TRANSCRIPT:
Justin Hart: [00:00:00] It's time to help you get grounded and help you make sense of the world. The Justin Hart show on the answer, San Diego. And here's your host, Justin Hart.
Well, happy Sunday morning to you all here in San Diego. It's 10:00 AM we're, we're glad to, have you join us. I have an admission. That I need to make, I share this with you in case you happen to see me around town here in San Diego, or in case I, you know, suffer the, the consequences of this side effect, this particular ailment that I have.
If I, if it happens on the air, you'll know very quickly for my entire life I have had a condition. It's embarrassing. And when it strikes, it's almost impossible to ignore [00:01:00] U unfortunately, it also has the propensity to pop up in public frequently, frequently at restaurants. Now, as I understand it, it's a congenital abnormality.
I believe my grandfather had it. I've heard at least one of my cousins who is suffering from this same predicament. This is an unseemly genetic variation, and I, it was only discovered by science in 1989. So for most of my life, up until about, I think six or seven years ago, I had no idea what was causing this.
I've been ridiculed for it. I've been asked to vacate areas, and let me tell you, in a time of covid, this was my worst nightmare. on the rare occasion that my family was able to go into public during the pandemic, I, I stood in fright. [00:02:00] I was wondering, would this suddenly trigger, right? Would, would I be kicked immediately from the premises?
The biases against this condition? They are, they are not insignificant and, and frankly, I, I can't blame. for feeling amiss or wanting to escape from my presence when it occurs, it's wholly inappropriate in the workplace to not remove myself in a restaurant. , let me tell you, there's nothing more self deflating, than this sh the stairs and the shocks.
I get the idea that this condition could be a potentially. Primary trigger for a local super spreader event, and that's the immediate assumption on everyone's mind during Covid. Now, it used to be an annoying Mm, please remove yourself. Now it's like, you're going to kill everyone in this restaurant. My kids would laugh, my wife would [00:03:00] roll her eyes.
Yeah, E, even escaping to a restroom would prove no solace. So there have been times when I've barely made it out the doors. Before this pseudo ailment would take hold of me, I, I'd burst from the table. The family knows the routine. And when will the embarrassment stop from my father? My kids would think of their brains, right?
I, I would grab a tissue, a napkin, a hoodie, anything to quench this loud, bursting this from this genetic misfortune, which I assume has haunted me since. I burst through the doors. I'm, I'm careful not to, not to catch the eye of any patron or maitre d i, I throw myself outside. I find a corner of a building.
Behind bushes, anything to hide myself from the world as I transform my [00:04:00] stance, my disposition, my entire being, building to this wretched expulsion like Dr. Je and Mr. Hyde. I, I, I'm certain, somewhere along the lines, an unfortunate bystanders has witnessed it and quoted in their brains the word, the words from, the Story by Robert Lewis Stevenson.
All human beings as we meet them are co-mingled out of good and evil. And Edward Hyde, or this gentleman here in the corner in the ranks of mankind was pure evil in my mind. I reply in kind, likewise from the story quote. I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man. I saw that of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even I could be rightly said to be either.
It was only because I was radically both [00:05:00] the strange case of Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde. All these quotes, these misgivings, these fears would race across my mind as they held my napkin to my nose, and it would start, I sneezed. And then I sneezed again. I will sneeze 12 or 15 times because dear listener, I suffer from a rare congenital aberrant a year after it was found.
This was in the Journal of Medical Genetics, 1990, the clinical geneticist and DYS Morphologist, known as Judith Hall. She wrote this, um, qui. Letter to the editor. She was very glad to hear that the two authors had found this autosomal dominant inheritance trait of sneezing disorder provoked by fullness of the stomach.
She goes on Judith, to say, as the authors point out, it [00:06:00] may not be all that common. Uncommon, a condition, but simply has not been previously reported because it does not lead to a major disability. Oh, oh really? Judith, but, but she alludes to it. On the other hand, Judith goes on to say it could be socially embarrass.
or even stigmatizing, albeit highly preferable to the compulsive belching reflex at the end of meals. The basic epidemiological and genetic questions of frequency, prevalence, selective advantage, presence in other species, pathogenic mechanism, linkage, nucleotide sequence, number of introns that is perhaps related to the number of sneezes transposable elements.
They await further investigation. Ju, that says, but she doesn't leave you hanging. She has, she has dutifully named this disease. This was her naming and it stuck. Therefore, I propose as Judith that the newly described condition be called sation [00:07:00] satiation reflex. That's what I suffer from folks.
Accommodation of sneezing and satiation, and she says, easily to be remembered by this economist. Sneezing non-controllable at a time of indulgence of the appetite, a trait inherited and ordained to be named. Well, that was quite the quip, Judith, but in truth, that is exactly what I suffer from. I suffer from.
