Ep 1180 ｜ Baby Bonuses & a Message from Big Matcha
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode of Relatable, Allie talks about The Light Between Oceans and why she needs a good book that she can get emotionally invested in. She also talks about Trump's new $5,000 baby bonus for pregnant people having babies.
Transcript
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Trump is thinking about offering a $5,000 baby bonus to people having babies.
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This sounds like a good thing, but I'm not so sure.
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Okay, we got big matcha here, and they're going to force me to try their chartreuse dirt water.
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We're talking about a lot on today's episode of Relatable, so buckle up.
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It's brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
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Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far.
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I'm tired, and I have a headache because I stayed up past midnight last night, which is late for me, reading.
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Okay, I only do this about once a year, get into a really good fiction book that just like takes so much of my attention.
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And so I was reading this book, The Light Between Oceans, last night, and the last 150 pages or so have been like extremely gripping.
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I didn't realize this book came out in 2012, and there was a movie about it that came out in 2016.
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But fun fact about me, I get extremely emotionally invested in the books that I read.
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And I simply do not have the time or the capacity to do that.
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Like The Notebook is one of my favorite movies of all time.
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Meet Joe Black, another one of my favorite movies of all time.
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I like to really know the characters and be attached to the characters.
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When I was in second grade, we had to write a short story.
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I don't even remember what it was about, but one of my characters that I created, her name was Rachel.
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And I remember at the end of this short story, which I'm pretty sure was only like eight pages long, I cried because I missed the characters.
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But because of the title of my book, Toxic Empathy, some haters who have never, ever read the book, haven't even read the subtitle.
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They'll be like, oh, she doesn't have any empathy.
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In real life, I have very deep, deep empathy for people, but also for in fiction.
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Like, I feel so deeply for every character and can see the perspectives.
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And in this book, it was even more difficult because there's no clear protagonist or antagonist.
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When I tell you that I was heaving and sobbing last night at midnight, okay, like just pouring my eyes out reading the end of this book.
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I do recommend it if you're looking for a book like that.
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I said, Grok, I want a good book that I can get emotionally invested in.
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I think I said, like, gripping book that has a love story but no sex scenes, no LGBTQ stuff, and no social justice themes.
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And it suggested this, and it was perfect because it didn't have any of that.
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Not trashy and cheap, but something with a little bit of levity.
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Before you go check this book out of the library, I do not recommend this book.
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If you are pregnant, if you are freshly postpartum, if you have, this is serious, if you have suffered pregnancy loss, especially recently, or if you are struggling with infertility.
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You know where you are in your, you know, emotional healing journey.
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However, this, like, as a mom, this was heart-shattering for me.
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So if I were in a particularly vulnerable season of life, this would have been, like, an especially difficult book for me to read.
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And Brie and I sometimes talk about Kristen Hanna books.
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It was one of those that I think I liked over time.
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Another one where I was, like, sobbing at midnight.
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I don't even remember, honestly, what happened.
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And you don't have to tell me, but I just remember being really sad.
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It's about France during Nazi reign, so it's very, it's dark.
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And now I'm kind of de-influenced after what you said about it.
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Now, a lot of people in my DMs loved it and thought it had a lot of twists and turns.
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And if you don't have me in the first 100 pages, you're not going to get me.
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If you can't get me in the first 100 pages, you don't deserve me in the next 100 pages.
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Some people say so good, like broke them, cried and all of that.
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And then others are like, no, it was so depressing and never redemptive, which I don't like.
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Well, I feel like if historical fiction is your thing, then you're just kind of going to like what she writes no matter what.
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But after reading the book that I just read, I was reminded of what good writing, like really good writing, just for the sake of like a good sentence.
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And you're not going to get that in the women or a lot of Kristen Hanna books.
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I recently read one called Everything Sad is Untrue.
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A little boy from the Middle East who moves here.
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It's written really weirdly, but it's really beautiful.
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And I just, sometimes I just like, I'm like, I just have to read something right now.
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Well, especially if it's like something really dark.
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I sobbed my eyes out in the living room at midnight.
