Political Mavericks & Mass Media w/ Billy Dees

Have you ever pondered the tectonic shifts shaping our political landscape? Top podcaster Billy Dees joins me,  for a riveting exchange that ventures beyond the two-party system's horizon, illuminating the promise of RFK Jr.'s independent candidacy. We share stories from the campaign trail and dissect the public's growing captivation with unconventional political figures, considering the impact such a maverick could have on the very fabric of American elections. Amidst this exploration, we analyze how the 'woke' agenda may be redrawing the lines within the judicial system, probe the tenacity of Nikki Haley's presidential aspirations, and even muse about potential vice presidential contenders who could stand beside Kennedy in the electoral arena.

About Billy Dees: 
Billy Dees is a native of Ohio and has been a life-long enthusiast of professional audio, video, and media in general.

Bill has a very diversified resume to say the least. Bill owned his own small sound business during the 1990’s. He also worked for many years as a salesperson, disc-jockey, and had a short stint as a stand-up comedian. More recently, Bill has turned his attention to digital media and incorporated much of his traditional media experience into digital media production. He enjoys working as a freelance audio/video editor, producer, voice-over artist, and podcaster. Bill also works in the marketing department of a large nonprofit company as a multimedia specialist and is passionate about the agency’s mission to help the community.

Bill is probably best known online for his podcast, the Billy Dees Podcast. The podcast has a wide spectrum of guests and includes commentary. You can find the podcast on your favorite podcasting platform and follow Bill on X (Twitter) @BillyDees.  

Enjoy the podcast teaser from Citizen Journalist 

Chapters

• 0:00 Political Analysis on Presidential Candidate Race
• 12:29 Current Issues in American Politics
• 22:15 Media Evolution and Distrust in Journalism

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:00

Hi and welcome to Citizen Journalists. I'm your host, shaman Isis, and I am jacked today because I have somebody that I call a near and dear friend, that I know quite well, on the show today Billy Dee's, podcaster and media mogul in the making. How are you?

Speaker 2: 1:17

Well, that's quite the intro I am doing fantastic. Always a pleasure to be with you, Shaman. Thank you for bringing me on and giving me a chance to talk to your audience. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:29

Absolutely so. For the audience who doesn't know Billy yet? Billy has one of the most popular podcasts on good pods, is quite popular on X and has so many. You're constantly doing powerhouse interviews. You want to share with me what you've been up to lately.

Speaker 2: 1:47

Well, yeah, I'm on X, which is formerly known as Twitter. It is now referred to as X. I'm at Billy Dee's on there and we're primarily, as far as the podcast goes, primarily interviews and commentary, and sometimes those two things overlap. Shaman comes on, we do commentary together, and those are on Thursday nights and they happen to be live on X. And then, of course, they're on the podcast networks later.

Speaker 2: 2:19

And I would say my most recent interview is with a young man named Holden. He is a Spaces host and if you don't know what that is, it's basically on X, their audio forums, where you have a host, maybe a co-host, any number of speakers and the audience is, I'm going to say, almost unlimited. As many people can listen as you want, and he has had some very good spaces that I was listening to on behalf of RFK, who is Bobby Kennedy's son, the late Bobby Kennedy's son, who is also running for president this year. He is running independent from the, from the duopoly that's the word that Holden uses which refers to the two-party system. So he's got a lot of people excited. A lot of people are excited, so we'll have to wait and see.

Speaker 2: 3:17

Poll after poll is making him look better and better. I don't know if that's because he is a dynamic candidate there's no question but you have two very unpopular leading men on the Republican, on the Democratic side, and people are just getting tired of the anti-vote. Obviously, biden benefited very much from the anti-Trump vote. Trump in 2016 benefited from the anti-Hillary vote, so it's been a while since we had somebody that people voted for yeah, and it's a good situation for an independent candidate this year. So we'll see what happens.

Speaker 1: 3:57

Yeah, honestly, I think he's ideal really quick before we get into that, because I really want to talk to you about I always enjoy, you know, if you guys are not on Spaces on X or watching Lives on X it's really become such a great forum for so many things and I enjoy co-hosting Billy's podcast on Thursday nights Live on X, so definitely go check that out. Holden, I caught your interview and he was very interesting young man and he has some very popular Spaces on X. Yeah, and I'm a big fan of Spaces. I've met a lot of great people there and he also interviewed RFK Jr, which I mean.

