Hello, I'm Frank Kudla. And I'm Jan Kepler. And
this is the Two Voices, One Journey podcast.
The place to go when you want to hear two extraordinarily
ordinary people talk about things that interest
them. So anyway, Jan, you were out of town for
a couple of days. It was just me and a cat. I
did some math and here are our largest expenses
for having Bianca. Treats is number one. They're
freaking expensive. What is the brand of cheese?
Temptations. Well, they're still, you know, cat
crack, the crap. Oh, they must be cracked. They
must be. They have some secret. And now they
have the stuffed ones. No nutritional value whatsoever.
No, but they do get her excited. Cat litter would
be the second largest expense. And then for her,
it's Neosporin and Band -Aids before food because
she eats cheap food. And she's definitely glad
you're back. I'm glad you're back because we're
running out of Neosporin. Other things that happened
while you were gone. I threw out our black OXO
spatulas, and then I dug them back out of the
trash again. I have to spend less time on the
internet. Are you familiar with the story? No,
I'm not. So what is the deal with the black OXO
spatulas? For some reason... Okay, I hate to
tell you, but I don't think we have any black
OXO spatulas. Well, we have black spatulas. They're
probably not OXO because they've got that special
handle, I guess. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, we
do. What's wrong with that? Well, it was something
to do with leaching microplastics. into your
food, into your frying pan. Well, we have all
that in our brains and everything else. Yeah,
we drink out of plastic water bottles, so it's
the same thing. Well, it turns out, well, OXO
went into triage mode and was considering changing
the color of their, and retailers were considering
pulling the product. Oh my gosh. And this was
just an online meme. This was not... Something
that was scientifically proven or anybody tested
it or anything like that. Just somebody posted
online. Wow. It's like crowd bullying. Yeah.
Or somebody had it in for OXO. I don't know who
owns them or if they own themselves, I should
look at the stock. No, I don't know either. I
mean, they make very good products. They make
great products. I heard something about that.
I really didn't understand what the deal was.
Well, I don't know if you one time, but John
Willinger did his grooming tools with OXO. The
slicker brushes. Yeah. That would make perfect
sense because all their stuff is ergonomic. Yeah.
And ergonomic. Ergonomic. Yes. Ergonomic. Ergonomic
too. But yeah. So anyway, I don't have any really
big topics this week. It's been a while since
we've done something, but a bunch of things came
to mind while it was just me and the cat sitting
around. So I'll throw a few things out. You throw
a few things out. Just want to kind of get your
opinion on on some of these things. And maybe
you don't have an opinion because some of them
are just freaking weird. Like this first thing
that I've got. Whole body deodorant. When did
that become a thing? My specific recollection
of that was Lumi, was the woman that was a...
She was a... Oh, I've seen ads for that one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. She was a dermatologist. Gynecologist.
I think she was a gynecologist. Or gynecologist,
whatever. Dermatologist, gynecologist. Anyway,
she was from the medical field and she created
this whole body deodorant. Yeah, Lumi was a big
deal. And now it's like totally rebranded under
other names and everybody's doing it. Yeah, there's
like three or four different companies doing
it. I think Old Spice has got one and they've
got guys spraying in the pants. Well, if I can
smell my balls. I've got a problem that deodorant
is not going to take care of. Oh my god. Okay,
take a shower. Yeah. I mean, how hard is that?
I don't need to like hose myself down with a
product. Just take a bath. I don't understand.
Yeah. It's a weird one, but it is a thing. It's
a trend we missed on the stock market because
obviously it's something. Well, if that's a big
deal, people are stupider than I thought, but
okay. So another stupid thing I read while you
were gone, Elon Musk. If you use one of his rockets,
it costs $1 ,500 to send one kilogram into space.
And I think a kilogram is about 2 point something
pounds. And the Russian company, which puts things
into space, charges about twice as much. So Elon
Musk is definitely the cheapest alternative if
you want to put something in space. So if somebody
gave you $1 ,500 and said, I know you want to
launch a person into space, but I'm just talking
about two kilograms. So the person you want to
launch into space is not going. That would be
bad. They probably weigh more than that. Can
you think of anything that you would launch or
not? Oh, what a stupid thing. I'm sorry. I'm
gonna take two pounds of what butter and send
that into space I don't know some of the point
is is it for scientific research? $1500 and they
said you had to spend it on sending something
into space. I Do that money to a homeless person?