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Cause I'll go to bed and I'll just like be reading casually.
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And I'm like, yeah, I've got like a hundred more pages left.
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And then I'm like, oh, I have to finish this, but I need to turn the light off so my husband
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And so I go into the living room when I finish it.
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I'm listening to two books right now, which won't make me cry.
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I'm not interested in birth control, but it's a lot about like women's hormones and stuff.
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And I like, I need a good beet tree that's not trashy.
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So if anyone has it, I'm so glad I did not read this on my vacation because Chief Related
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I literally told him this morning, first of all, when I got to bed last night, he was like,
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And then this morning I made him listen to me, tell him in detail every, like the plot
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I think he would be emotionally impacted by the story if he read it or if he watched it.
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Chief Related Bro just walked into the studio right now.
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Um, but yeah, he, he's like, he's probably walking at me like, seriously, are you still
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Because I've been talking about it for like three days.
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So if y'all have any book suggestions for me, please send them.
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We're actually going to get into some stories before we get into our last silly segment.
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We've got a lot of like fun segments on today's episode where we talk about matcha and barefoot
00:10:09.180
Well, let me tell you though, about share the arrows that is sponsored by good ranchers.
00:10:15.560
I am so pumped about share the arrows this year on the way into the studio.
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I, I was listening to the playlist that I've created for share the arrows as I'm trying
00:10:24.660
to think about what I want Francesca Battistelli to, uh, sing for us and how I want her to lead
00:10:35.040
One of my favorite parts of share the arrows last year was listening to 4,000 women singing.
00:10:45.180
It was a foretaste of heaven to stand among like-minded, courageous Christian women, to worship God, to
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learn from wise women, to get solid theological teaching, to be challenged.
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One of my favorite messages that I received last year was from an attendee who said, I walked
00:11:07.480
And I just pray that that is true of the thousands of women attending share the arrows this year.
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So many of you who didn't go last year said, oh my gosh, I have FOMO.
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It's going to be apologetics, theology, health, motherhood, encouragement, challenge, worship.
00:11:40.080
Share the arrows, sponsored by our friends at Good Ranchers.
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Get your tickets, Christian women, at sharethearrows.com.
00:11:54.940
A ton of you have been asking me about this Trump baby bonus.
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Do I think it's a good thing that the Trump administration is floating this idea that they
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are going to reward women who have babies with $5,000?
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The Trump admin is exploring policies to boost the U.S. birth rate as part of an agenda to
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promote the family and to promote family values.
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I've seen Anna Paulina Luna, a representative from Florida, float this idea.
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I've seen others kind of take claim for this proposal.
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These policies were proposed as policy experts and advocates of boosting the birth rate have
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been meeting with White House aides, sometimes handing over written proposals on ways to help
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So we don't know exactly who the main author is of these proposals.
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We just know that the Trump administration is entertaining them.
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This is something that Elon Musk has talked about a lot.
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And so it shouldn't be surprising that he is using IVF and a bunch of surrogates to try to
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And there are a lot of moral and ethical issues with that.
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If you are new here and you don't know my opinion or my take on IVF and surrogacy, look
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We've got lots on them, but a lot of issues with the forced fatherlessness that he is
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bringing upon the children that he is creating.
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Vance from a more traditionalist perspective say families are good.
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We should be doing whatever we can to encourage the formation of families and for parents to
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One proposal, according to the New York Times, that was shared with White House aides would
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reserve 30 percent of scholarships for the Fulbright program, the prestigious government
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backed international fellowship for applicants who are married or who have children.
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Another proposal calls on the government to fund programs that educate women on their
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menstrual cycles in part so they can better understand when they are ovulating and able
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I don't know if I want the government to get their grubby hands on that, but it is absolutely
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I see all of these people like Maria Shriver complaining that funding is being taken away
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from like research for women's health when the reality is with all of these funding is
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It's not the Trump administration is specifically saying, let's take funding away from cancer
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Let's take funding away from women's health research.