Speaker 1: 4:31

Honestly, my intuition has been going off. I'll tell you a funny story. When I went to go to see him speak and on my way there and it was really weird because I'm not political in that way, you know I'm an activist, but for what I consider other social issues when I went to go hear him speak and on the way there, I happened to stop at a vintage store. When I went in and walked up to a random rack and pulled the thing back, there was a T-shirt of the Kennedys there and that was literally the thing that I landed on and I was like.

Speaker 1: 5:00

My intuition was like, hmm, synchronicities are very interesting. And I thought you know he's this was about three or four months ago, so he was quite far off and I was like, hmm, some things are going to happen and it's gotten really interesting. Not only has the have the Democrats actually caused Trump to become more popular, but now he both Biden and Trump, who are really more being chosen for the parties they represent than their likability, are kind of like two candidates that everyone's like you know, really I'd say everyone, the common folk, the common folk and.

Speaker 1: 5:37

RFK? Really, I don't know, do you agree? I mean, trump has a chance of actually being this dark horse that comes out of nowhere. And still I have. I have. My intuition is telling me that it's going to get interesting, would?

Speaker 2: 5:50

you say yeah, the next three months are really going to be a pretty good indication. I can tell you that six months ago I didn't think that Trump had much chance of winning. I kind of figured. I knew he was going to be nominated but I didn't feel he had much chance of winning the general election. And also six months ago I would have had to say that Kennedy was very much a long shot. Now that is completely changed. I would say that Trump right now has a very good chance of winning. As a matter of fact, he's probably, if you had to bet right now, is probably the leading candidate. Yeah, but also, at the same time, I don't think that Kennedy is a long shot anymore. Whether or not he's likely to win it can be debated and here again, I think the next 90 days will be critical in determining that but he is not a long shot anymore by any stretch of the imagination.

Speaker 2: 6:42

With Trump's rise in the polls, his negative numbers have also gone up. Biden has suffered miserably. I read a statistic just before we got on here that he's at 40%. And at this point before the election, it's very rare that a presidential candidate wins the election with that low of an approval rate. So it's going to be interesting. Now, whether or not the Democrats pull a stunt is another thing entirely. I don't know how this would work. You know I hear Michelle Obama coming up a lot. I have nothing against her, but you know, here again we've had a Bush dynasty, we've had a Clinton dynasty and I don't know that those are really good, and here again it's recycling the same people. I would really like to see somebody like Kennedy, who is completely different than anything we've had in the past 25 years.

Speaker 1: 7:34

Yeah, and I don't think the American people have ever been more primed for drastic change, and you know, just to give a timeline of this. So we've got Biden coming in strong. At the beginning of the year, trump was considered a long shot. The Democrats and the very left-leaning media really went after Trump in unprecedented ways. That I was like this is setting a precedent for how our future presidents are going to be treated. That nobody seems to really understand. And all they did and I remember saying we talked about this about five months ago and I remember us talking about the fact that they were doing nothing but actually making him look like a martyr. And so he's.

Speaker 1: 8:10

You know that caused the rise of Trump, while simultaneously the economy has been tanking and the greed of corporate America and its desire to drive up costs of just the basic hierarchy of needs for the American people is combining with this.

Speaker 1: 8:26

You know, odd moment where the people have realized that Biden really is not doing well and physically and mentally and probably spiritually.

Speaker 1: 8:37

And then you've got Trump, who's stayed calm enough for him to keep himself moving up, and then you've got Kennedy, who was really truly, like you said, a dark horse going back at the beginning of the election cycle year, if you will, and I remember us talking about right before he announced he was going to run in a dependent and we said that that was the key for him, because you know, this is the dumbest thing the Democrats ever did, and we just revisit how stupid it was for the Democrats to not allow debate to bury any of the other candidates from even being able to be in the running.

