Hi everybody, Joe for Jasper's Case Breaks.com coming at you with 2021-22 Panini Court King's Basketball. Eight box, half case. Pick your team at number three from Jasper's Case Breaks.com. Big thanks to, I accidentally readjusted my window here, a big thanks to the case, Court King's case and big thanks to everybody here for making it happen. So here on a Sunday night, James with Last Spot and Mojo, thanks to him and thanks everybody for getting in. If you have a little rooftop next to your name, that means you won that team and the team random. So congrats everybody, thank you everyone for filling up the break no matter how you helped. Let's pop open this case and now let's see which half we're going to do. Alright, so we've got eight boxes on the right side and eight boxes on the left side. So we're going to roll the die.  We'll select that die right there and we'll go one, two, three for this left side, four, five, six for that right side right there. And it's four. One, two, three, four, five, six. So right side is what we're going to do and we're going to save these for next time. So let's put these around this way. So I'll put those X's right across the basketball logo there in the middle of the box so we know it's from the same case and want to autograph one memory card per box. On average we've got Josh Giddy on the box. Good luck. Hork Kings has evolved a lot over the years. Remember they were in the longer boxes, had like box toppers in there and what not. Kind of shed the box topper thing, which I don't mind kind of tightened up the product a little bit here. Alright and all cards should chip right because there's all sorts of things happening here. This is Moody. I think in previous years they had different levels on some of the base cards. All cards will ship. So that level one, two and three, one is the most common and I think three is the most short printed. And behind Clay Thompson to 149 is Santy Aldama, rookie expression relic for Aaron and the Gris. And we've got for the Rockets, it's Clyde the Glide Drexler. Nice. Golding Court autograph, six out of 49, that's Rockets edition that's going to go to Ron. There you go Ron. There's Clay Thompson to 149, right here for the Warriors. Lance with Golden State. Next box. There's Rodman, Moses Moody again. That's level four. Oh, I guess it goes up to four. Four is the shortest printed one. Alright, there's John Morant, Luca Garza, Anthony Davis to 149 for my Lakers, and then your hits. We got Jalen Green, piece of his jersey, Art Nouveau relic for Ron and the Rockets. And the auto is Brushstrokes autograph Montrezzarelle, Trezz. That is for Charlotte. That's going to go to Brian Watford and that is eight out of 75. Next box. Brian Watford, unfortunately Brian Watford, the English Premier League team that bears your last name was unfortunately relegated to the next division down over the weekend. Alright, there's Jalen Suggs, Maistros, Anthony Edwards, Keon Johnson, Cade Cunningham three out of 49. Nice. Maistros insert. Pistons. That's going to go to Raymond in Detroit. The hits, it's going to be Scotty Barnes, rookie expression relic for the Trailblazer, Toronto that is, aimed with the Raptors, Dino, DNA. The autograph behind Desmond Bain is Mark Jackson. Is he going to get some coaching consideration from some of the teams with the vacancies? It's been some rumbling, 23 out of 49. They haven't done a press conference yet, but I think once the playoffs are over the Kings are expected to announce Mike Brown, Warriors bench coach, former Lakers coach and head coach a couple of, maybe one or two other places. So after a stint being an assistant, he should be announced as the Kings coach once the Warriors playoffs are over, which may not be for a little bit for them. Maistros, Donovan Mitchell, Trey Young, Durant, Jalen Green, Paul George to one 49 for the Clippers. There is Christian Wood, Art Nouveau Relic. Another one for Houston. That's going to be for