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It's that they may be reducing the funding to one area of the government or one government
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program that they have rendered corrupt or they not have rendered, but they have seen
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They're not actually accomplishing their stated goals.
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And so they might defund or reduce the funding for a particular program or part of the government.
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And that happens to take some money away from some kind of research.
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You've probably seen people say, oh, they're no longer funding the suicide hotline for LGBTQ
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Well, it wasn't specifically taking funding away from that.
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But again, we need to ask ourselves, why do these programs exist?
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And if they're not accomplishing anything, if they're not actually effective at, say, making
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women healthier, then why should our tax dollars be funding them?
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No one is asking, what are the results of these programs?
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They're just asking, what are the stated intentions of these programs?
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And that's not how you judge the effectiveness of a program by their stated intentions.
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So should the government fund some kind of program to educate women about their cycles?
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But women do need to know more about their cycles and how and when to get pregnant and all
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When the New York Post asked Trump in the Oval Office about the baby bonus, President Trump
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Speaker Mike Johnson has something to say about this, too.
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He was asked on Fox News about the baby bonus idea.
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Every creative idea that the president and this White House come up with, they pan immediately,
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We're working every day to rebuild a culture of life in America.
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We want to advance policies that help families and make it easier to raise a child in America.
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OK, so we want Republicans to be on the side of the family.
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And I want the White House to be on the side of more children and stronger families and all
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So is that what a $5,000 baby bonus would accomplish?
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Let me go ahead and tell you about our first sponsor, though.
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I take their supplements every single day without fail.
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I never compromise on this because it has really changed how I feel for the better.
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It has improved my skin, my hair, my nails, my ability to fight sickness.
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I take their magnesium, their postnatal vitamin.
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I take their iron supplement, which has really helped my iron levels.
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I've always kind of been borderline anemic, and it's helped me there.
00:17:46.840
And I also started taking, probably six weeks ago, maybe a little more at this point, their
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It is like the Swiss Army knife for women's hormones.
00:18:02.420
It's got saffron, ginger, curcumin, kiwi, vitamins.
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And I'm telling you, I don't want to get into too much detail for the related bros in the
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room and out there, but I can tell you, it seems to have really helped me this last cycle.
00:18:27.500
Like I've realized as I am like 18 months postpartum that my hormones still kind of seem
00:18:32.820
out of whack in some ways, and I really think that this Wholesome Balance product has helped
00:18:55.500
White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said in a statement to the New York Times regarding
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this proposal that Trump is proudly implementing policies to uplift American families.
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It's not clear if the $5,000 baby bonus is a part of his policy plan.
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But the Heritage Foundation did have something to say about this.
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The policy analyst, a policy analyst at Heritage, Emma Waters, said that, quote,
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our ultimate goal is not just more babies, but more families formed.
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According to the New York Times, the Heritage Foundation has been researching how to increase
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the birth rate for over two years and is preparing to release a report in the coming weeks on how
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it believes the administration and Congress should counter declining birth and marriage
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The issue is, however, that we don't just need more babies.
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The biggest issue is not the depopulation crisis.
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I believe the biggest issue is the dissolution of the family.
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And a much deeper issue is the lack of desire to have children.
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And that is something that is spiritual, that is cultural, that is moral.
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People say, oh, well, people can't afford housing today.
00:20:13.280
People feel like they're so stretched thin with their budget.
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And of course, financial problems can weigh heavily on a person and can and should to some
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However, there have been much more difficult economic times where families have said, you know
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what, we are going to trust the Lord and we feel that it is our obligation and we desire to have
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children and we are going to figure it out in much more turbulent times than today, not only
00:20:47.580
throughout history, but in other countries right now.
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And I'm not just talking about women who get pregnant because they don't have any way to
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I'm talking about people who say, no, we're going to get married.
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We're going to have children because this is the right thing to do.
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And because we want to do this, it's the most natural thing in the world.
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And so if you don't desire to do that, don't kid yourself that it's because you're too stressed
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out or you have too much going on or you are just going to wait until you're more stable
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It really is because ultimately, ultimately, for the most part, and if something, if this
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But for the most part, married people aren't having children because they don't want to.