Speaker 1: 9:13

And now they've lost someone that they could have actually slid into that place and really had a good competition going on, and I think it's created this perfect storm between the economy and people just being fed up with the greed of corporate America and the cost of housing, the cost of food, and now you've got the Kennedy who speaks to all of those things in a way that makes him very relatable to the average American, and now we've got a very interesting race, which we did not have a few months ago.

Speaker 2: 9:40

Yes, yes, it could make history. We'll just have to wait and see. But yeah, it's interesting, to say the least. And here again, if things keep eroding internationally the way they are for Biden, I don't know how he can win, especially considering he is appearing more and more feeble and you and I have talked about this on my show, in that you know he should be. This is actually, I'm sure, shortening his life. At this point, he should be on the back porch relaxing with a glass of tea and a lemon slice in there and just enjoying the breeze. He should not be running the country. He is noticeably coming unglued and, quite frankly, even Trump is not the same guy he was in 2016. He's not.

Speaker 1: 10:31

And with his track record he tends to incinerate his, his. He'll rise and then he'll do something Like sometimes those stupid things really work. The chaos he creates works, but a lot of times they cause him to go like yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:42

Well, even in 2016,. A lot of people, including myself Glenn Beck was another one was kind of speculating whether he even wanted to win the election. Yeah, because he was doing so many crazy things, Mm-hmm, but he won in spite of that. So, um, I just don't know.

Speaker 1: 10:59

Yeah, I have to be honest, I don't really care what people think. I voted for Trump back then because because not because I felt like but not because I'm a Republican and not because I felt like he was going to be a great president, but because I was so gravely concerned about wokeism and how far things were going with liberal antics you know some of the things they're doing in our schools Like it's really shocking, and I'm quite liberal myself. But I did because I felt like we needed chaos to be introduced into politics to cause change.

Speaker 2: 11:32

Yeah, yeah, I would agree with that and I could get him elected again. Quite frankly, because some of the the what's going on now. I will never understand the tolerance we have for violent crime to begin with, but now you know, you have situations in some of these major cities where not only do prosecutors not prosecute people who are committing violent crimes, but they prosecute the victims for defending themselves. And this used to, this used to what I'm talking about used to be you know the script for a Dirty Harry movie. You know back.

Speaker 1: 12:03

That's true, though, yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:05

And Dirty Harry would get mad and go out, and you know even the score. But the truth is now stranger than some of these scripts that are coming out of these movies. You actually have people, store owners, who are being prosecuted and sued for defending themselves not against shoplifting but from getting beaten in the face. I mean it is absolutely ridiculous.

Speaker 1: 12:29

Yeah, and I don't even necessarily think that the that that's the police engineering that I think a lot of it goes back to the whole woke agenda of not prosecute, not wanting to prosecute people for committing crimes. It's like they turned the and I'm a big believer that a lot of our jails are filled with people who've unhealed trauma, that got traumatized at a very young age, got thrown into a system that's quite sick in the way that it treats people and then gets them even more addicted and messed up in the head and then releases them on society and expects them to be okay.

Speaker 1: 13:00

But that whole woke agenda really did engineer a system where the victims became the criminals and the criminals became the victims. And the victim mentality really caused a lot of, I think, mental health issues in America.

Speaker 2: 13:14

Now our judicial system, the law enforcement, all these different aspects of what goes on. I'll tell you what the weakest link is. A lot of people think it's a jury system. There have been calls for professional juries, which I don't think necessarily would be a bad idea. A lot of people think it's the police and the way they investigate, and that's maybe part of it. But I'll tell you without a doubt, in my opinion, the weakest link in the judicial system in the United States is the discretion in which district attorneys take on prosecution. They can look the other way at a murderer and they can go after you because you spit on the sidewalk.

Speaker 1: 13:53

I think that's what happened with Epstein. I believe that originally he was able to go on for so many years just because of the DA Don't quote me on that.

Speaker 2: 14:04

I'm not sure about that. I haven't followed that that close. There's a lot of holes that he managed to fall through, but that's a whole other topic. I got to tell you what happened in New York in Times Square, with the police officers getting attacked and then they let the guys go without bond. That's a perfect example.

