, I think that we are gonna need something like the conventional states to, to get to get term limits. And I and I'm my proposal is five years for president, one term, two years in the senate, ten years in the house, and those are max, max, max.
And, one of the things that's also been suggested, is age limit for the supreme court, the federal judges. Mhmm. And I I would support, something like that. Again, a lot of people are still sharp at 75. I sure hope I am when I get there as I I'm reasonably close and think I'm still pretty damn sharp. But the point is is that on average, you're gonna have people who have medical issues and things like that. In fact, Trump just had an age related medical issue. He has, venous insufficiency, which just means that his, he's sitting around too long, and his veins aren't working as well as they should to drive the blood back up to his heart. Right. And, of course, the left is running rampant with this.
[02:08:43] Unknown:
I I I scanned through some of the liberal rags, and and and you see you see all these head you know, Trump's health, worse than it is worse than it's being reported, his he looks terrible. He looks come on. Because they're trying to they're trying to, you know, get get back at at the conservatives for, you know, talking about Joe Biden and and all of his his issues. And, just to touch back on something you said with the with the no tax on tips and, you know, when when if it were a Democrat that put that forward and was in office and actually was trying to push this through, every single Democrat would be in line, lockstep behind it, pushing it, not getting all the blowback that they're getting or they did get, because it was Donald Trump putting it through.
[02:09:30] Unknown:
And that's my point exactly, is that that should not have happened at all. And it it was it's it's inexcusable what what was done there. I mean, it's just it's just inexcusable. And and I think this is part of where we've gotten today. This is the most whacked out in my lifetime that I've seen Democrat party. And I grew up close to Democrat party. My mom was voted Democrat. She's an Irish Catholic, and that was her thing. And, I grew up in Massachusetts, which was, you know, a bastion of liberalism. And, I saw the evils of it, but, you know, that was I was, I'm a outlier in my family for a while there.
And, so, hopefully, the there there's there's gonna be a return to some type of normalcy, on the sides of both political parties. And I do not feel that the, that the current Republican party has gone too far to the right. I think they've gone too far to the center in my opinion, and I agree with that. I'd like them to be more again, my long term criticism of the BBB, big beautiful bill, is that, we we gave them way too much, and yet
[02:10:48] Unknown:
no Democrat support. That's not that's not acceptable. That's ridiculous. I agree with you. I I totally agree with you. Well, we're over the 09:00 hour. Do you wanna you wanna go on for just a couple more minutes? I just have a few more questions that I'd like to throw your way. Hey. You're the host. I I I I'm glad to take a call. Well, I know you said earlier you need you want them to get home by 09:15. So I I yeah. I do wanna go home and get dinner. I haven't eaten dinner yet. I people say to me, well, why don't you take break at dinner?
[02:11:14] Unknown:
I usually eat late anyway because I usually work until about eight in the evening.
[02:11:18] Unknown:
I gotcha. I gotcha. Alright. So, let me ask you just, just one more question here, and then, and then we'll we'll wrap it up so you can get home. Alright. So, so you spent your whole life tackling leadership failures, bureaucracies, civic disconnect. What legacy do you hope to leave behind?
[02:11:36] Unknown:
Well, I have a couple more books out there, and I call my, webcast, which airs on Saturday. We air a new show each Saturday. It's called Saving America. And, I have a very modest objective. I I wanna help save America. We can't do it by ourselves, but to encourage people to think about some of the big ideas that I've talked about, which is, eliminating federal pensions and maybe in in turn eliminating state pensions, having everybody on the same type of system, which are savings plans, not pensions, unless you work for a very wealthy company, and to, pay off the national debt before my grandchildren have to start paying on it and my great grandchildren and our great grandchildren.