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And in large part, people are not getting married because they don't want to get married.
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That doesn't apply to the related bells out there who want to have kids and want to get
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married and just haven't been able to do those things yet.
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But I'm talking about in the culture in general, that is true.
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And so until we address why people don't want to commit and why people don't want to have
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children, and I honestly think the government cannot do that.
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I don't think the depopulation crisis is going to solve itself because, look, I don't want
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millions of more children who don't have present fathers and mothers, okay?
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I don't think that that's actually better for the world or better for society.
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I'm not saying that those who don't have parents aren't innately valuable because, of course,
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they have just as much inherent worth as anyone else.
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And, of course, they can be very productive members of society and add so much to the
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But ultimately, the building block, the foundation for any free society is the stable family.
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That is the ideal situation for every child, to have a loving, present mom and dad that is
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best for them, that creates the highest likelihood possible that they are healthy and mature and
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developing and productive people who will go on and to contribute positive things to their
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And so, yes, I think that policy can speak to that in some way.
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And I am, again, open to proposals for that, but I'm not open to proposals that just reward
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people for having more kids, no matter their marital status.
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Like, I actually don't think that we should be rewarding that.
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I think that actually could incentivize very bad and destructive behavior.
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Bethany Mandel wrote an op-ed in the New York Post criticizing the $5,000 incentive.
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She said a one-time payout of $5,000, an amount that wouldn't even cover the cost of one of
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my births, if you don't know Bethany, she's got six kids, isn't a life raft, she says the
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$5,000 isn't a life raft, but a pat on the head as families struggle to stay afloat and
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amid rising costs, child care shortages, and a culture that undervalues parenthood.
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American families need tax reform rooted in research, reflecting the real needs of modern
00:24:09.860
mothers and fathers, and support that empowers families to dream bigger, not just survive.
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The problem isn't just a drop in babies, it's a drop in marriages.
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Since 1970, the U.S. marriage rate has fallen by 60%.
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While married couples, especially religious ones, still do have children, and statistically have
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more sex than singletons do, there are simply far fewer of them today.
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So maybe instead of a $5,000 baby bonus, Trump should consider a one-time tax break for newlyweds.
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I'm not saying that the $5,000 proposal has absolutely no place, but indiscriminately giving
00:24:49.560
that out to anyone who has a baby, again, I actually just don't think that that would
00:24:56.880
Something that I've been thinking about, I mentioned that I'm listening to this book,
00:25:00.760
Your Brain on Birth Control, and just how much not ovulating, because when you're on
00:25:06.940
the birth control pill, you're not ovulating, how much not ovulating has an effect on you
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as a woman, and how you think, and what you are attracted to, and the feelings that you
00:25:18.440
have, because God created our bodies to have a cycle that includes ovulation.
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It is not a coincidence that when you physically can get pregnant, because there are only a
00:25:28.600
few days a month when you can do that, when you physically can get pregnant, you also find
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Like you want to have a baby, you're thinking about babies, or maybe you find yourself wanting
00:25:40.080
to be intimate with your spouse during that time.
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And so when you take away ovulation, you also take away that surge of hormone that makes
00:25:52.520
you start thinking about wanting to get pregnant.
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And so you have all these women on the birth control pill who are not ovulating, who think,
00:26:00.400
oh yeah, I'm just a go-getter boss, babe, and I don't want kids.
00:26:12.400
You think this is just a part of your personality.
00:26:19.280
And because you're not ovulating, you are suppressing the very real natural God-given
00:26:23.820
instinct you have to commit to a strong man who wants to make babies with you.
00:26:30.540
So the birth control pill has really suppressed like a core part of what it means to be a woman.
00:26:38.820
And I think it is a huge reason why the birth rate has declined.
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Not because it is preventing pregnancy, but because it is preventing the desire to get pregnant.
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One of the testimonies in this book was a woman who she was, she was in grad school and she was
00:27:02.900
chasing her career and everything was going great.
00:27:05.100
And she decided to get off the birth control pill because she wanted to see how she felt off of it.