Then then then send something into space. I'm
sorry. Oh, I agree. And that leads us to a discussion
we're having in the future This was a hypothetical
because nobody's gonna give us $1 ,500 to launch
something in the space. Okay. Well, I just think
this whole space thing is a little Yeah Yeah,
well anyway if I were gonna send something into
space It would be I'd be two books I don't know
if they'd come in under the two and a half pound
limit But just to explain why our species is
so screwed up I would send and this is gonna
be controversial which is fine. I would send
the Bible in the Quran I'd send them both up
there somebody read that they kind of have an
understanding why we were just a warring world
Yeah No, no, I just find that well, I'm sorry.
I find it frivolous and and and and unimportant
to just spend that kind of money on stuff But
then again, I don't believe in going to Mars
either. Yeah, send the brologarx there. They
can all go there But going to Mars is like well,
what the hell for sorry. Yep. Okay, what spate
moon the moon? The moon makes a little sense
to me, except I've checked it out the first time.
No, I know, and we got microwaves from that,
right? We've got microwaves. Velcro? Velcro,
lasers, tang, pens it right upside down. Woohoo!
Sign me up. There were definitely some side benefits
that probably would have been discovered through
normal research anyway. No, I know, in computers
and that sort of thing too. So there probably
will be further advancements in things like that
if we did go to Mars. I just think it's kind
of... I don't want to be in a spaceship for six
years. I think it's a guy thing, going to Mars.
You know, that's a good point. I haven't actually
heard a woman advocate for going to Mars. But
that's a discussion for another time. But I would
send up two books. It's kind of like the Viking
has that gold record on it. And the Viking is
now about to exit our solar system. So I don't
know how many billion light years away. What
was on that record? A bunch of music, our DNA
code, pictures of human males and human females,
and then pictures of the Earth, different places
all around the world. But I'm trying to think
who did this. music, but there was very good
music. No, if the aliens had a phonograph, we'd
be fine. Well, part of the phonograph, too, was
instructions on how to create a device to play
the phonograph. So that was all in there. And
it had prime numbers and other things, so they
knew it wasn't just they. I don't know who they
are. Sorry, one word. Hubris. Yeah, I guess so.
But I don't know. So what do you got? Well, I'm
kind of concerned about the accusations Trump's
making, and I guess this was at his speech at
the DOJ earlier this week where he's talking
about MSNBC and CNN and most of the mainstream
media as being corrupt. I think that they are
way overusing the word corrupt so they can go
after it and being in league with the Democrats.
Okay, if these news outlets are being in league
with the Democrats, what the heck is Fox News?
Well, I have some thoughts on this too and then
it will probably dip into some controversial
territory on this but One thing is the corruption
to your point I I think the word is overused
and it's misused because corruption to me is
either criminal intent or I don't know what else
it would be. I mean, it just seems to me that
if you're corrupt, that's a criminal issue. Right.
And I mean, from a news standpoint, you can be
biased towards, you know, like left or right.
And so, I mean, that's what Fox News is. They're
definitely biased, in my opinion, towards the
right. So you have ones that are biased towards
the left. OK, but does that make them corrupt
or criminal? Yeah. And I don't think they're
all biased. I don't think they're all biased.
They're probably not all biased, but I mean,
I think there is bias and there has been for
a long time in history, even with newspapers.
Even before Walter Cronkite with TV, there was
definitely bias in the media being published
newspapers. So I understand that. But to criminalize
organizations that are... And the thing is with...
This was that it was like ninety seven point
six percent of the Stuff that came out from the
from these two media outlets was um against trump.
Well Duh, I mean just You just they were probably
fact -checking them. Well, I know but I mean
you just have to suck it up So, I mean it's just
like I don't think anybody else before trump
went after media outlets for disagreeing with
them That's kind of what media does is they call
things out. They point things out or whatever.