Ation that port manto of the word sneeze and satiation. When, when I'm out to eat and I indulge a little bit too much, it's, it's like looking up at the sun and you have that, that, that notion to sneeze somewhere in my brain, those qubits, those little synapses got mixed over. And so whenever I get. My stomach, then I start to seize uncontrollably.
And you can imagine this was really, really a, a desperate time during Covid. So, dear [00:08:00] listener, do you suffer from the same ailment or something like that? I want to hear from you, you know, B, go over to, Twitter, I'm Justin, an underscore hard, or you can find us at the K C B Q website. The answer here, and I, I just wanted to know like, what sort of things do, do you have that are unique about you?
Something that no one else, you know. Those are things you should, you know, jot down . Now, I'm, I'm certain there are many people who suffer from, greater elements than that. But let me tell you, in the time of covid, that was, um, that was not a, a painless endeavor. I had to make sure that I, sneezed into my arm all the time, and sometimes my, my daughter's hoodie.
But, I'm sure that's probably a little bit tmi as they say. Speaking of tmi, Let's take a moment and talk about love in the time of covid. I think you'll find this interesting. I'm gonna try to, um, clean this up a little bit, but let me, let me tell you, consider, you [00:09:00] have two star crossed lovers, okay?
They're in San Francisco, and after a evening of dining and drinking, it turns into perhaps a one night stand, slightly embarrassed couple. The next morning wakes up to find, A set of health inspectors at the door, I'm sorry, you cannot leave. This apartment says One inspector A. According to the city guidelines, if you have had relations with someone who is now out of your household, you must quarantine with them for 14 days.
So this endearing Trist turns into a Fortnite plot with people who barely know each other. Forced to spend days upon days together in quarantine. This sounds like a fiction folks, but it's not for a stretch of time in late 2020. Those were the recommendations and rules in San Francisco you could date, but if you kissed, you required to stay home together.[00:10:00]
Now, a note about San Francisco coming up at the bottom of the hour, we have a great, I. With Jennifer Se and I grew up in the Bay Area. Jennifer made her name in the Bay area as one of the, the, the chief brand officers at Levi's. And she and I have met and our families have become really, really good friends.
And you'll learn why in a moment. It's quite the endeavor, but it all has to do with San Francisco going crazy. So yeah, a as local radio station, dating was probably dangerous and morally wrong during a time of covid. There is no safe to safe way to have whoopi with someone you don't live in quarantine with.
Again, it's Sunday. I'm trying to clean this up. Experts consulted, recommended wearing a mask during such endeavors, choosing positions which might minimize face to face contact. Tmi, right? They also recommended that you, [00:11:00] mm, keep it quick. Some people that's not a problem at this point, logic and reason had left the city limits.
Okay? Love at a time of covid was seen everywhere. New York City health officials, they had their own, document that they put to, they were under no illusion that this scary bug covid would keep people from getting funky. So they, they wanted to make sure people did it safely There. the recommendations quote before you hook up, dot, dot, dot.
Really ask a bunch of ridiculous questions of your partner, like if they've been tested, not for any venereal disease, mind you, no, no. If they've been tested for covid, that's important right in the section I keep you not, this is the, in the section called Play Safer. They have some recommendations.
Namely, avoid sex parties in large gatherings. If you do attend, follow covid 19 Preco. What are the COVID 19 precautions? For a large gathering like that [00:12:00] they suggest, you know, maybe enjoy whoopy virtually. Sexy Zoom parties. I kid you not, that's a quote. Sexy zoom parties again. Kathy, I'm, I'm sorry. It's Sunday.
I know. But just bear with, because this is important to know some of the context of what has broken America. So most importantly, they say, okay, wear a face mask during Whoopi. They suggest that, you know, make it a little kinky. Be creative. Try physical barrier, physical barrier. There try physical barriers that allow contact while preventing close face-to-face.
Con they, they end with the vital advice, quote, wash hands and toys with soap and water disinfect, keyboards and touchscreens. Oh no, let's just tmmi. Tmmi. It turns out that every single, major city put out its own advice. On Whoopi and relations during the pandemic and, and they were phrased, the [00:13:00] way they're phrased, the way they put these out there, it says really more about the inner workings of these crazy health overlords and their imaginations than it does about the, any way the actual act has accomplished.
I, in DC they put out their own document. They suggested that you wait. If either of you aren't feeling better, whoopie in close contact, we'll be waiting for you on the other. On the other side. City of Austin, of course, kept it weird. Their advice, just because you have to stay physically distant from your honey.
They, they used the word honey there. Doesn't mean you can't go on a great date. Go on a narrated walk and talk on the phone. Socially distanced, of course. Walk about your neighborhood. Describe what you see to your partner over the phone, flowers, trees, houses, general things you're attracted to. Why are they doing?