00:27:09.180
She said, as soon as she got off the birth control pill, she started having, um, these feelings
00:27:19.640
She started thinking about having babies and she was mortified.
00:27:25.160
I'm not going to be able to pursue my career anymore.
00:27:30.480
She got back on the pill so she could suppress those very real instincts.
00:27:40.940
I mean, it's pharmaceutical as well as spiritual and emotional and mental.
00:27:53.980
Give us a revival because it is so much deeper than just like an economic need.
00:28:01.380
And it's going to take hearts of stone turning into hearts of flesh and for us to prioritize
00:28:07.920
marriage and selflessness and sacrifice and commitment and all of those things again.
00:28:19.920
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All right, we're about to get into our segment with Phoenix.
00:29:58.120
If you missed our last Gen Z segment that we did a few weeks ago with Phoenix, where
00:30:03.680
she walked us through a trend that was happening on TikTok that she thought was troubling, this
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will be your first time being introduced to our Gen Z muse.
00:30:13.620
And we're going to talk about matcha and all kinds of fun stuff.
00:30:17.220
But I did want to say, because I forgot to say this at the top of the episode, my Canadian
00:30:28.620
And it did not go the way that we wanted it to.
00:30:33.620
And I know a lot of people up there are mad about Trump because Trump made some comments
00:30:37.980
and people thought that he inappropriately interfered and that it caused more people to
00:30:43.900
vote for the Liberal Party and Liberal leadership there in Canada.
00:30:49.780
But if you, not you conservatives out there, but the people who voted Liberal, if you were
00:30:55.560
voting based on what the president of another country says, if you are that emotional, you
00:31:01.740
are that flippant, like then you don't need to be voting.
00:31:10.040
Why would you allow President Trump to affect how you vote?
00:31:16.300
OK, the fact of the matter is, is that Canada is the capital of nicer than God toxic empathy.
00:31:26.260
OK, and so they believe, despite all the evidence before them, that being progressive makes you
00:31:32.600
a good person, despite the fact that Canada in so many ways is in shambles economically,
00:31:43.100
And so I am sorry to all of you who voted the correct way, who were praying so hard.
00:31:48.700
We do understand that God is on his throne, that he is totally sovereign, that nothing
00:31:54.140
surprises him or takes him aback, that nothing is too difficult for him, that nothing can
00:32:00.480
Job 42, 2, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
00:32:07.640
And that you are placed exactly where you are on this speck of the universe, on this tiny
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spot of eternity by God who does nothing accidentally or arbitrarily.
00:32:18.880
And I know all of you Christians up there in Canada know that.
00:32:22.400
I've talked to many of you and your hope and your strength and your resolve is so admirable
00:32:28.360
But I just want you to know that I'm sorry that I went that direction.
00:32:36.160
Okay, we're going to go ahead and get into this fun segment with Phoenix, but I do want
00:32:41.040
to just make a little announcement, a fun announcement for Blaze TV.
00:32:44.140
So my interview with Nicole Shanahan, you'll remember when I talked to her, went to California,
00:32:50.640
had a chat with her just about all things RFK campaign, the things she saw, the truth about
00:32:56.680
It was an incredible, a revelatory conversation.
00:33:05.980
Like what a blessing to have someone like Nicole on our side at this network.
00:33:17.620
You can go to youtube.com slash Nicole dash Shanahan.
00:33:24.260
Or you can subscribe to blazetv.com slash Allie.
00:33:27.660
You'll get access to all of the content that she is producing.
00:33:45.100
Somehow I have found myself with a matcha latte right next to me.
00:33:53.240
This matcha latte was made by our Gen Z muse, Phoenix.
00:33:59.680
And she has seen my rants about matcha tasting like grass and my disbelief that anyone likes
00:34:12.540
And she has said, okay, I am going to make you a matcha latte and convince you that it is
00:34:30.040
Well, matcha is actually just a whole tea leaf.
00:34:33.960
So this is where I have a problem when people say matcha tastes like grass.
00:34:44.120
All tea kind of tastes a little bit on the earthy side.