And that's part of the First Amendment, I think,
which is free speech. So to criminalize it by
casting this broad net of saying corruption,
which I think was way overused. And I think they're
using that to weaponize the justice system. But
whatever. It's just wrong. Do media have leanings
towards left or right? Certainly they do. And
that's why people ask you, what news do you listen
to? Because that's like a leading question to
find out what kind of framework your mind or
your political position comes from, which is
fine. I don't think there's anything criminal
about that. Fox can say whatever they want to
say. That's their right. But so can everybody
else. Yeah, I agree with that. I think the I
think the word corruption does not suit it and
there is some bias, although I don't think they
editorialize it much. I know we watch a lot or
I watch a lot of NBC News and I think they're
biased in the stories that they choose to cover,
but I don't think they editorialize on the stories
that they do cover. I mean, one thing I've noticed
on Fox, and I do watch more Fox than I should
watch, is the hosts of the shows talk more than
the person they're interviewing. They already
put out the opinion ahead of time, and the assumptions
ahead of time, and then what do you think? And
it's imbalanced. It's two -thirds as the host
talking. When you're doing an interview, I don't
think the host should talk. Much at all. No,
it's like asking a person after your house burnt
to the ground. How does that make you feel? Yeah,
the media is just yeah, really I mean come on.
So I I think we can agree the media could really
It could be cleaned up, but it's working themselves.
But but I mean, but but having a slant or an
opinion about something I think it's been going
on for a long time Yeah, so then you decide who
are you going to listen to or whatever? I mean
one thing that concerns me is like the the Associated
Press they're like out of the press pool and
Oval Office and all that stuff. And I think part
of that is because of not referring to the Gulf
of Mexico as the Gulf of America. And their position
was, at least as I read it, was that they're
international, and they use the terminology that
their base can understand. So if for however
long... that particular body of water has been
called or referred to the Gulf of Mexico. If
you call it the Gulf of America and they don't
know what you're talking about, that's the reason
they were doing that. So I'm just, I mean, we've
definitely been divided for a long time. I totally
understand that. We have news outlets, whether
it's print, whatever, that support different
ideologies politically. I understand that. And
I think that's okay. I just don't think that
anyone should be penalized for that. Yeah. No,
they shouldn't be penalized just because they
say something that is critical of you or you
disagree with. Right. Don't listen to them. That's
not right. So what else you got? Oh my gosh.
Poor Marco Rubio. Oh, geez. I look at him in
some of these situations that he's been in. I
look at his face and I don't know, I just kind
of feel sorry for him. So I guess my thing, Frank,
would be kind of an over and under on Marco Rubio
on how long is he going to last as Secretary
of State before he just— Okay, pick your over
and under number and I'll give you an answer.
Okay. I'm going to say from the beginning of
the administration, from his appointment, let's
say—I don't know exactly what date that is, but
I'm going to pick a date in January—I don't think
he's going to last more than six months. Okay,
so you'd be taking me over in what I was thinking.
I was thinking it's 60 to 90 days from now. Uh,
and I will take, okay, let me just put it at
90 days. Then you're going out six months. So
you definitely have the over on 90 days. Um,
I'll take, I'll take under. I really think that
watching the news, he has been the most invisible
cabinet member. Uh, McMahon from a secretary
of, uh, education has been on Ludnick or not.
What's the secretary of commerce? I think it
is. Yeah, he's been on TV and he's just been
espousing the Trump philosophy. The treasurer's
secretary has been on TV. Of course, they've
been on TV a lot because of the tariff things
and stuff like that, but they've had a lot of
visibility. But that involves Rubio too. Well,
it does involve Rubio. And I think so does Ukraine
and so does Israel and Hamas. But Trump doesn't
want to have somebody else be the face of that.
No, I know. And I'm sorry. Rubio got into the
position and I don't think he was a Trump loyalist
to get into the position. So that's why I don't
think he's going to last that long because I
don't think he's going to be able to toe the
line. I think his conscience is going to get
the better of him. Yeah, I think so. I mean,
the most telling video was the Zelinsky Smackdown.
Yeah, the Oval Office. He couldn't sink into
that couch any deeper. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I know.