Even on a national basis, these institutions drove me crazy. The American Sexual Health Association. They said, you are [00:14:00] your safest sex partner and consider taking a break from in-person dates. Well, in short, all the experts agreed. Basically, you shouldn't be dating or having anything approximating whoopy with anyone during covid, and you really shouldn't be exchanging anything between.
So what? What are the effects of that? Well, population collapsed, basically. I mean, the jury is out on what sort of impact the lockdowns had on health and the pandemic, but it's not gonna be good when it comes to actual counting of people. Well, while popular opinion has it that the world is overpopulated and truth, much of the Western world is depopulating faster than you can say, infer.
Mark Stein, one of my favorite authors, is a 2006 book. He wrote America Alone and he notes that these incredibly falling birth rates can mean for these Western countries who love their social programs, that you can either choose this lavish welfare [00:15:00] state or no kids, but you can't choose both of those, those positions because as equips without children, there's no one to stick the bill.
right? You're lying in your hammock, enjoying your, your welfare state. They're in Greece. 700 different occupations can retire at the age of 55, but they have no kids. And look, here in the United States, the terrible employment impacts are equally concerning, and those have an impact. But the birth numbers coming out of the government agencies, they're frightening typically on any given.
We see about 350,000 births in the United States. If we fall below those numbers, then you can't replace the population, which dies each month. About 8,000 people die every day. 40,000 people die every month in nursing homes. You put that all together. We're trying to get above 300. You know, I think 350,000 death births is what we wanna see.
The average number of live births across the [00:16:00] country dropped from 311,000 in 2020 to about 290. In January, 2021, there are 167 million women in the United States. So the, the birth rate bottoms out at 1.7 births per female right now. Ugh, that's a little low. The inexorable fact is that you need about 2.1 births to keep up with the ongoing deaths just to replace the population.
You know, I have eight kids. Not all through Ms. Jenny. Jenny and I have a Brady Bunch family, but we have eight kids. I had three bef from a previous marriage. She had two from her previous marriage and we have three together. I thought, you know, can I come up with some type of carbon tax type of thing, right?
Maybe if someone wants to become, you know, want some couple, wants to remain a a dink, right? Double income, no kids that I could, um, I dunno, maybe they could pay me some money. And they could use these kids towards their disposition. So they replace themselves. No, that's, [00:17:00] I'm just thinking, I'm always thinking of these side gigs, right?
Maybe that's one, but, but in truth, many countries in Europe, for example, they're at the lowest low. What demographers call the lowest low 1.3 births per women and Nova Society has ever returned from that point. California . Let's talk about that. February, 2021. They had 30,000 births in that month compared to 34,000 the year before in 2019.
I'm using February just as a gauge here, and this is an even bigger decline from 2016. Over the course of five years, from 2016 to 2022, the number of births in the month of February has dropped off 20% here in California. Now part of. Are people leaving the states, 10% of the city of San Francisco just Uped left my hometown.
Why, why are we doing this? Right? So [00:18:00] some thought that the stay-at-home orders would wind up bringing more whoopee into our lives, and they were probably wrong. The fallout from this is not going to end well. So let's, let's take a gauge and, and see what's going out there. Now, speaking of fall, Let's talk about something.
You may have heard Bitcoin, you know this, right? I wanna inform you. No, I'm, I'm, I'm sort of the, the tech whisperer here. I'm going to explain to you about Bitcoin. Maybe you have a lot of questions and we may come back to it a later, but let me give you just a quick intro. Imagine you have a toy box. This is the best way to kind of convey it, okay?
And you wanna share those toys with your friends. You can take turns playing with the toys, but you have to keep track of. So that's like what they call the blockchain. That's the ledger that they use there. And a blockchain is a way of keeping track of things like toys or money, so everyone knows who has them and [00:19:00] what's going on.
Now imagine you have a special toys called Bitcoins and you can give to your friends or buy other toys with, and bitcoins are a special kind of money that people can use on the internet, like playing with toys. In truth, that's the description that I fed to our, our good friend, the AI chat bot. And I asked her, I said, explain it to me like I'm two.
So it, it's a, it's an interesting phenomenon because right now, Bitcoin is kind of at a very tense moment if you hadn't noticed, because on the blockchain you could do a lot of different things. There are coins out there and there are technologies, and there are. Applications on the blockchain that are very interesting.
When you go to pick up that little case of sushi there at Vaughns or Giants or Ralphs there or Trader Joe's, wherever you go and you see that little expiration date, how do you trust that? Do you trust it? [00:20:00] Where did the fish get sourced from? Where did it come from? Well, here's an interesting application.
What if you could scan that barcode and it would tell you with absolute serenity when that fish was taken from the water, when it was scored, where it was scored, where did it come through, how long it's been out, and be able to have that? Was it frozen, was it fresh? And have that entire marker all the way.