Ron. And behind Karis Levert is an Arab parent, Jalen Green, Rookie Auto. Nice. That's Ron and the Rockets. I'm a rocket man. 93 out of 125. Nice one, Ron. Paul George again. Dirk Nowitzki, not numbered, Jared Allen, Bradley Beale, Moses Moody, Trey Mann, Anthony Edwards to 25. Nice low number there. Second year Anthony Edwards in this. This goes to Michael Hughes and the T-Wolves. Behind Zion is rookie expression, Jonathan Kaminga playing some good basketball for the Warriors, lands with Golden State and the auto is fresh paint autograph Isaiah Todd, Wizards, Jeff with the Wizards. Jeff L 92 out of 99. Next one, just pick your team three, pick your team four. No filler yet. So if you want to get your teams, I would I would encourage everybody to do so right now. So I'll bet by tomorrow, tomorrow morning before we go live, I'll bet those teams will end up in some sort of some sort of filler. Which we don't have to do. You know, we don't we don't need that extra hurdle if you don't want to. Trey Murphy, Brandon Boston, Jr. This should be the number of the card, Nikola Jokic to 149. Denver Nuggets, Gerald with the Nuggets and your hits. Oh, there's an extra Trey Young there too. The relic is Kristaps Porzingis for Jeff and the Wizards and behind Karris Leverg is error parent, Jonathan Kaminga. Nice. Nice one for the Warriors Lance with Golden State. That value could only go up. Especially if, you know, there's a couple of games where he's the key reason why he's winning the other Warriors are winning playoff games. Could be nice. Cameron Thomas, CJ McCollum to 149. What a great addition to the Pelicans. I think really. They changed their season once he came on board. There's Mike Connelly with the Jazz, Art Nouveau. They got a healthy, you know, Brandon Ingram keeps evolving as a player. They get a healthy Zion back. Whatever they do in free agency and draft could be really interesting. All right. There's Pascal Siakam. The autograph is Jalen Suggs. Orlando has a lot of great young pieces on that team, Brian. Brian Watford won that spot and then won the spot of the filler and then got the Orlando Magic in the filler. So a good little parlay there, Brian. And the Jalen Suggs autograph is your reward. And the final box, eighth and final box against second half of the case in the store right now, jaskyscasegrace.com, that would be picker team four is the second half.  Dallas has not quite done yet. And I don't think he even played that well. There's Davion Mitchell, Van Vliet for Toronto, best to 75. The relic is Tyrese Maxi. Three color patch. That's a one of one. Whoo. Artistic endeavors, three color patch, Tyrese Maxi, what a playoffs he's been having. Man, it's fun to watch. It's a fun team. Sixers, Randy with the Sixers, out of fives and under, get the train whistle and that's a one of one. All aboard the Big Head Express, whoop whoop. And the autograph behind Luca Doncic is for the Warriors holding court autograph, Jason Richardson. Nice. That's out of 75. And that's the break, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Joe for jaspeaskasebrace.com. Thanks for watching. Thanks for breaking with us. Second half in the store. This was Picker Team 3. Get into Picker Team 4 and we'll try to find some more monsters for you at jaspeaskasebrace.com. Bye-bye.


Did you know that we take more photos now in one minute than we used to in the entirety of the 19th century? And you know most of those are selfies. My name is Katrin Diedembeck and I'm a postdoctoral researcher at Ohus University School of Communication and Culture. At the Festival of Research, I'm going to talk about selfies. Now, why would scholars even talk about selfies? What is so interesting about selfies? What is special about selfies? Is there anything special about selfies? Are they just narcissistic and artistically banal and pointless and just generally bad tone? If you want to find out, come to the Festival of Research in Ohus on April 27th.