Speaker 1: 14:36

That would never happen. I was laughing because I had to. This is a personal thing. I had to deal with the DMV. They're asking me for evidence of things. You want me to bring in my divorce papers from 15 years ago for a name I've never actually legally used. I'm standing next to a man who has no papers, no paperwork, no ID, and they're literally giving him an ID. I was like how does this actually work? Or I'm getting penalized for being an American citizen?

Speaker 2: 15:03

Absolutely. That's the kind of stuff that's going to get Trump elected again. Go ahead.

Speaker 1: 15:11

What do you think of Two things. I wanted to touch on Nikki Haley, where she's at right now, and also who you think the ideal candidate for RK Jr as a vice president could be.

Speaker 2: 15:23

Sure, nikki Haley right now. This is just a guess on my part. I have no inside information on this, but my guess is she's staying in the race for two reasons. Number one she's still getting good donations. This is going to be part of funds that are going to be used down the road. As long as she's getting donations, why not stay in? There's also probably a part of her that feels that something could happen to Trump. Now. He's in better health than Biden, but at least that's the perception, but that's not saying a whole lot. He's of the age as well where maintaining a schedule such as he is something could happen to him, or he could end up having so many legal troubles he can't run. So Nikki Haley is just hanging out there to remain a viable option.

Speaker 2: 16:19

I kind of have gone on. There was a time when I was looking at her pretty favorably, but she's come up with some things that I didn't like. The registration for the internet and all this other kind of thing really turned me off on her. But that's, that's a whole. Another in regard to RFK, you know, the one that keeps coming up is Chelsea Gabbard, and I would. I would much rather see her with RFK than I would Trump. I think she deserves somebody that is is an honest it appears to be an honest different type of candidate.

Speaker 2: 16:58

I would hate to see Chelsea get involved with Trump and then have some sort of another fiasco, like like with the vice president before. So I wouldn't want her stained in that way, you know, not complying with some kind of a crazy idea that he has or something like that. I really think that she's better off, I kind of feel, with Kennedy. That would be my kind of dream ticket there. But you know who's to say. I kind of feel that I've heard a Tulsi mentioned with Trump as well. I would probably have to say the vape is probably the more likely person to go there. And here again, I think Trump's chances of winning with the vape on the ticket is very good because obviously he's ahead in the polls by a long shot, as it is even against Biden.

Speaker 2: 17:52

Now, most, most areas are heavy and pulling head and and the vape is just an absolute attack dog when it comes to debating. He will chew up Kamala and spit her out.

Speaker 1: 18:06

Oh yeah, oh, it would actually be fun to watch. Yeah that's a sick part of me, but it would be like I just want to see this, but it would probably be like a Doverman picking on a Chihuahua.

Speaker 2: 18:18

Yeah, he's got a command of the, of the English, he's got a command of the facts and he knows the angles to work his point in. Yeah, even if I knew I was right about something, to debate him would be very difficult. He is that good, oh he's good.

Speaker 1: 18:35

Yeah, I think. I think I don't know a lot about Tulsi, I'll be honest, and that actually makes me kind of, because usually I'm aware of the sort of essence, if you will, of a person. She's managed to stay pretty low the radar. I think Vivek is interesting. I do think he it's almost too much between, because because he and RFK have both have that sort of like parallels and in their understanding of just how much BS is going on in politics, so it's like he needs that kind of like diversity. I don't want to see us pick a woman simply because we all, you know most everybody, particularly women, would really love to see a female president, but I don't want to have candidates forced in to position simply because of their sex either.

Speaker 2: 19:18

Yeah, now she doesn't strike me as that. I mean the woman from Alaska. Her name's escaping me at the moment Sarah.

Speaker 1: 19:25

Palin.

Speaker 2: 19:26

Sarah Palin. She was clearly picked for that reason.

Speaker 1: 19:30

Oh, that lipstick on a pig was one of the best moments ever.

Speaker 2: 19:35

She gave a great speech at the Republican convention that year. As a matter of fact, I was kind of wondering if that wasn't going to win the election. But as time went on and if you know the story behind this in her book Going Rogue, she should not have gone rogue. She should have listened to the handlers, because she continually got herself in situations where she knew she didn't know what she was talking about.

Speaker 1: 19:59

Yeah, Now we weren't very accepting back then either of politicians saying you know, actually let me look into that and I'll get back to you.