That's interesting. So someone developed a process, a technology on top of blockchain to do that. And then, you know, you can, you can do what they do to fund it. What they would do is they create their own coin, and that's where you have a lot of these issues because, coin is kind of like, um, a quick sort of investment scheme.
You could invest in this company by thinking that their coin on top. The blockchain, like Bitcoin would somehow develop to something bigger. There are tens of thousands of coins out there competing for your interest. [00:21:00] It's not looking pretty. You may have heard of, this terrible situation, ftx, which was a online exchange and it was basically a bit of a Ponzi scheme, or at least once they got into trouble it became very quickly a a a, a Ponzi scheme.
Here's the honest. . Everyone is excited for Bitcoin and they're waiting for it to get to the all time high, as they call it, right? You remember flying high, I think the top point was $62,000 for a Bitcoin, but somehow, someway they were gonna make, they're gonna make no progress. Right now, I think it's about 22,000 is what a Bitcoin is worth, but you have to understand some of the concepts there.
Like I remember talking conversation with friends. My. They're boomers. My parents are boomers, they're friends are boomers. And, and he asked the question, well, what's it cost right now? Like 50th grand? I can't afford that. I can't afford a single token. I thought, oh my gosh. They, they don't realize that you can buy a part of the token.
You can [00:22:00] buy 10 cents worth of a Bitcoin and see if it rises in value. And, and I think these concepts are gonna be tough. And here's the reason why I think you will never reach an all time high with. Unless you can build an Adopt a Boomer program because our parents or grandparents, whoever you are in this listening audience, or maybe it's yourself, the technology behind Bitcoin, which is meant to be a hedge against the rabble rousing dollar, which they keep printing, printing and printing of, and making it worth less and.
That Bitcoin will never, never take off to its ultimate gain. It's all time high. Unless we can convince people who are of the older generation, who have about 80% of the wealth that they want to invest their money in it and put it towards something valuable there. So crypto won't survive unless they can convince that generation and my generation, [00:23:00] generation X I can tell you, I'm, I'm kind of an, an, an arant myself in in my own.
Not a lot of my peers are investing in Bitcoin cause they don't quite understand. I mean, there's, there's a lot of technology hurdles for that, so we need to keep that in mind. But just so you know, that's something I'm tracking very closely cuz I think it's an interesting situation. We'll see how it, goes over with Bitcoin here.
I remember I talked to someone, they said, I've got 10 guys right here who want to throw $5,000 into a coin, but they have no idea how to buy this. And believe me, in many ways it was like a Rube Goldberg chain to try to get through and buy the coins that are at the deep, deep web market, like before they ever come to, I think Merrill Lynch.
You can buy Bitcoin on there, you can buy it obviously on Coinbase. It operates much like a stock in that sort of application. , but the next phase is gonna get early and you've gotta like, sacrifice a mice to get the app, to get it to, to run, to take some [00:24:00] chewing gum from behind your ear and stick it.
It's, it's a little crazy process to actually get on the inner game as to what's happening there. But all of this is, is mouse to nothing unless you can build that trust. In fact, what you see, that incredible drop off of trust that you. That you don't trust the blockchain moment, that is going to be a terrible element in the coming days unless we can build that trust back up, much like the trust that our healthcares institutions lost with Covid.
And, we'll see how that goes. So I think what we'll find now is, we'll, we'll be able to take our queue from where the market goes these next few. I'm telling you, there are a lot of disconcerting signs, but we have no idea. Anyone who tells you, they know exactly where the market going. I don't think they do.
All right. This is Justin. Hi. We will come back [00:25:00] here shortly on the other side talking with Jennifer. Se stay with us.
Look, you know, something is crazy wrong about the world sometimes. You see it every day around you from crazy covid policies to government censorship, a rollercoaster economy in the growing wave of powerful technologies that's probably gonna impact your life, definitely impact your kids' life, and for sure it's gonna impact your grandkids.
And that's why I'm here. I'm Justin. I'm the host of the new show on K C B Q, the answer, 10:00 AM Sundays. Let's help you get grounded, helping you make sense of the world.
Folks, welcome to the show. My good friend, she's just a time zone away, I believe in Colorado here, but, we used to share West Coast time and she envi. Stuck it through in San Francisco where I couldn't. I love my [00:26:00] hometown. I know you did too. Welcome to the program, Jennifer, say Jennifer. Hi. Hi, Justin.
I'm s nice to talk to you. Thanks. I'm so glad we could have you on. You know, Jennifer and I now go back almost to almost three years now. We've been following each other and we've met a few times. Our families have become close. Her history is so unique and so interesting. Jennifer was the 1985, US gymnastics champion.