I felt very sorry for him. And speaking of the
Oval Office, do you mind if I bring something
up about that? Sure. I would like to bring up
the golden age of the new Oval Office. I don't
know if you've noticed, but I have noticed this
over time, that there's increasingly more gold
in the Oval Office. They have the staged shots
of the two chairs, which one would be President
Trump and the other would be whatever visiting,
excuse me, dignitary, and they're in front of
the fireplace. And historically this fireplace
has had on it. It's very interesting. I read
about this It's a Swedish ivy plant and this
was a gift to John F Kennedy in the 60s and It's
a symbolic sort of thing. I don't know exactly
why but anyway, it's symbolic of you know peace
and understanding all that said anyway, it's
been on the mantle of the fireplace in the Oval
Office Well, if it was Kennedy, it's got to be
the early 60s. Yes, since the early 60s. In some
way, shape, or form. I'm sure they clip it, and
different parts of it go different places. But
anyway, recently, during Trump's administration,
that was removed. Not necessarily a big deal,
but it was replaced with all these gold pieces
of statuary or whatever. I don't know exactly
what they are, but it's like when you look at
the Oval Office, you look at the discussions
that Trump is having with world leaders, it's
all in a very gilded kind of environment with
this gold above the mantle where the plant used
to be, gold frames, gilded furniture, gold satin
upholstery. And then, pardon me, the coup de
grace was not Zelensky's meeting with Trump,
but when you look at the mantle, of the fireplace
itself, and it's, I think it's faced in, what
would that be, marble. They've stuck on these
gold filigreed hoo -has, I don't know exactly
what they are, and it's just like so garish,
and where the hell are we? I mean, is this like
some third world country or whatever, where everything's
like golden? It just, it seems to me, it's very
crass. Yes, I can't argue with you. I'm going
to look up the pictures, the photographs, and
try to put them on our Facebook page so people
can see the before and after of the fireplace.
I'm going to find one of Joe Biden in front of
the fireplace. Oh, yeah. I mean, you can see
Ron Reagan. You can see who was the big guy in
Russia at that time, Gorbachev. All these people
in front of the fireplace. There's no gold hoo
-ha on it. And there's this ivy plant. And it's
been there for years. And obviously, presidents
can... and do whatever they want to do, it just
seems crass and tacky. It seems immature to me,
actually. It just seems childish. It's like having
spinners on your wheels or gold -plated magnets.
There you go. Wow. The presidential whatever
they call that. What do they call it? The beast?
The Beast. The Beast has gold spinners on it
now. I like that. That would be good. That would
be very good. All right. Well, I'm not going
to finish up with Trump yet. Sorry. One thing
I'm tired of, and I do watch too much TV, but
I am tired of him campaigning and all his people
campaigning. Who's the head of the DOJ, Pam Bondi?
She's been on, it's probably mostly Fox that
I see her on, but they're just absolutely campaigning
just how bad the Biden or how horrible the Biden
administration was and how wonderful Trump's
first. term was. It was just perfect. We had
the best of everything, most incredible, and
under Biden everything was the absolute worst.
And they won. Whether they're right or wrong
on this topic, and I think they're wrong, but
whether they're right or wrong on this, whether
Biden was terrible and they were wonderful, they
should stop. They should stop campaigning. Okay,
we've done a fair amount of Trump bashing. We
do have to give him credit for a couple of things.
Yeah, yeah, no, no, we do. We do. I say that
the closing of the southern border is a very
good thing. It was completely out of control
before, and that was a real problem. The whole
asylum system and immigration system or whatever
definitely... is not functional in the United
States, and it needs to be addressed, and it
was being taken advantage of. So, yeah, I agree.
Yeah, and I do believe we need immigrants. In
order for the country to grow, in order to fill
the jobs that need to be filled, I think we do
need to have the population grow. And we're not
having enough kids to fill the gap. So I think
immigration is a good idea. I think we have to
streamline the process, the legal process, to
get into the country. I think that has to be
made a little bit more clear and a little easier.
I don't think the five million dollar gold card
is a good idea because anybody with five million
dollars can get into the country. And unfortunately,
there are a lot of unsavory people that have
five million dollars. So I'm not really in favor
of that. But I do like that he did shut down
the border. I also like his executive order on
the transgender men participating in women's
sports. Are they transgender women? Anyway, biological
men who were born male. and are identified on
their birth certificate as being male should
not be participating in women's sports. And when
they have participated in women's sports, it's
been obvious, excuse me, that they have an insane
advantage. The guy that set the pole vault thing,
did you see that? He broke the old record, the
world record for women's pole vaulting by like
a foot and a half. It wasn't an inch. I know,
but however you identify that, that's fun. I've
got no problem with that. It's just but it but
it's physiology that it's really it's it's it's
unfair Yeah, and and I don't understand why Not
saying that people, you know shouldn't pursue
what they want to do regardless of Identify they
are how they identify but it's just like okay.
Can you just leave sports alone? Yeah Yeah, I
think that was a good call. And basically all
he did was say that they're going to pull the
funding from schools. Federal funding, yeah.