People have no idea how much money we're talking about. It's gotten so disconnected from reality. And I'm trying to remember. I was reading a book that that told me if you had a million dollars in thousand dollar bills, it's a stack this tall. If you have a billion dollars in thousand dollar bills, it's like the height of the the, Washington Monument. Imagine a trillion dollars in thousand dollar bills. I mean, it it's we can't conceive of that high a stack of dollars is we are really and the only reason that we're not Greece, that we're not some of these other countries that have literally run out of money is because we're The United States.
And most of the world respects the hell out of us and is willing to let us and is willing to buy our debt, including at least 2,000,000,000,000 of that debt is held by our mortal enemy, China. That's right. Yeah. I was gonna comment on that when you said that. Yeah. Yeah. And and so we we we've got to part of our security has gotta be getting control of things. And we do need to spend money smarter. And people say, well, don't you know, you're a hardcore pro military anti commie person. You know, what about all the money we dump in the military? I actually think that we can run the military for a great deal less, and I'm hoping that Pete Hegseth, during his term, will make some improvements because we don't need we're not gonna fight the you know, I know Ukraine and Russia are fighting an old war.
Guess what? Most of the war is now being fought with drones and missiles. That's right. Yeah. And so and and we've gotta come up with cheaper ways to make drones and missiles. Yes. The the things that I think are gonna be the key things we need to spend money on are not aircraft carriers, by the way, not aircraft carriers, which are very expensive. They're just big sitting ducks, is we need nuclear submarines. Yeah. You notice Trump just put two nuclear submarines over toward Russia. Yeah. What's the message there? Nuclear submarines, incredibly hard to defend against, and we make the best in the world. We need to make a bunch more.
And something that's controversial, we need to control space. And I know I'm gonna sound like I've watched too many episodes of Star Wars or Star Trek. For the record, I've never seen any of any of those movies. Really? Yeah. It's just not of interest to me. But we have to be in a situation where when the so called pushing the red button, you know, the president travels with the special phone Yeah. We blow up every every capsule that's up there that doesn't belong to one of us or our allies. We have the technology to do that, and it doesn't cost a trillion dollars a year. But I think we need to focus our money. We don't need to have as many people working for us because it's a war of technology. It's not gonna be a war of people standing in the trenches. Yeah. And so I I think I envision a very different future for us and a more affordable future. And I think if we do this right, we're gonna win what I called Cold War two because that's where we are today. We're in the second Cold War. I vividly remember because I grew up my entire life or until the 1990 under Cold War one. All of my sentient life, I was aware we were in the Cold War, especially coming from a military family.
And we're back in it, and, we need to win it again. I agree with you. Alright. Doctor. Schein,
[02:16:08] Unknown:
one thing before I say goodbye, I I do wanna extend another invitation to you to come on the show again. I have a lot of stuff that I still wanna talk to you about. I wanna talk to you about Claremont Management. I wanna talk to you still about more about your books, the two podcasts that you do, the Saving America and, what's the other one the other was a Business Law one zero one or or something to that effect? We have average over 900,000
[02:16:29] Unknown:
hits a month for business law one zero one. So two and a half minute segment on current legal developments that runs after the new news on the Apple Brushwood network. Oh, awesome. And, that's been pretty cool. And then we I'd in in addition, I do saving America. And as I mentioned, I'm cohosted with, great guy Kevin McDonald as our lead liberal, and, he and I go at it for an hour each Saturday on unscripted politics.
[02:16:57] Unknown:
That's awesome. And so, again, again, like I said, I'll reach out to your folks, and we'll we'll get you back on the show so we can talk about all that stuff in more detail. So, in the in the interim, where can we go to find your books? Where can we get your podcast, your consulting services?
[02:17:11] Unknown:
Well, I'm I'm everywhere, but, basically, both books are available on Amazon. That's the easiest, fastest place. I am at clairemontmanagementgroup.com.
[02:17:22] Unknown:
That's the easiest thing. I'm active on LinkedIn and other social media. And the only thing everybody needs to know is my last name is spelled s c h e I n, six letters, and you'll be able to find me. Outstanding. And we'll make sure we have all of that included in the show notes. I think they already are, but we'll we'll just make sure that they're all in there and double check on that. Doctor Schein, thank you so much for spending your evening with us. Now go home, get something to eat, and, we'll, we'll get in touch with you and and get you back on the show again soon.