And but for a falls, she would've been right up there on the podium the next year with, the rest of the team that everyone knew growing up. I knew, I knew them growing up. And then, her career after that would, would take a very interesting turn. She ended up the chief brand officer of Levi. . And then things got a little bit weird in Dodge , right?
San Francisco, which was the, the most incredible town [00:27:00] in the last 15 years as far as growth and excitement and technology. Jennifer conveyed to us what transpired next. And Jennifer, as you know, is the author of the book I've been talking about Levi's unbuttoned. So, I think that alludes to some of the things that are, you're gonna tell us here in a second.
Yeah,
Jennifer Sey: sure. I was a longtime Levi's employee. I started at the bottom as a marketing assistant in 99 and crawled my way up the ladder, um, and became the chief marketing officer in 2013. Had that job for eight years, which you know, is. Sort of unprecedented in that world. It's a slippery seat and people don't last very long.
But I, you know, drove a brand turnaround. We went from near bankruptcy to, you know, high growth company. We successfully iPod in 2019 and certainly a lot of the work that me and my team, um, Did, we were credited with, you know, driving the success of that i p o. [00:28:00] And then in 2020 I, along with you, which is how we met, um, I was very outspoken about the harms that would be done to children from all kinds of restrictions, long-term public school closures.
My kids were in public schools, still are, and but also in San Francisco, the playgrounds were closed for nine. Um, you know, two year olds were masked for all close to three years. Um, and I was really outspoken about this and I was one of the public faces of the company and, but I didn't speak on behalf of the company.
I didn't use my title. Um, I was clear that I was speaking as a public school mom. and I was told repeatedly over the course of two years, the whole thing was like a slow moving car crash. , you know, I was spoken to all over and over, you know, I was inspired instantly. Um, I was, you know, spoken to sternly by various peers and my boss, the CEO as well as a board member that I needed to stop and I [00:29:00] kind.
Politely refused to stop because I felt it was too important, um, and that children were being harmed, which we obviously now know is the case. And I was eventually told there was no longer a place for me at the company in, um, January of 2022. And rather than accept their hush money, you know, I was offered a large severance, which would come with a non-disclosure agreement to stay quiet about the terms of the separation, which mean I couldn't talk, which would mean I couldn't talk about the censorship that I faced internally.
Um, I declined the severance by resigning very publicly instead, with a subs, article on Barry Weiss's subs, quote's, old one called Common Sense. Now the Free Press. And that went a bit viral. And ultimately that summer of 22, I wrote a book, which just came out around the time of your book, um, in the fall of, of last year.
Justin Hart: And Jennifer, you know, this was the crazy thing. , [00:30:00] your, your book talks even more so than Covid. It talks about the culture of our, our corporate atmosphere. And, and I know myself, I was, um, before I, I, I left the, the practice. I was a, a chief marketing officer of a pretty large tech company in la but I, I had a really tough time doing the commute.
And so when I came down here and when Covid started, I was a consultant, so it was easy for me to stick my neck out. But I, I, I had a, I have a feeling that if I were a chief marketing officer, I, I may have shut myself up, but, you, you took that extra step and didn't, didn't let these people dissuade you.
You, you left, Levi's under your own accords, and you went on to ride this, this book, Levi's unbuttoned, but it's more, it's more than Covid v. Tell us, like, what is the sort of like the central sort of theme of that. .
Jennifer Sey: Yeah, you're right. It isn't, it isn't a covid round, as I jokingly tell people. I mean, that is a large part of it my last two years at the company.
But it [00:31:00] essentially, it's a memoir and it really is about this sort of woke takeover in corporate America that drives this incredible censorship and conformity. And ultimately it's, it's also a lie. Um, it's a, it's a pose that companies and C-suites take to try to profit off of. The activism of millennials and Gen Zs, but really the, the true purpose is to make more money for the company.
And so it's all sort of very, whether or not that works, we can debate. You know, I would argue long term it, it will not work. Um, but it's, you know, in a sense for a company like Levi's, and I think this is why my story. With people. You know, it's a brand that is known for rugged individualism, right? And so, so to expose the inside the walls of the company, there was no such thing as individualism.
You had to conform to the views of the company, which were essentially. The views of the [00:32:00] Democratic Party. And I, unlike you, and you and I have joked about this and laughed about it a lot, you know, I came from the left and I had espoused much of, much of those views. I had been a registered Democrat my entire life.
I'm not anymore. Um, , but it just took over. And, you know, I led this campaign called Use Your Voice. And it sort of dawned on me a year into this, that that did not apply to me somehow, that you could only use your voice if you say what we're telling you, you're allowed to say. And the reason I didn't stop was because I won't accept a lie.
I just, I won't, I, I, I didn't really think that much about what might happen, but the idea that I had to espouse a. That, you know, opening schools would kill all the teachers and it was racist to want the schools to open and there would be no harm done to children because kids are resilient. Like, I, I just was not gonna accept a lie.