00:34:51.260
But have you, I'm like, I've never thought, ooh, this peppermint tea or this earl grey
00:35:05.140
So tell me what matcha is, though, because I didn't know this.
00:35:08.500
It's like a green tea leaf that's grown in a very special process.
00:35:13.680
It's shaded so that the leaves grow bigger and thinner.
00:35:18.060
And it's like those green tea leaves are ground up into a very fine powder that dissolves in
00:35:24.700
It's got a lot of great properties, like L-theanine.
00:35:26.900
I know you've seen that in, like, the whole food supplement aisle.
00:35:31.800
So even though this has caffeine in it, you don't get anxiety like you do with coffee.
00:35:40.140
So you don't get crashes and all that different kind of stuff.
00:35:46.340
So if you go a day or two without your morning matcha, you're not going to get a headache.
00:35:53.100
So that's why people like it, because it gives you a boost of energy without being a spike
00:35:58.820
And it's got the L-theanine in it, which is good for you.
00:36:02.560
And I'm guessing it has the other benefits of green tea.
00:36:05.640
I've heard of a variety of benefits of green tea.
00:36:07.740
And I've wanted to drink green tea in the past, especially when pregnant, but I've just
00:36:19.520
Yeah, basically, basically with a bunch of other great properties like antioxidants
00:36:25.280
that you would normally get from like plants and stuff.
00:36:36.600
That's why I have my little Japanese bamboo whisk.
00:36:42.400
Um, so, well, first I go out into my backyard and I cut some grass.
00:36:51.400
Um, actually, I just take a cup of whole milk, a tablespoon of honey, about half a teaspoon
00:36:58.340
And, um, you know, your desired amount of matcha that you put in a couple tablespoons
00:37:04.500
of hot water and you whisk with the little traditional whisk.
00:37:08.740
And then you pour that shot of matcha into your sweetened milk.
00:37:24.780
I've seen that and it just seems like a gimmick.
00:37:31.720
So ceremony, there's actually in Japan, they have like tea ceremonies and people who do
00:37:43.980
So a Japanese relatable listener could tell us.
00:37:47.700
Um, but it's higher quality and it's, you know, so you can find some organic ceremonial
00:37:56.220
matcha that doesn't have any pesticides on it, things like that.
00:38:00.040
But it's, it's not sweetened and it's not cheap essentially.
00:38:11.320
I do occasionally drink coffee, but I feel better when I drink matcha.
00:38:16.660
Although I like the jolt of my iced coffee every morning.
00:38:44.480
Definitely hints of grass, but it is sweet and I taste the sweetness and I appreciate the
00:38:51.960
So if I were to drink this and just tell myself, this is better for you.
00:39:06.380
I actually, I, I think I probably like hot, a hot matcha latte better than an iced matcha
00:39:13.540
But the thing about matcha that I feel like people who've only tried it a couple of times
00:39:19.020
fail to see is that matcha is an acquired taste.
00:39:23.680
There's a reason 14 year olds drink Frappuccinos.
00:39:26.120
You know, there's a reason that, you know, 12 year olds don't like blue cheese.
00:39:30.700
She's trying to say that my palate is immature.
00:39:39.600
Well, like we black coffee drinkers definitely think we're better than everyone else.
00:39:49.160
Um, but I have to say, you know, how many times have you actually tried matcha?
00:39:54.380
Have you given yourself enough time to acquire the taste?
00:39:57.480
So you haven't given yourself enough time to acquire the taste.
00:40:00.560
It's, it's an acquired taste like anything else.
00:40:02.880
Maybe if there's ever a time when I feel like I need to wean myself off of coffee, maybe
00:40:11.840
So I'm guessing you could replace it with almond milk.
00:40:23.660
I just want to tell you that this is not sponsored by big matcha.
00:40:30.560
You might think big matcha came after me and they were like, you better say that matcha
00:40:35.540
is good or else we're going to, I don't know, take down your podcast.