[02:17:49] Unknown:
I'm looking forward to it. And thank you so much, Joe. I appreciate the invitation. It's been great visiting with you. I appreciate it, sir. Thank you very much. You have a great night. Take care. You too now. Alright, folks.
[02:18:00] Unknown:
This is The Joe Russo. It's a live show every every Wednesday. Listen to me. Weeknights weeknights 7PM central time. Make sure you check it out, live on Rumble. And, just get the Rumble app. Just download it on your phone. It is absolutely free, free to watch the show. And just don't forget, though, we are now part of the Rumble Creators Program. So that means that some of our show is gonna be shut off at some point and going over to a Rumble premium service, which you can click that little button on the bottom of your window there that says Rumble Premium. You get to all the details about that. Alright, folks. So as always, just wanna give our shout outs to our executive producer, Wayne Rankin, Rosanna Rankin, Carolina Jimenez. And I said it incorrectly on purpose because I know that she's watching and she always corrects me when I say it wrong. Marissa Lee, and then of course to our our fabulous producer, anonymous Angela, which a long story doctor, he'll have to explain to you at the time. So, anonymous Angela, thank you so much for all the work that you guys have been doing, with the show. Thank you very much for all of your help. And if you wanna get involved and help us out, remember this is a value for value show.
So which basically means that if you receive any value from what content we're putting out, we're asking that you return that value to us in the form of a donation. It could be your time, your talent, or your treasure. Whatever you feel comfortable, whatever donation amount you feel is appropriate, we are happy to receive that. Now, you can do a one time donation in any amount. You can do a recurring donation in any amount. And then we have our producer tiers. Now, as an associate producer, that will run you $17.76 a month. That's a recurring donation of $17.76 a month. For our Producers, you get $18.36 a month. And then for our Executive Producers, it's $25 up and up a month. Alright? And what you get from all that, you get the shout out on every single show. You get your name included in all of our show notes. We are currently working with IMDB trying to get you an actual producer credit so you can put it on your resume that you are a producer of this podcast, which is your your your ride to fame and fortune.
At the executive producer level, you also get some additional perks. You get the opportunity to book thirty minutes with us live here on the show. So the folks in the audience get to meet you and hear your story and comment about whatever it is we're talking about for the day. That's always a lot of fun. We did that with our executive producer, Wayne Rankin. It was fantastic. We had a great time. And then, of course, you're gonna get some swag. We got some t shirts. We got some sticker packs and all that stuff that, we will include with your executive producer membership. We also, also take your cryptocurrencies. If you wanna donate cryptos, we take your Ethereum, Tether, Bitcoin, Texacoin, all that great stuff. And And, of course, we also take Sats or micropayments of Bitcoin, and you could do that by streaming them to us through the modern podcast apps, which you could find on modernpodcastapps.com or podcastindex.org.
Alright. Well, folks, I think that will just about do it for us for tonight. So, again, thank you for taking the time to be with us tonight. Head on over to the website, joeroos.com. Joeroos.com. Click on that contact section. Send us over any questions, comments, cares, concerns. Let us know what you're thinking. And folks, listen. Let's make Texas independent again. Go podcasting. Keep a steady stride and keep talking. Good night, folks.
Introduction to the Joe Ruse Show
Upcoming Changes and Announcements
Introduction to Ezra Healing
Guest Introduction: Damian Bloss
Damian Bloss' Journey Through Addiction
Turning Point and Seeking Help
Advice for Those Struggling with Addiction
Writing and Mentoring: Giving Back
Living a Fulfilling Sober Life
Introduction to Dr. David Shine
Dr. Shine's Background and Cooking Passion
Transition from Corporate Law to Academia
Concerns About U.S. Governance
Dr. Shine's Vision for America's Future