That's too dangerous. Um, and I think it's happening, you know, outside of Covid, obviously Covid is an egregious example, [00:33:00] but outside of that, and I think. People, everyday people are sort of cowed into silence by this vicious mob and forced to further lies, which are dangerous to our children and to our culture and community, and I think ultimately prevent us from truth seeking and prevent us from living in an actual democracy.
Let's be clear, because if Yeah, voices, dissenting voices cannot be heard. And if the only voices that can be heard are ones. Espoused the talking points of corporations, big pharma and the government, then we live in an authoritarian right society. And so I wouldn't do that. And, you know, perhaps it was a foolish choice, , I don't know.
Um, it just all seemed too important to me because if we could have, and I know you know this, if we could have had a reasoned, rational conversation, Good doctors and good regular folks weren't silenced and [00:34:00] smeared for asking reasonable questions, we could have gotten to the right answer, which was to open schools sooner so that it's just too dangerous not to speak out.
And I hope in the book, my sincerest hope is that it inspires people to just screw up their courage a little bit and call a lie. A lie and, and speak up. You know, despite how scary that can be
Justin Hart: is your sense, Jen, that. That, how does this get fixed? Is it, is it by persuasion? I mean, your book is very persuasive on these topics, but I I, I know the, the folks who run these companies and, and like you said, they're, they're a fragile bunch.
They're, they're like the, yeah, the off rack, discount at Ma Macy's, you know, the , the, the sweater that you might put on as a vest. It's crazy. But, do you think they just need to hit rock bottom before this sort of dissipates away? Or is this here with us to stay. Is this our life now and we're just gonna be fighting this the rest of our.
Jennifer Sey: I [00:35:00] don't believe it's here to stay. Maybe I'm a foolish optimist, but I, I, I think as it pertains to the wokeness in companies, at the end of the day, you know, I know everybody really knows that a company does not have a soul. It doesn't have values, it's sole purposes to make money. Now it can. Fairly, and it can treat employees well, and arguably treating your employees well is a better way to keep them engaged and happy and to have the company make money.
But this idea that CEOs are social justice warriors and that is their main purpose is really, it's a, it's a deception and it's meant to deceive people and enable them to avoid scrutiny for all the. Stuff they're doing underneath the covers, which is basically keeping all the money for themselves, and sometimes engaging in fraudulent business practices like Sam Bankman Free, you know, the world wouldn't have been fooled for him by him and all of his fraudulent if he hadn't taken these [00:36:00] stances.
That's what enabled him to get away with it for as long as he had. And so that was the
Justin Hart: cover, I think. Yeah,
Jennifer Sey: that that exactly, that was the cover. And so I. For investors and consumers and, and banks and everyone as they continue to be duped by these people and ultimately lose a lot of money, I think they're gonna have to
Justin Hart: stop.
Is it your sense? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're not gonna wanna lose money. Right. And think about these brands, right? I mean the, the incredible heritage I, I saw the other day. Some guy who had bought a, a mining town, and was just searching for, all of these different replicas and different old bottles, and he found an old pair of Levi's jeans and that went on the market for like $150,000.
He was able to sell that and the auction off to. How removed is the Levi's brand from this? I mean, I, I don't think any of the kids in most of the, the marketing department or any department could spend three [00:37:00] days out in the Sierras without their Lululemon ski pants. Right. And, you know, cool pan for gold as the, the history has it.
How do we reconnect to the history that we all have as Americans in this thing and overcome this weird wave of modernity that seems to make us so fragile?
Jennifer Sey: Well, isn't that the question of the day? ? You know, I think it's not one thing. I think it's gonna be a lot of things. I think companies have to get sick.
Companies, bankers, et cetera, have to get sick of being fooled and made a fool of by these woke capitalists and they will refuse. Cuz at the end of the day, they're in it to make money. You know, that is, that's just gonna be a pragmatic choice. But I think it takes people like us continuing to push on this issue and bring people around.
Look, I think most, most people, not Americans, people around the world would rather fit in. Then do the right thing. But they can be persuaded and they can be [00:38:00] moved. And you know, you alluded to my gymnasts career. What we didn't talk about is I was very outspoken about the harms and the abuses in the sport of gymnastics.
Right. And it took 10 years for people to come around and see my view. I was canceled for that in 2008 for saying that the coaching culture was abusive and that children were being harmed. You know, I was, I was saying terrible things about honorable men, honorable men. horrifically abusing children. Well, it all came out in the end and then, you know, everybody pretended they always stood with me.
So people will move with you, but you, you need courageous people to go first and say it and bring people along and it, it takes longer than we would like, you know? And I had that in my mind when I was speaking out on school closures. I thought if I'm rational and reasons people, Come with me eventually, I, I got the timeline wrong.
right? right. But I still think that they will eventually, and I think it's the responsibility of people like us who [00:39:00] are kind of willing to endure the slings and arrows to keep speaking out and to demand accountability. It's not enough at this point that we have some acknowledgement that the school closures were harmful.