Welcome to Rational Alchemy. I'm joined today by author, Seth Levine, who has come along to talk about his new book. Seth, welcome to the show. Nigel, thank you for having me. Now, apart from being an author, you are also tied in with other little ventures. Why don't you give us a brief overview of where you are today in life? Thank you for asking about that because I think it's important to how we actually came to writing this book. So by day, I'm a venture capitalist. About 20 years ago, I came into the venture industry and about 13 years ago, I started my own venture firm, which is located in Boulder, Colorado, although we invest nationally. We have about $3 billion under management. The firm is called Foundry Group. So I do that by day. I write along with my co-author, I should mention, Elizabeth McBride. She's, unfortunately, wasn't able to be here today, but we wrote that by night, so exactly. But I came to thinking about this book really because of the experiences I had in venture, working in the technology venture capital world and realizing that maybe there was a broader story to be told about entrepreneurship. That's interesting because when we were chatting, just prior to recording the show, we were talking about business and how business has changed over the last 30 years when it comes to the venture capital side of starting new businesses. So can you give us a brief scenario of what really has changed over the last, say, 35, 40 years to today? Absolutely. I mean, there's a couple of things that have changed. For starters, the venture capital world has exploded, but the world of entrepreneurship actually has not. It's actually been declining. And I think a lot of people don't realize that because what they read in the mainstream press suggests that entrepreneurship is on fire. It's really not the case. And in particular, there have been some real changes in the nature and the type of people that are starting businesses now. Increasingly, people who are starting businesses in the United States are black, brown, female, and quite a bit older than most people realize. Those changes in demographics of who's starting a business have really shifted significantly. And frankly, our way of supporting those businesses, the ways that we have of getting capital to those businesses, the way we have of getting advice, help and mentorship to those businesses, haven't kept up. Okay, so we've got a brand new group of people that are now looking for capital to start their business. Is this tech industry or other industries? One of the things that's happened, I think, over the last 30 years is that technology and the world of venture capital has sort of eaten up entrepreneurship. And if you go way back, of course the U.S. was founded by entrepreneurs and there was a time when essentially everyone in the United States was an entrepreneur, meaning a small business owner, someone who was sort of making their own way. And for a long time, we used the term entrepreneur to mean really anyone who was starting a business. And over the last 30 years, that's begun to shift and we think shift in some dangerous ways. And so now when people talk about an entrepreneur, they're more likely to be talking about and thinking about someone who's starting a technology business likely on one of the coasts or in one of the big technology startup hubs. They're probably white and male because people that start technology businesses or at least people that are being funded to start technology businesses have really skewed in that direction. And we think that that's really missing the story because the story of entrepreneurship is much broader. And we've kind of lost this love and respect that we had for the small business owner and really kind of shifted that focus and attention to solely be focused on these white male technology business startups. And the other thing about those businesses that's probably worth mentioning is that the goal of starting a small business it can be varied, right? Many people start businesses to create a life for themselves and their family, right? To lift themselves out of a situation or because they have a passion for food or for fitness or something like that. But our infatuation with technology and sort of the venture capital model which really relies on a small number of breakout high growth businesses has kind of allowed us or forced us to miss the beauty in starting and running a business that's small and it may stay small. It doesn't need to have aspirations to become huge and become a large, large business. There's a lot of value in small businesses. And the truth in the United States is that nearly half of our GDP and about 40% of our workforce work for and is produced by these small businesses. So really it's a small business that helps the economy just to keep chugging along and rolling over years a year. The truth is that small business is really the engine of the U.S. economy. They provide, as I mentioned, significant portion of the GDP of our economy. They employ almost half of the labor force. But more than that, they're responsible for most of the dynicism and a lot of the innovation that comes in our economy. I think people misunderstand the innovation that comes from maybe larger technology businesses. And it's not that they're not innovative but at some point a business gets to a certain size and their innovations are incremental. Right. And because they're looking to preserve their existing market and market share. And