00:40:40.040
But no, I just, I voluntarily said, okay, we can do a segment on matcha because I caused
00:40:47.600
a firestorm when I said that I don't believe that anyone likes matcha, that it's just the
00:40:54.120
And I still am like, are we going to find out one day that like, I don't know, there's
00:41:04.440
Well, it can't be worse than the mold in the coffee.
00:41:08.420
And that's why everyone should drink seven weeks coffee because seven weeks coffee is
00:41:16.180
Maybe one of these companies will also make watcha, watcha.
00:41:34.040
And I just really encourage you as a mom to not only think about, okay, what are, what
00:41:43.260
What are you going to get your mother's mother-in-law?
00:41:45.480
Those are all good things to think about, but think about what you can give to other moms,
00:41:50.660
maybe moms who are in need, moms who might be in crisis pregnancies, first-time moms who
00:41:56.800
don't know how they are going to take care of the baby that they have.
00:42:00.800
Pre-born is a network of clinics across the country that helps take care of those moms.
00:42:05.780
When a pregnant mom walks into the doors of pre-born, they feel loved.
00:42:11.820
They are given a free pregnancy test, free ultrasound.
00:42:15.340
And we know through data that women are so much more likely to choose life for the baby
00:42:20.560
inside their womb when they see that baby on the ultrasound, when they hear that beating
00:42:26.100
And so pre-born is offering them truth and a true choice.
00:42:31.000
And a life-affirming choice is the direction that we hope they go in.
00:42:35.940
And pre-born does everything they possibly can to help women make that decision.
00:42:44.160
$28 covers the cost of a life-saving ultrasound.
00:42:47.760
But whatever you can donate, maybe it's $2.80, maybe it's $28,000, whatever you can donate
00:42:54.800
that goes towards saving the life of these image bearers of God and serving their moms
00:43:01.460
Go to preborn.com slash Allie to make that impactful donation today.
00:43:19.720
So there's this story that Vince sent, and it is about Brian Stelter.
00:43:26.460
He is spotted shoeless and disheveled, according to freebeacon.com, on an Amtrak train after
00:43:33.660
leaving the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
00:43:38.000
You remember Brian Stelter as the guy who used to be on, I think it was called Reliable Sources
00:43:49.960
You know, I won't fault him for that, but I will fault him for not wearing shoes on public
00:43:55.340
Another thing that I have an issue with, in addition to matcha, is people taking off their
00:44:01.480
shoes when they're traveling on an airplane, especially barefoot, but even sock-footed.
00:44:07.280
Because you're going home and you are walking around in your socks.
00:44:12.840
And also, I just think other people are smelling your feet.
00:44:18.320
Now, Phoenix, you think that this is worse than walking around on a plane without shoes,
00:44:35.240
Airplanes, there's going to, you know, they're in the air.
00:44:38.360
There's not that many opportunities for mice and bugs and rats and whatever to get on
00:44:46.300
Yeah, homeless people don't usually have enough money to afford plane tickets.
00:44:50.620
And then, you know, there's all sorts of icky things running on the ground on Amtrak trains.
00:44:58.720
And then you're just going to put your feet on that.
00:45:05.460
And I just think about, like, it makes me question your discernment altogether.
00:45:20.680
I don't know this, but he might have had some...
00:45:35.440
My grandma would say, act like you've been somewhere.
00:45:41.240
To be fair, I think we were always questioning Brian Stelter's...
00:45:51.760
The only thing that would make the end of this episode worse is if someone brought a pitbull
00:46:00.120
Okay, I have to disagree with you on that one, Allie.
00:46:15.580
Phoenix, are you prepared for what you're about to engage in?
00:46:29.300
And some breeds require more training than other breeds.
00:46:33.860
This is not typically happening to white suburban women.
00:46:37.880
But this is not typically happening to white suburban women.
00:46:43.100
Disproportionately, pitbulls are owned by Hispanic Americans and Black Americans.
00:46:47.160
This happens in all different kinds of communities.
00:46:50.680
In some cases, it might because, you know, training is important for all kinds of dogs.
00:46:56.520
But this is because pitbulls were bred to bait bulls and hogs and to not let go.
