This is Gavin Newsom - And, This is Escape From Alcatraz

00:00:00.000 You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:04.960 I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating.

00:00:07.940 I don't feel emotions correctly.

00:00:09.880 I collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails.

00:00:12.640 Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko.

00:00:16.980 It's a show where I take phone calls from anonymous strangers as a fake gecko therapist

00:00:22.800 and try to learn a little bit about their lives.

00:00:25.640 I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's very interesting.

00:00:28.980 Check it out for yourself by searching for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app,

00:00:34.520 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:00:37.740 Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and I'm the host of the On Purpose podcast,

00:00:41.420 and I'm excited for my next episode with Khloe Kardashian.

00:00:45.460 God, I've been through so many things that at this point I would rather not feel

00:00:50.500 than feel because feeling is too much for me to handle.

00:00:53.680 I am Khloe Kardashian.

00:00:55.180 Khloe Kardashian, everybody.

00:00:56.420 Khloe Kardashian.

00:00:57.360 No one understands how it's, I'm not just a TV show.

00:01:00.980 Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app,

00:01:04.780 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:01:07.860 This week on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Handler.

00:01:11.040 Connie Britton is here.

00:01:12.100 I think you should encourage your friend to go ahead

00:01:15.000 and not be holding out for any man to have her babies.

00:01:18.300 She could be waiting another 10 years before she finds the right guy. 0.94

00:01:21.320 Connie didn't meet her right guy until you were what, 50, Connie?

00:01:24.800 52.

00:01:25.680 52.

00:01:27.040 I kept thinking, oh, I'm going to meet the guy, I'm going to meet the guy, I'm going to meet the guy.

00:01:30.400 I finally was like, what am I waiting for? And I did it. And I'm just so glad that I did.

00:01:35.280 Listen to Dear Chelsea on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:01:40.220 I want you to ask yourself right now, how am I actually doing? Because it's a question that we

00:01:48.480 rarely ask ourselves. All of May is actually Mental Health Awareness Month, and on the psychology of

00:01:53.300 your 20s, we are taking a vulnerable look at why mental health is so hard to talk about. Prepare

00:01:59.180 for our conversations to go deep. I spent the majority of my teenage years and my 20s just feeling

00:02:04.900 absolutely terrified. I had a panic attack on a conference call. Knowing that she had six months

00:02:10.040 to live, I was no longer pretending that this was my best friend. So this Mental Health Awareness

00:02:13.680 Month, take that extra bit of care of your well-being. Listen to the psychology of your 20s

00:02:18.020 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:02:22.340 Hi, it's Emily Tisch-Sussman, host of the podcast She Pivots. In honor of Mother's Day,

00:02:28.400 we have some very special guests. I'm Elaine Welteroth. And I'm Caitlin Murray. Both women

00:02:35.220 pivoted out of their careers after having their kids, proving that motherhood is just another 0.99

00:02:39.960 chapter in our journey, not the end. Come on over to hear their full stories. You can listen to

00:02:45.960 She Pivots on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:02:50.280 This is Gavin Newsom. And this is Escape from Alcatraz.

00:03:01.480 Well, I want to thank everybody for leaving voice messages, calling into the show. And one of the

00:03:06.540 things that lit up the voicemail line this week was Alcatraz. Yes, the rock. Escape from Alcatraz.

00:03:14.840 Here we are. I can't even make, you cannot make this up. Here we are at the moment, this critical

00:03:21.680 moment in American history. And here we are with a brand new distraction, distraction day in the

00:03:27.480 United States of America. And so as a former mayor, it's not surprising. And yes, governor of the state

00:03:33.600 of California, that those calls made their way to the inbox. Hi, my name is Sarah Cherveney.

00:03:40.360 I am. I am a resident of San Luis Obispo, California. I've lived in California my whole life.

00:03:47.200 I wanted to find out if our governor is going to react to Trump's claims to wanting to reopen Alcatraz.

00:03:57.200 I'm like, at this point, you know, a lot of stuff he says, we're just like, what? But I don't know,

00:04:03.220 he turned out of left field with so much crap. It's ridiculous. Okay. So yeah, response, 1.00

00:04:09.160 please. That would be amazing. Thank you so much. First of all, I love, I love the question. I love

00:04:14.720 the way you phrased the question. I love the way you laughed when you left that voicemail,

00:04:20.960 because I think that's how all of us, I mean, the overwhelming majority of us responded to this.