so they're less motivated to invest and invest in R&D and invest in new products and new product lines. And instead, really where a lot of the innovation comes from are from these smaller businesses, whether they're smaller technology companies nipping at the heels of these larger businesses or innovations across more broad sections of the economy. Again, from these smaller businesses looking for new ways to do business, for new processes, for new customer segments, for new market segments. And we really, we lose that when we allow our economy to become out of balance as we've started to. The company I worked for, I won't mention the company's name, but they were renowned for buying small, small companies that had a complimentary aspect to our main product line. So they used to buy the company, look at their software, we'd make all the little changes to it so we could integrate it into our software. I got the impression they thought it was better doing it that way than it was trying to start a new division, always better to buy rather than try and create. Absolutely. And what you're really describing is what you might call off balance sheet R&D. So they let other businesses do these things in turn. I've never heard that term, but yes. Yeah, that makes sense. That's how we talk about it sometimes in the venture world. And so these smaller businesses create these innovations and then larger businesses come and buy them. Now, there's a danger too, because sometimes the large businesses buy the smaller businesses not to adopt the technology, but to kill the small business because they want to continue to keep their market dominance. And so that can be a little bit dangerous. What's interesting, they've actually studied this. So there have been studies about the efficiency and effectiveness of R&D. And of course, we just lived through a real world study of that. We provided, the U.S. provided a huge tax cut to corporations a couple of years ago, dramatically reducing the tax rate that was charged to businesses. And the promise was that businesses would then invest in R&D. The challenge is that what you described is too often the case and these companies didn't know where to invest. So the thing that actually happened was that most of them invested in buying their stock back. So if you look at the year after the tax cut was enacted, it was by far the largest year of stock buybacks ever recorded in history, basically reflecting that the managers of those businesses felt like they were more likely to produce gains in stock value by simply reducing the number of shares that existed of their stock, therefore increasing their earnings per share, rather than finding new ways to invest in their businesses. And that says something about the state of the large business investment climate in the U.S. economy. And again, it's not that it's bad, but it does raise the question about whether that huge tax cut should have gone to large businesses so they could buy their stock back or maybe there were other ways that we could have invested in the U.S. economy that would have resulted in a broader set of investments that had benefited a greater number of people, not just the shareholders of these big businesses. Right. When a company buys back shares, are those shares basically taken out of the pool? That's exactly what happens. Perhaps the easier example is to describe a company that has a thousand shares that are out in the market if they buy a hundred shares back in a stock buyback program, now they have 900 shares. And so if their earnings per share were a dollar, now when there were a thousand shares, right now it's, I'm not gonna do the math in my head, now it's $1.10. And of course, most companies get valued to some extent based on earnings per share. And so the reason that story of companies buying their stock back is important is because it was reflected, companies can create value, increase earnings per share by increasing earnings, right, or reducing the number of shares. And of course, investing in new technologies and new business lines is one way to increase earnings, but in this case, more and more managers of these companies looked at their options where they might invest and decided that they didn't have good ideas for investing in increasing earnings. So instead they invested in decreasing the number of shares. Right. And you know, I'm not in for a second arguing that companies shouldn't have freedom to buy stock back or invest in the way that they choose. That's up to them. However, it's because of the circumstances of why they had the extra cash. Exactly. And it was a real world experiment that said if we give companies a windfall of capital, how will they invest it? The book is not overtly political. I mean, certainly when you read it, you get a sense for different types of policies. And we have a whole chapter that talks about different policies that we might implement, but it's not intended to be a political argument. And in fact, one of the things we talk about is that small businesses often live sort of in the middle, right? They have customers who have all sorts of different beliefs. And we tell this wonderful story about a family of wilderness guides in Montana, how they relate to conservation and frankly how a lot of libertarian, maybe even Republican-leaning people in Montana who run these sorts of businesses embrace conservation and conserving the land because many of them make their living off of helping bring people to that land. And