We need accountability. These were choices. Leaders made bad policy choices that. Young people and they're, those same people are still in power. Yeah. I'm not gonna stop until they're not. And there is some accountability. It didn't just happen. It
was
Justin Hart: a choice. It's crazy. Was Jennifer has this book, she was also the producer Help Produce, athlete A, which is on Netflix about, the terrible consequences of abuse, of children in the US Gymnastics program.
And now you've got a, a new thing you're working on too. Can you hint? . I sure can.
Jennifer Sey: Yeah. I'm making a second documentary film, it's called, we actually have a name, it's called Generation Covid. Mm-hmm. . Yeah, it's called Generation Covid. And it's, um, . It really is. I wanna document [00:40:00] what happened to kids and families because they're already trying to change the narrative.
You know, nobody wants to own the school closures at this point. Everyone pretends they had nothing to do with it and they never were for it. Fauci City has nothing to do with it. Well, Randy, we garden, all these people who drove it are saying they had nothing to do with it, which is a. Right. That's a sign that it is not something anyone will stand by.
Well, I'm not gonna let the memory hold it. . I love it. She did have something to do with it, and I wanna tell the stories of the kids because they continue to struggle. As you know, people now say, well, they're open now. What are you on about? Stop this . Well, you know what? They're still really struggling.
Kids dropped out of high school that's going to alter the course of their lives. Kids were unable to compete in sports. Kids that needed scholarships, they didn't get them. They can't go to college now. Their, their lives are altered. Um, and so I think these stories need to be told, and that's what I'm trying to do.
Justin Hart: Jennifer, we're so glad to have you. Where can people [00:41:00] find the book, find you, what's the best place to send 'em to so they can get all this great.
Jennifer Sey: Sure the book is on Amazon and Barnes and noble.com and from the publisher, Levi's on button.com. And I'm on Twitter under my name, which could have been my first mistake using my actual name,
And then I have a sub, um, called Say Everything, s e y.
Justin Hart: We're so glad to have you Keep pressing, you know, we're ending up at the right place. You can't go wrong. Sticking your neck out for the truth. Excellent. Well, that was Jennifer. So Jennifer is such a dear friend now, and we have kids that are, um, relatively the same age.
I think she has a, a daughter who's a year older than, um, my, my five year old. I think. I, if I remember correctly, they came over to our house one time. It was really funny and, we were getting ready. It was the first time we had. And our two daughters were becoming friends, and all of a sudden her daughter did the perfect cartwheel in front of my kindergartner, and she took me to the back and she said, how [00:42:00] does she know how to do that?
I've gotta learn how to do that. I'm like, Ugh. I, I don't know how she, well, now I do know her mother was the US gymnastics world champion. That's how, that's how I know . So I, I'm afraid I'm not a, a very good, influencer on my daughter to make her a better gymnast. Let's close out the day talking about some interesting things that are happening around DNA Now.
We talked last week about crispr, but I wanna talk about how it's being used in real world life. I bet you've actually had some experiences around this. You may have had the, the interesting, incident where a family member, for example, finds out that someone else is related to them that they didn't know.
because relationships are messy and things are crazy throughout history. Or maybe you had some type of, ancestry you weren't counting on that too can be a little crazy and messy. But from bungled Bulger, burglaries to Nanobot [00:43:00] motorcycles, the applications of DNA and science really are astounding.
Here's some of the latest happenings. Okay. In India, they're planning to use both blockchain and dna. And combine them together to create kind of a citizen registry. Now that sounds a little bit crazy, maybe a little bit untoward, but consider, did your vote count in these last two elections here? There are a lot of people who are very concerned about that.
Now, imagine if blockchain technology could verify absolutely. That you were the person that voted and you voted this way. That's an interesting application. , how about this? Were you a, a big snacker as a kid, right? Did you go to the pantry all day long? Genetics might tell you why you did that. There's some researchers at a university and they've conducted of a study to identify the gene sets that [00:44:00] predispose those someone to pour snacking habits.
Just like the genetic gene set tells you that I sneeze a lot after I eat. So that would be interesting. That doesn't even necessarily take a lot of. Code to go in and change you, but just so you're aware of it, right? Or think about this situation, you know, king Solomon from the Bible and his wisdom, this unsurpassed test to determine, which claimant was the, mother of a newborn.
Both women came forward and said, that's my child. No, that's my child. So King Solomon's, decision was, well, let's just cut the baby in. Immediately the real mother relinquished her claim. Well, recently a woman in Kenya was accused of stealing a baby. A quick d n a test determined that she was able to prove her innocence.