Speaker 2: 20:06

Yeah Well, she didn't even say that she tried to muff her way through some things.

Speaker 1: 20:10

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:12

And Tulsi is. She's very capable, she's very capable and she's got the look. She's got this. There was a picture of her going around the internet the other day where she kind of had jeans and a tank top and kind of a militaristic type thing. She was not shooting or something.

Speaker 1: 20:34

Oh how Sarah Palin of her.

Speaker 2: 20:35

Yeah, but she physically looks the part. I mean she just you can tell she's strong, fit, just an all around you know, very vibrant person. And of course Kennedy at 70 is still that, you know he's, he's jacked. So you would have two very in comparison with what we have now younger candidates who are very physically fit, very mentally sharp, and that would be quite the ticket. I have a feeling it's very unlikely that the vape would go with Kennedy because he's too aligned with Trump at this point. I can't imagine that happening. But anything's possible in politics, as we know, they make strange bedfellows. But I'd have to say that's unlikely.

Speaker 1: 21:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just did a podcast interview about media with bullets are nominated journalists, rose Horowitz. It was a really fascinating interview and she brought up an article from the New Yorker that was titled something like the you know, the not implode the extinction. Media was going in extinct then basically news media journalism in many ways, but really just as a catch, all was going extinct. Do you think that's? That's apt?

Speaker 2: 21:57

Extinct is a strong word at this at this time, but I got to say it's got to adapt. You know, one of the caveats to evolution is that it's not really the survival of the fittest, it is what it is is your ability to adapt, to change. That's the species that that succeeds. And right now traditional media is being tested. Oddly enough, in my area of the past I would have to say radio, for whatever reason, is still hanging in there. I think a lot of people like to listen, to live talking on the radio with. You know, talk radio is extremely big, whether it be sports or news or commentary or what have you. So that's still hanging in there. Tv news, local news, is suffering. The chances that your local news is getting any viewers under 21 is extremely small, very small. And national news has really taken a hit. Most, I would say, led by cable news, which has been the last two years, has been decimated and they did a good job of doing that to themselves.

Speaker 1: 23:09

Oh yeah, they basically like they ruined their reputation with the American people by with the way they handled politics and the coronavirus closures.

Speaker 2: 23:18

Yes, so to answer your question, if I was cable news right now I'd be very nervous.

Speaker 2: 23:24

Yeah, there was one time you know, the ratings leader was Fox and I'm not advocating for them, I'm just plain truth when they had O'Reilly at eight o'clock and you know the rest of their lineup, at that time they were untouchable. You know they were getting millions of views, viewers, in prime time. They survived getting rid of O'Reilly. And then they brought in Tucker Carlson who at that, here again at his height, was just getting unbelievable numbers for them. There was one in a year where he's his eight o'clock quote-unquote boring Commentary program at eight o'clock was out doing the NBA playoffs.

Speaker 1: 24:02

Oh, wow, wow, that's I mean yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:04

Yeah, well, they got rid of him and you know you can hear different stories about how well-founded that was or not, but now they are not. They're not bouncing back, and and so I was listening to Meg and Kelly and she said pretty much the same thing they they survived getting rid of her, they survived getting rid of O'Reilly, but they're not bouncing back from Tucker.

Speaker 1: 24:26

Oh no, that was so poorly handled. And and his move over to Twitter, really, which is what it was called.

Speaker 1: 24:33

Yeah sure called when he did switch, really put a Exclamation point on that, on that, you know, it's just from From the background of somebody like myself who has worked with media directly most most of the major channels and newspapers Over the last 25 years I've worked with and something that I had noticed About 10 years ago. I started noticing the numbers of journalists, specifically journalists who worked in-house at places, as well as the number of freelance. It used to be over six figures and it's now in the double digits and the huge majority of them are freelancers. So they're not actually you know, you know it is it it or supported by any media, and I see that as as a definite sign that there's an extinction going on and the only survivors are gonna be people who adapt to the way that people want information to them.