Federal funding. Right, exactly. And schools
don't need funding. Most of these freaking schools
have such large endowments that I don't even
know why we give them any money at all. The other
thing he did, which is kind of related to that,
is state that there are only two genders, that
the United States is going to recognize two genders.
Now, you can be gay or straight. So maybe you
could argue there are four genders. I'm not really
sure. But biologically, there are two genders.
And I know there is exceptions with hermaphrodites,
which I don't know what percentage of the population
they make, but I'm sure it's in the hundreds
of thousands or something very low. But I agree
that there are, and I don't want to sound too
much like a traditionalist or too much like a
conservative, but I agree that there are two
genders. Yeah, I I I don't think he needed to
make that that statement or declaration personally
I think people are should be able to do what
they want to do and be whoever they want to be
and and that's And that's fine when it comes
to sports physiology matters And I think that
there is a disadvantage or advantage in that
if you have biological men participate formally
men participating in women's sports But everything
else and the other thing is it's like what? An
executive order, I'm sorry, what on earth does
that mean? Is that just a statement? Is it just
somebody writing something and signing it? It's
hard to understand what kind of gravitas it has
because in the past so many things were related
to Congress. I mean, because we have the three
branches, the executive, the legislative, and
the judicial, that it just seems like one branch
can't just arbitrarily say, la la la, la la la,
la la la, and then that's it. Or maybe they can.
I don't know, but I'm confused by that, honestly.
I'd have to look into it a little bit further
on what exactly an executive order is. I know
they can be reversed by the next president because
Trump reversed a ton of Biden executive orders.
So they're not laws. I don't know if they're
suggestions or they're orders, but it is called
the executive branch. Executives should have
executive privileges. Oh, I agree. Yeah, I mean,
I have to look at it a little bit more, but that's
probably another topic for us on another day.
OK, so on a positive note, what are you listening
to this week, Frank? This week, it's been Donald
Fagan's 1982 album, The Night Fly. It was critically
acclaimed. It was also, I don't know if it charted
out at number one, but it went very high up on
the charts. It's a blend of jazz, rock, pop.
And it deals with Fagan's fascination with post
-World War II optimism and anxiety. And by the
way, those that are not familiar with the Donald
Fagan name, you'll know him from Steely Dan,
which had a number of hits and chart -topping
albums in the 70s. And Donald Fagan and Walter
Becker were the founders of that. They used studio
musicians for all the other stuff, but they were
a band for quite some time and put out a number
of really good albums. I think their number one
album was Asia. Asia was used to demonstrate
stereo equipment. That was very good. Anyway,
the album, The Night Flight, it's lyrically provoking.
It's got exceptional quality. And although I
sold it, I'll just add this in here. I had the
mobile Fidelity 2 -disc 45 RPM pressing. It was
easily one of the best sounding albums I've ever
owned. And now that I don't have a turntable,
I don't really regret getting rid of it, but
it sold for quite a bit of money. On the album,
my favorite track is the Goodbye Look. It's about
one of the last Romanian Americans on a third
world tropical island that's going through political
upheaval. It's a lighthearted take musically
on a very serious topic. I mean, I think of Cuba
when I listen to it. I think one of the lines
is wake up, darling, they're knocking the colonels
at the door or something like that with the stupid
glasses and the gun. And you just picture one
of those third world people with the hand of
the baseball cap and military fatigues with the
aviator glasses. The stogie, the cigar. So I
give the album an A plus right across the board
and give it a listen if you get a chance. I guarantee
you won't be disappointed. It is a good one.
Yeah, it's very good. Well, that's it for now.
Remember, you can always leave comments and criticisms,
probably mostly criticisms on our Facebook page.
Two voices and there's a comma one journey. If
you just type in two voices, you get a bunch
of other. You got a bunch of others. But if you
also, if you Google us, you can choose what outlet
that you want to listen to us on. And on Facebook,
like I said, leave comments and criticisms. We're
open to it. I know we're a little bit amateurish,
but hopefully we're getting better. And suggestions
for things to talk about. Yes, suggestions for
things to talk about. I would love that. Yes,
that would make life a lot easier if we had some
suggestions on things to talk about. And we'll
pretty much accept anything. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. So until next time. Sounds good. Thanks,
Frank. Oh, thank you, Jan. I will talk to you
in a moment after I stop recording. Okay. Bye.