so it describes this sort of middle ground that we believe small businesses often exist in. And that's maybe in part why our country is becoming increasingly polarized because we're losing so many of these smaller businesses that sit in that middle space. What would be my next step in being able to get venture capital? And how would I actually get mentorship on the correct ways of doing all of this? So if you look at how businesses raise capital, about 17% of businesses take money from banks, some sort of formal loan for the business. Fewer than 1% of businesses take money from venture capital. Only 1%? It's a lot of dollars and quite a bit of impact in that world, but it's 1%. So that leaves 80%, just over 80% of businesses actually that aren't taking money from any formalized source. And one of the things that we talk about is that one of the reasons that entrepreneurship in the United States is dying is because it's become harder and harder for this 80% of businesses that have to self fund in some way to garner investment capital. And that's because of a couple of things. One is that the average black and Hispanic family has significantly less wealth than the average white family. And so as the demographic of people starting businesses has changed, those people now that are more likely to be starting businesses have less access to family wealth because of systemic and structural history of the United States that has led black and Hispanic families to have less wealth than white families. In the case of black families, it's about one-tenth the wealth. In the case of Hispanic families, it's about one-sixth or one-seventh the wealth. So significant differences. The other thing that's also happening is that many of the people in this middle 80% get money from the equity in their homes, right? So we're from friends and family and by that, the equity in their friends and family's homes. And I think one of the reasons that entrepreneurship started really struggling after the Great Recession, the net new number of businesses that were started in the United States was negative. And then as it became positive, business, net new businesses starting were much more concentrated in a very small number of markets. And I think this is reflective of, in part, the changing nature of entrepreneurship, the challenges we have about getting money to new entrepreneurs. I think also, it was reflective of the fact that the nature of the 2008, 2009 recession was that home prices, right? It was a bubble that collapsed in home prices. And so people didn't have that home equity to tap in order to start their businesses. So 80% of all businesses started here in America are all self-financed, one way or the other. Correct. Okay. Credit card debt. Just don't rob a bank. Don't rob a bank, yeah. No, the bank is there to rob you. Let's not forget that. Probably more businesses fail than succeed. Would I be correct on that or? That is absolutely true. Eventually, more businesses fail. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't create value during the time when they were alive. Oh, no, no, no. If I started a restaurant and it lasted for, I ran it for five years and I decided the market changed or moved or whatever. My menu was no longer in favor. And ultimately, I decided to close down. That counts as a business failure in this context. But really, it ran for five years. I employed people. I obviously served customers. And so from that perspective, and it was my livelihood, it was successful. So we need to be a little bit careful when we talk about most businesses failing. That's absolutely true. But it doesn't mean that they didn't create quite a bit of value while they were operating. How is failure seen in the entrepreneurial world? It used to be that the United States broadly embraced failure. And it set us apart from the rest of the world. They actually, there's a group that has studied this for decades, attitudes towards failure across different countries in different regions. And it really was a unique characteristic of American entrepreneurs. We were very embracing of failure. Some of that's because we had a strong social safety net and people, the cost of failure was not quite so high. And some of that was, a lot of that was just attitudinal. People accepted that in order to achieve something great, you have to try something hard, right? Thomas Edison famously said, I didn't fail, I just found 10,000 ways that didn't work. And that was broadly speaking, the U.S. attitude. And of course, Silicon Valley absolutely, and the tech sector, absolutely embraced this notion of failure. In fact, so much so that I think that they think that they were somehow unique, but really they took the failure model and acceptance of failure from the rest of society. But they've kind of kept that acceptance. And it's been one of the reasons why Silicon Valley has been so incredibly efficient at churning out businesses because there's no fear of failure in Silicon Valley. It's almost seen as a badge of honor and of courage. That's not true in the rest of society. And in fact, the acceptance of failure in the United States has dropped significantly. And actually now we're relatively in line with the rest of the world. It's no longer a case of American exceptionalism. We are not exceptionally open to failure. And we believe that that is one of the reasons that fewer and fewer people are starting businesses. Simply put, they are more afraid of failing. Another is that I think