Speaker 2: 25:25

Yeah, yeah, and cable news is probably one of the first things that's going to go unless they do something quick. I think standard broadcast news still has hope, but they're gonna have to get off these ideological spectrums because people are not tolling tolerating that anymore. I mean, you know exactly what NBC is going to say about a certain thing. You know exactly what Fox is going to say about a certain thing. You don't even have to To watch the programs to know what they're going to say. That I can't continue. So, yeah, and what you're talking about, you know Tucker on X Doing some of the interviews and commentary that he has done. He's getting far more Views than all the cable news Networks combined. Yeah, so it things are changing. That Elon Musk Is is changing.

Speaker 2: 26:20

I really like the transformative idea of Twitter becoming more than just, you know, a micro blogging thing. It's. It's a kind of. It has aspects of YouTube, it has aspects of of Tiktok, it has aspects of a lot of different things and news being really what drives it. Trending things are are really what's driving it and the the idea that you know, youtube and some of these other networks have a have had a drop-off. A lot of really Commentators have made the move because there's been too much tinkering around With who gets driven in some of these platforms and who doesn't, so that's really, really been a driving force in it for the most part. Unless you're really radical, you're not going to get tampered with too much on X.

Speaker 1: 27:10

Yeah, you know, I agree with that. I One of the the benefits of having an owner, if you will, who's allowed to do what he thinks is right, is that you can you can survey the landscape and pick and choose and redevelop what is best on other your competitors Sites and being able to incorporate all those aspects quickly and efficiently and roll them out without the BS that so many other social media platforms resort to. Is has really worked in X's favor and I and is going to. You know, I really see it as the future of the way that people get there, and it already is. But the way that people get their news Really is going to continue to shift in the favor of platforms like X and, and that really is because of the ability to make drastic changes quickly and efficiently, and you don't see that at most social media platforms because there's too many people involved in the decision-making, which is was always my.

Speaker 1: 28:02

My biggest frustration is a Agency owner is that too many times I couldn't. I couldn't do the things I knew were possible because too many people disagreed with each other, right? Um, you know, cbs apparently Fired and us took, stole basically the notes of a very famous investigative journalist this week she was investigating the Biden family. Did you hear about that?

Speaker 2: 28:27

Oh, yes and yeah huh Hairage. Well, what's her?

Speaker 1: 28:31

name Is it Catherine, catherine?

Speaker 2: 28:34

Hairage or something like that yes. Yeah, I'm familiar with it.

Speaker 1: 28:37

Yes, yeah, I understand that one, I yeah. Well, I think it stinks to high heaven. I mean, when did we start confiscating the notes of journalists On their own investigations, especially investigative journalists, especially CBS? Weren't they the ones who did 60 minutes for so well, for such a long time?

Speaker 2: 28:57

Yes, you know. Yeah, I don't know the story behind that, but I gotta tell you that's yeah, that's not good. And I had this something weird happen with one of the NBC Investigators here about a year or two ago when there was that incident at the Pelosi house. Yeah, and they didn't particularly like the way he presented that either. So, yeah, that's he. That's not. That's not the way it should happen. You know you shouldn't be filtering. You're not making a movie. You know you're not creating characters. The news speaks for itself. You don't need to create a character that is Biden or a character that is Trump. You, these are real people and they need to be presented as such accurately. That's what news is there. They're there. You know they're not creating fictional stories and they shouldn't be following a script.

Speaker 1: 29:50

Oh yeah, and I think I think that what you're you're highlighting reminds me of One of the reasons media have become so distrusted by the American people is the American people could see what they were not reporting about. Finally, yeah and that makes it hard to trust the source, when the source is is only saying what they. What's pre-approved?

Speaker 2: 30:09

Yeah, that's not that's not news. I mean, you know, there's still reporters out there that almost Swear on a stack of Bibles. That Joe Biden's fine.

Speaker 1: 30:19

Yeah, I've talked to a few of my liberal friends and I'm like stop, please stop. Yeah, I don't know who you're selling that story to, but it's not working with me. Yeah, I remember.

Speaker 2: 30:29

I remember when Reagan you know the the knock on him for a long time was he was too old and of course he had the famous line during the 84 debate which kind of took that off the table. He said I, I promise I there's people that want to make age an issue, but I promise I won't exploit my opponents youth and an experience. That line brought down the house and it was a good line. But you got to keep in mind that Reagan and I was I I generally liked Reagan here again being totally objective, if you go back and look at some of his news Clips and some of his press conferences, he was not the same man in 87 as he was in 81.