00:04:26.000 I responded quite formally, by the way, with a tweet that said this was just simply distraction

00:04:32.280 day in Washington, D.C. It wasn't just reopening Alcatraz as a federal prison, but he also asked

00:04:38.240 and called for, asked the Commerce Department and called for new tariffs on foreign-made films.

00:04:45.340 So this is what Donald Trump does. He doesn't care if he's the heel or the hero, as long as he's the

00:04:51.020 star and we're talking about him. And this is why it's so important that we sort of distill the essence

00:04:56.100 of what Trump is actually communicating and what he's actually doing that has a real impact in our

00:05:01.780 lives. So everybody's chasing this. It's totally understandable. I totally appreciate the question.

00:05:06.480 And here I am responding to it because, heck, you know, I'm a fifth generation San Francisco.

00:05:12.960 I'm a former mayor of San Francisco. So what would you expect? How could I not respond to this? I think

00:05:19.140 I, by the way, may have commented to one reporter that a proposal has the form and substance of fog,

00:05:27.520 meaning there is quite literally no there there. I'll remind you, speaking of no there there,

00:05:32.340 there's no water, there's no operating sewer system. What is there is a dilapidated old prison that was

00:05:40.480 designed in the 1930s, 1933, that Bobby Kennedy, not Jr., Bobby Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, the attorney

00:05:48.280 general of the United States, announced in 1962 that he was going to shut down and did eventually

00:05:53.100 shut down in 1963. But I think Donald Trump's mindset is maybe 1983. I'm making that up. But

00:06:00.040 when The Rock came out and when Escape from Alcatraz, sort of iconic movies, and there's sort of an

00:06:06.920 indelible sense of place that is attached to Alcatraz. It's evocative. Al Capone was there. Whitey 0.99

00:06:14.300 Bulger was there. Machine Gun Kelly was there. But not many other people were there. I think it

00:06:20.800 has a capacity of about 330, 336 cells. Anyone that's visited, and I've been there on multiple

00:06:28.300 occasions, I imagine many people watching and listening have as well. It's corroded. You have

00:06:34.900 all that saltwater intrusion. You've got a place that would quite literally, Doge, are you listening?

00:06:42.280 Quite literally, costs hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. Would be the

00:06:49.280 most expensive federal prison in the system. It's completely unnecessary. And again, it's all

00:06:56.560 intended to be a distraction. So we're focused on this and candidly, not focused on the real issue,

00:07:02.780 which are these tariffs and the impact that's having and wrecking on our economy and how it's

00:07:08.720 impacting small businesses. And that's impacting each and every one of you watching and listening

00:07:12.920 in more ways on more days than anything else that Donald Trump is currently doing. And so

00:07:17.560 that's why I think he did this. And I'll just close on this. Don't do this to San Francisco and

00:07:24.100 California. And don't do this to tourism. It's one of the drivers of tourism in the United States.

00:07:29.720 A million plus people, I think it's 1.2 million last year, came to Alcatraz and the island.

00:07:36.840 I think the park service that runs it generates $60 million a year in revenue. Back to my Doge

00:07:44.080 point, this would cost tens of millions of dollars. You have to bring people onto the island,

00:07:50.700 the workforce and everything else. He specifically directed his Department of Justice and he directed

00:07:57.920 Secretary Burgum to start to put together a plan of action on this. I mean, I pray that they're

00:08:04.940 focused on other things and not focused on the folly of this latest distraction. And this is

00:08:10.220 about zigging and zagging. In a couple of weeks, it'll be a couple of days, maybe a couple hours,

00:08:14.420 maybe today, maybe as I speak, there is something out there that I'm not looking at. That's the next

00:08:20.480 day's distraction. And this is what Donald Trump does better than anybody else gets us all talking

00:08:25.520 about something so that we're not talking about something else. And so the critical thing from my

00:08:31.980 humble perspective is we've got to focus on what really matters, what's essential. And again,

00:08:38.920 issue right now for Donald Trump, that is hurting him more than any other issue. And there's a lot.

00:08:45.040 And I'm not trying to stack up any sort of, well, I'm not trying to diminish the other issues,

00:08:50.960 but it's the tariffs, the economy, your 401ks, what's happening in the markets, what's not happening

00:08:55.700 as it relates to imports and what's not happening as it relates to the kind of certainty that people need

00:09:00.500 small businesses need in order to make decisions. What may happen to your school supplies because

00:09:06.680 they're not coming into the ports of entry. What may happen, my gosh, if it's just a few more months

00:09:11.200 of these tariffs, particularly to China, what may happen as it relates to your Christmas toys

00:09:16.160 that may not be on the shelves later in the year. And Donald Trump is under deep pressure

00:09:20.780 on that issue. So I would expect to continue to try to relieve some of that pressure and that focus by

00:09:27.660 bringing more of this nonsense to bear and getting us all to chase these stories. And I'll just close.