the cost of failure has gone up, frankly. We don't, as I mentioned, have the same sort of social safety net that we used to have. And I think it's funny. We talk about this in the book. We don't argue for sort of a socialist economy. In fact, to the opposite, we argue for, in favor of an entrepreneurial capitalist economy. I like to joke that I'm capitalist by job title. I mean, it absolutely is part of how I think about the world. But interestingly, we argue for a certain social safety net that it would be an enabler of the capitalist society that a lot of people on really, on both sides of the aisle, but in particular, Republicans try to argue for. And I think that's really important. The other thing that was probably the most common thing that we heard from people who were starting businesses is that they were concerned about their access to healthcare. One of the reasons that people cite as not starting a business is because their healthcare is attached to their job and they're not able to take that risk of losing their healthcare. I've had a couple of friends who've actually started contracting and they went through the same thing. What are we gonna do about healthcare? How does America fit in to say the English model, sorry, United Kingdom, is obviously far more of a socialist. I'm gonna use that term very, very, very loosely. But it's far more socialist than say America. We have the National Health Service, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, lots of social programs all the way through. You look at companies in the UK that are starting up and it seems to be at about the same race as America. Yeah, so I don't have data on the actual startup rate. No, no. America versus the UK. I certainly know the data around, for example, fear of failure, which is now, the UK has stayed nice and constant. The US used to have a very high tolerance for failure. Now it's relatively even to other societies in Europe in particular, right? Asian societies still have more of a fear of failure, which is probably why their startup rates are lower. So I think there's a lot of reasons why people have concerns over failure and I think there's been some systemic changes to just how we rear our children, how we think about failure, how we guide them towards things that they're successful with versus allow them to try different things and be accepting of the fact that some things they'll do well at and some things they may not do well at. I think those are all things that sort of get wrapped into why our embracing of failure has changed so much over the last 20 or 30 years. So tell me, we've gone through a lot of issues. There's a lot here and there's even more that we talk about in the book. So I would encourage everyone listening. We're barely scratching the surface on some of these questions. Well, we've only got a limited amount of time, unfortunately. And by the way, the beauty of the book is that we talk about, we tell the stories of so many entrepreneurs and describe some of the broader sort of system changes that are taking place. But in the context of the stories that we're talking about. Interesting. And so we really, that's why we call it the new builders. One, because they are, that's our term for the next generation of entrepreneurs, of course. But also because the book is really about the new builders. It's really about them and their stories. So we've just been 20 minutes talking about what's wrong. Do we have any fixes for these issues? All the fixes for these issues that we can talk about. Yeah, well, there's certainly, we remain, Elizabeth and I, remain very optimistic about the entrepreneurial economy. And I think that the reason is because the new builders that we met and whose stories we tell in the book are incredibly optimistic group. And that optimism really kind of rubbed off on us. And so I think there's a lot of reason to feel very excited about and optimistic about the future of American entrepreneurship. But we do need to think about ways to better support new builders the next generation of entrepreneurs. That starts with money, which is really important. We've systemically dismantled our community banking system, the CDFI system, which is a subset of the community banking system. And those are great ways for new builders to access capital. There are other new capital models that we talk about in the book that individuals can get involved with, invest their own money in local businesses through these platforms. The U.S. over the last handful of years has opened up the ability to more and more people to be investors, which used to be closed off to all but just a small subset of society. And now we're allowing far more people to do that. And so there are opportunities there. And then there are other opportunities to simply support new builders with advice and mentorship. And I think that's something that's also very important. And when we look at some of the models that have been most successful for funding capital to support these new builders, what all of them have in common is that they also funnel support to new builders. So in one of the organizations that we talk about extensively in the book is a group called E for All, Entrepreneurship for All. They operate where we are in Laudmont but also in Massachusetts. They are opening up a couple of new programs as well shortly in upstate New York, one in Rhode Island. They really are a great example of pairing entrepreneurship with mentorship. And really it's a mentor