Speaker 2: 31:08

No there were. There was a fall-off and you know that's. That's sometimes the natural progression of things. Of course he was diagnosed with, you know, a Dimension and all timers and all these other things Um, at a later time. But you got to keep in mind when he left office, the knock on him when he was told when he left office he was younger than Joe Biden going in.

Speaker 1: 31:32

Wow, wow. I liked Reagan. You know, do I like Reaganomics or some of the other things that, but I liked him. He was a great, he was an inspiring leader and, yeah, ability as a orator was you know, that's what my bomb is, bill of pill was was his bullshit ability and I like a lot like Obama.

Speaker 2: 31:51

Um, as a speaker sure, oh, he's a great speaker. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 31:55

Yeah, Reagan was an interesting guy. His background is interesting. It's called like former actor, but he was actually quite involved in oh yeah, yeah, it's not fair to call him just an actor, because yeah he was involved in in politics and Governmental things for years, for decades, and of course he became governor of California.

Speaker 2: 32:12

Yeah, by the time he ran for president to say, well, he's just an actor, it was not fair.

Speaker 1: 32:17

I mean he was yeah, yeah, that was not fair, what so what's going on with you? What, what? You got some special episodes coming up, you know, yeah, I got a pipeline for whatever reason, I've gotten really popular with the RFK people.

Speaker 2: 32:34

I just finished an interview the other day. It's the which is going to be out, that, someone who has known RFK for a long time. I'm gonna talk about him and Of course we had the old hold an interview. There's a lot of people that, for whatever reason, have associated me with that subject matter. So I honestly I've got so many quest requests that I can't manage them all. You know we can't and I never really could take them all. But now it's getting to the point where it's getting overwhelming and I still have the publishers I have. I'm gonna be interviewing a humor writer tomorrow and then the following week another actor and author is going to be on the program. So we got a good mix of creative types, show biz types and activist types, so I'm really happy about that. So, yeah, that's good.

Speaker 1: 33:29

That's all good yeah you're. You've got a great podcast and the numbers show that it's enjoyable to watch and you're, you're, you've got a really great diverse group of guests. Yeah it's one of the things that you show really. Yeah, you really are very fortunate in the, the caliber and the diversity of the guests that you have. Yeah, if people wanted to learn more about you or follow you, where would they go to find out more about Billy Dee?

Speaker 2: 33:55

Yeah, probably the easiest thing to do is just add to Billy Dee's on acts, the former Twitter. That's kind of been my social media home for a long time. But if, and as far as the podcast goes, you go to any platform and just type in Billy Dee's podcast, that come right up. I'm on all of them as far as I know, and occasionally I find out that I'm one that I didn't even know about. I'll get an email from somebody. I heard you on such a such a network. I'm like what is that? I think I did? Oh, yeah, I am on there. So that's you know, that's awesome too. But and then on social media the same way, if you just search Billy Dee's on tiktok or the Billy Dee's podcast on Facebook, I come up. Don't do a whole lot on Facebook. I've never really caught fire with Facebook and that whole meta ecosystem.

Speaker 1: 34:43

Yeah, I don't, I don't resonate there either.

Speaker 2: 34:46

I don't resonate there, so I would probably say Twitter, the, the new X, the former Twitter is probably where to go, thank you, oh, I love that, billy, thank you so much for coming on the show. Anytime politics.

Speaker 1: 35:02

If you guys want to see more, billy Dee's and myself Join us on X on Thursday nights at eight o'clock. We talk politics, culture, entertainment and we have fun doing it. So come, check us out what is live. If you want to see more of my citizen journals, please go subscribe. If you're not already subscribed, what's wrong with you? This is where you learn the truth about important topics and how we can move forward. And please visit shamanisuscom to learn more about the work that I do. And thank you so much to so many people who ordered memory mansion. I've won ever see some wonderful notes and messages and social media from people about the book. You guys helped make it a number one bestseller and for that I'm truly grateful. So thank you so much. Do you guys have an amazing weekend and we'll be back with more, and pretty soon anyway bye.