00:47:02.100
And just like retrievers retrieve, just like shepherds herd, just like other dogs do what
00:47:08.200
they were made to do, Labradors also retrieve, pitbulls latch on and they don't let go.
00:47:19.060
All dogs bite, not all dogs maul to death because they don't have the ability to do so.
00:47:30.780
It has to do with the instincts that dogs have.
00:47:33.620
You know, I now I I will let you know I have been bit by a dog right here.
00:47:39.500
I had plastic surgery when I was 18 months old because I got a chunk taken out of my
00:47:44.120
face by a dog wasn't a pitbull that was bred specifically like not not bred, but trained
00:47:50.980
Um, and if you can train a naturally sweet dog to be aggressive, I firmly believe that
00:48:00.200
training a pitbull, there are plenty of pitbulls that do not have these instances.
00:48:05.380
I do think that training is a large part of it.
00:48:08.500
Now, I am actually pro like mandatory education for dog training for, um, like what people call
00:48:18.660
I do think people need to know like specifically how to train these dogs.
00:48:23.220
And I don't think that, and I think people need to make better, more responsible choices
00:48:28.300
about what homes they choose to bring these dogs into.
00:48:31.120
And I think a lot of people mistake, um, signs of early aggression in dogs and don't train
00:48:40.360
Um, like, you know, chihuahuas are notoriously some of the most aggressive, you know, dogs on
00:48:46.980
the planet, but chihuahuas, they can't maul you.
00:48:55.860
You can train a naturally aggressive dog to be as sweet as possible, but you can't train
00:49:02.760
You can't train a shepherd not to be able to herd.
00:49:09.860
You can never put them by the water, but as soon as you put them in a situation where
00:49:14.440
their instincts kick in, they are going to be able to swim.
00:49:20.720
I've known sweet pit bulls before who have never mauled.
00:49:24.600
The thing is you don't know, and it's not their fault.
00:49:30.060
The problem is you never know when they're going to be triggered and you know when they
00:49:33.320
bite, they're not just going to like nip at your heels the way that a chihuahua would.
00:49:43.700
Pit bulls and Rottweilers make up 77% of all fatal dog bites, despite only making up 6%
00:49:50.000
of the U.S. dog population from 2010 to October 2023.
00:49:53.420
There were 478 fatal dog bites with 196 of those coming from pit bulls.
00:50:02.220
But I am for it to be illegal to breed these animals because I care about people more than
00:50:11.920
I just have to ask, how much of this do you think is correlation versus causation?
00:50:17.040
Like, are the people who are buying these dogs people who want aggressive dogs?
00:50:23.580
Well, some of them most certainly are because I know people who are like, or I've seen actually
00:50:31.440
I've seen a trend on TikTok where people have bought some of these bully breeds, specifically
00:50:38.080
the Cane Corso breed, which is not very dissimilar from pit bulls.
00:50:42.960
Um, to be like their personal protection dogs and they train them to be somewhat aggressive
00:50:49.460
as protectors of, you know, women, of farm animals, et cetera.
00:50:56.500
And so I do think that some of this is actually caused by people who want aggressive dogs and
00:51:02.120
intentionally do not train the aggression out of them.
00:51:05.020
And, you know, some of these pit bull stories are like, well, this pit bull got out of its
00:51:09.680
fence or this pit bull, you know, ran away from home, et cetera, et cetera.
00:51:14.560
And I've seen, I've seen several pit bull stories like that.
00:51:17.860
But I've seen too many livestock, too many farm animals, too many babies, too many adults,
00:51:22.920
too many elderly people mauled to death by pit bulls.
00:51:30.680
I've been bit by all different kinds of dogs, actually, not pit bulls, because I wouldn't
00:51:38.460
The bite and hold instinct is just too strong in a pit bull.
00:51:42.380
And I'm telling you right now, if you are listening to this, don't allow your kids around
00:51:51.100
If your pit bull ever bites, put that pit bull down.
00:52:02.420
You haven't changed my mind on pit bulls, but maybe on matcha.