00:09:34.360 Yeah, we had to chase it. I mean, my phone lit up with reporters, people calling me saying,

00:09:39.960 is this real? Can this be true? What are your thoughts on it? Can you stop it? And the fact that

00:09:46.000 there were real reporters in real concern, frankly, concerns me more than anything else,

00:09:52.040 form and substance of fog. There's no there there. Focus on something else. By the way,

00:09:58.540 the number of calls that I received, the number of voicemails and text messages from reputable reporters

00:10:04.160 all across the country, from around the world, from other elected officials saying, help,

00:10:08.280 what are we going to do? Can we stop this? And I told everybody, you got it. You cannot. I mean,

00:10:14.000 you got to be kidding me. This is going nowhere. This is distraction day in the United States of

00:10:19.720 America. Everybody don't worry about it. Don't panic. You're going to be on that island as a tourist

00:10:26.740 for decades, decades to come.

00:10:28.980 I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I collect

00:10:42.440 my roommate's toenails and fingernails. Those were some callers from my call in podcast,

00:10:47.600 Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take phone calls from anonymous strangers as a fake gecko

00:10:54.140 therapist and try to learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept,

00:10:59.300 but I promise it's very interesting. Check it out for yourself by searching for Therapy Gecko on the

00:11:05.260 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:11:09.860 Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and I'm the host of the On Purpose podcast,

00:11:13.460 and I'm excited for my next episode with Khloe Kardashian.

00:11:17.540 God, I've been through so many things that at this point, I would rather not feel than feel,

00:11:23.400 because feeling is too much for me to handle.

00:11:25.720 I am Khloe Kardashian.

00:11:27.220 Khloe Kardashian, everybody.

00:11:28.460 Khloe Kardashian.

00:11:29.640 No one understands how it's I'm not just a TV show.

00:11:33.020 Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app,

00:11:36.800 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:11:39.840 This week on Dear Chelsea with me, Chelsea Handler, Connie Britton is here. I think you should

00:11:44.820 encourage your friend to go ahead and not be holding out for any man to have her babies.

00:11:50.320 She could be waiting another 10 years before she finds the right guy. 0.94

00:11:53.360 Connie didn't meet her right guy until you were, what, 50, Connie?

00:11:56.800 52.

00:11:57.760 52.

00:11:59.060 I kept thinking, oh, I'm going to meet the guy, I'm going to meet the guy, I'm going to meet the guy.

00:12:02.340 I finally was like, what am I waiting for? And I did it. And I'm just so glad that I did.

00:12:07.300 Listen to Dear Chelsea on the iHeartRadio app,

00:12:09.540 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:12:12.260 I want you to ask yourself right now, how am I actually doing? Because it's a question that we

00:12:20.520 rarely ask ourselves. All of May is actually Mental Health Awareness Month, and on the psychology of

00:12:25.320 your 20s, we are taking a vulnerable look at why mental health is so hard to talk about. Prepare

00:12:31.220 for our conversations to go deep.

00:12:33.100 I spent the majority of my teenage years and my 20s just feeling absolutely terrified.

00:12:38.680 I had a panic attack on a conference call.

00:12:41.100 Knowing that she had six months to live, I was no longer pretending that this was my best friend.

00:12:44.620 So this Mental Health Awareness Month, take that extra bit of care of your well-being.

00:12:48.400 Listen to the psychology of your 20s on the iHeartRadio app,

00:12:51.500 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:12:53.900 Hi, it's Emily Tish Sussman, host of the podcast, She Pivots. In honor of Mother's Day,

00:13:00.480 we have some very special guests. I'm Elaine Welteroth.

00:13:04.600 And I'm Caitlin Murray.

00:13:06.600 Both women pivoted out of their careers after having their kids, 1.00

00:13:10.300 proving that motherhood is just another chapter in our journey, not the end.

00:13:14.720 Come on over to hear their full stories. You can listen to She Pivots on the iHeartRadio app,

00:13:19.900 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:13:23.900 You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.

This is Gavin Newsom - May 08, 2025

And, This is Escape From Alcatraz

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