Now, I'm gonna go to a clip right now. This is, um, the little bit of the dark side of things. [00:45:00] 2016 World Science Festival. This is Bioethicist. If we can give him that title. Matthew Leal. And he's discussing how there might be some applications in how we engineer humans to reduce our footprint on humanity.
Let's go to that Cut. So I'll give two examples. So one is that, people eat too much. . Right. And if they were to cut down on their consumption on meat, then they would, it would actually really help the planet . But people are not willing to give up meat. Yeah. You know, some people will be willing to, but other people, they may be willing to, but they sort of, they have a weakness of will they say, wow, this, this steak is just too juicy.
I can't do it. I, I'm one of those. By the way, so, you know, but so here's the thought, right? So it turns out that we know a lot about, so there we have this intolerance to, so I, for example, I have milk intolerance, some, and there some people are intolerant to crayfish. So possibly we can use Hu human engineering to make it [00:46:00] the case that we're intolerant to certain kinds of meat.
So certain kinds of bovine, bovine proteins. And there's actually analogs of this in light. There's this thing called the Lonestar tick where if it bites you, you'll become allergic to meat. I can sort of describe the mechanism. So that's something that we can do through human engineering. We can kind of, possibly address really big world problems through human engineering.
Another. Okay, human engineering. And what we're gonna do is maybe, maybe we'll find that little gene of the lone star tick, or maybe send a whole bunch of ticks into people's houses to bite them and they won't want to meet, eat a meat anymore. I mean, they, they believe that cow flatulence is one of the primary drivers of co of, of climate change.
I mean, this is both absurd and. Now here's another one that's really interesting, perhaps a bit scary and marginal. Every [00:47:00] day in the United States, about 15 to 25 people die because they're awaiting an organ transplant and nothing quite fits them. Now, these people could be saved and many others helped by potentially a limitless supply of healthy organs.
Designed just for. because right now scientists are using genetic engineering with pigs and using elements of your DNA N to basically grow a heart, grow a liver, grow something within this pig that can then be used in you 3D printed lungs. I mean, that's crazy stuff. I, I. I don't know about, Wilbur being able to grow my spleen and, and help me in that way, or what it's gonna work out.
But there are some interesting applications. Imagine that sort of [00:48:00] technology that could extend your lifetime for another 10 years, 20 years or more. They're getting to the point where they've been able to find where the gene is that tells you to grow. My kids the other day, they, they caught me in the light of the sun or something.
They were out putting 'em in their car seats. They said, Hey dad, your hair's all white. What? Oh, yeah. It's, it's gray. You're, you're doing that to me, child. But, the, the idea, there are a lot of things out there that are really interesting and could be very powerful. Um, the dna, analysis has been used to fight crime.
They've been able to scan, for example, ancestry.com. and determine based on DNA samples, who the probable serial killer is from historical murders. That's powerful, creepy, cool, powerful, lots of applications. Also, just this [00:49:00] week, US scientists combined a catfish and an alligator, d n a, so they can make the alligator live longer.
Okay. Well, we're gonna take that into consideration. There are a lot of things that are very interesting. Oh, I mentioned the burglars. Don't let me forget, , some burglars in France, they, they, they broke their way into a bakery. They made a mess of the place. They, they also stopped to eat some fine croissants.
Maybe a pastry, maybe some delicate contest. I mean, they were, they were, they were helping themselves and then smashing the joint and looking for something to steal. Well, it turns out they left some dna n a at the crime scene. They were able to run that through the police database and find who the robbers.
These are interesting applications of great technology, but never forget [00:50:00] the technology that brings you who you are. Also defines what makes you unique in this world. I talked about that element of sensation, that uniqueness to myself where I sneeze uncontrollably. What are the genetic dispositions that you have in your life that can make something powerful?
It can tell a story. At the very least, you know, the, the stories of our history are so important. I hope you have a chance to go back in time and look up your ancestry, even through DNA and just say, you know what? I never knew I had so much Irish in me. Kiss me. I mean, those are things that we need. Well, not in the time of Covid, right?
Because then you pass the, no, come on, we need more kids. Go out and have some fun. Great to be with. You have a fantastic Sunday.[00:51:00]
You've been listening to the Justin Hart show. Tune in again next Sunday morning at 10. Right here on the answer, San Diego. Look, you know, something is crazy wrong about the world sometimes. You see it every day around you from crazy covid policies to government censorship, a rollercoaster economy in the growing wave of powerful technologies that's probably gonna impact your life, definitely impact your kids' life, and for sure it's gonna impact your grandkids.
And that's why I'm here. I'm Justin. I'm the host of the new show on K C B Q, the answer, 10:00 AM Sundays. Let's help you get grounded, helping you make sense of the world.
The Justin Hart Show - Ep 5 - Jennifer Sey