model that is what's driving their success. We talk about a number of other platforms that have had similar success by pairing capital with mentorship. And I think that that's also really important. And in part, that's why local sponsorship to new builder businesses becomes increasingly critical because it's not just capital, it's access to that capital, right? Actually getting them to understand that there is capital available. So we need to expand the pool of capital. We need to let new builders understand that that capital is available. And then we need to overlay all of that with help and support and mentorship to help them be successful. Your company offers the full package or knows people that can help. Well, that's true. My main job is as a venture capitalist. And of course we do do that but we do that for this segment of the business. But what we argue for in the book is that's just not reaching enough people. So we're not arguing for the end of the venture capital model by any stretch. No, no, no. I still have my day job and I'm happy for that. But we're arguing for new forms of capital and new models to support a broader number. To support a much broader spectrum. And in particularly to go after, to expand the 17% that are banked, right? That should be a much larger number. And then to think about new capital models that can help bridge this 80% of entrepreneurs that don't take money from either venture or from banks. Seth, let's call it quits because I'm pretty sure we could carry on talking about this for forever. But what I would like to do, I'd like you to come back to the studio saying about two months after the book's been released because by then you'll have heard what people feel about the book and we can really get into answering some of their questions. Absolutely. Seth, thank you so much for coming in today and I wish you all the success with the book. Don't forget everybody, May 4th, you'll be able to buy the hardcover version. And a Kindle and an audio book. And a Kindle and an audio book and at any of your favorite bookstores around the country, go in and order it, The New Builders. That's what you need to remember. Absolutely, and if you want more information you can go to the newbuilders.com and we leave the bookstores to buy it on and obviously we tell some of the stories that we tell in more detail in the book. Seth, once again, thank you very, very much. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you once again for watching another episode of Rational Alchemy. I'm Nigel Aves, your host, signing off. Thank you.


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And now Auto-Lite presents Mickey Rooney in a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.   I've been kicked out of a better college. Son, why don't you leave that bottle alone? I know it's none of my business. Are you my father? Of course not, I'm only trying to... Well, then don't call me son. And you're right, it's none of your business. You fresh pup. If I were your father, I'd be ashamed to admit it. I watched where you got on and it's in the middle of the semester bounced out on your ear, weren't you? I know your type, taking everything you can get from the old man and not giving anything back, only grief and gray hair.  Station Stop Mansfield, put away that bottle kid, you're home. The old hometown depot again. Didn't look friendly. Nobody was going to look friendly. The whole term's tuition fee shot for the third time. Well, dad would try to cover up what he felt. But she wouldn't. Not glad. I could hear already in my imagination. Oh, so you're home again. Guess you found out it was all a waste of time. They couldn't teach you anything at college. Maybe they ought to change things. Maybe they ought to learn from you. But make them pay, Marty dear. Make them pay. Maybe we get back some of the money you've wasted. What do you think you are, a rich man's son? Well, I knew you from the day I married your father and I expect to see the day when I have to send you cartons of cigarettes up to the pen. Well, I was going to hear it again. No way of stopping that mouth. To break the ice I called home from the station. Busy. Five minutes later I called again. Busy. So I waited and five minutes later I called again. Talking, talking. That's all she ever had under a peroxide. Talk, talk with a cheap crowd of hers. It wasn't my dad on the telephone. He was in Baltimore working. Well, I grabbed a bus and went home. Man, it's me. It's your loving stepson. Look at that. Didn't even bother to hang up the telephone.  Hello? What's that? Hello? Who is it? It was a man. It would be. With her. Heard my voice. Thought it was dad and hung up. Dad had come home early today. Plenty of signs. There was the paper he always picked up in Baltimore. Cigarette stuff. I knew it was his. It was that awful Turkish brand. He'd been smoking since before I was born. No one else could stand. Yeah, he came home early. They must have gone out. I wandered into her bedroom. No reason. Just wandered. You know what I saw? She was curled up on the bed. Yes, Glad curled up on the bed, started cuddling me. No makeup. Her hair all good up with that bleached stuff of hers, and she was dead. But dead. Somebody had broken her neck. If ever a man deserved a break, it's my dad.  If ever a man deserved the kind of son fathers dream about instead of the mutt the rat I was turning out to be. Well, I didn't have much time for philosophizing. I got rid of the newspaper, cigarette butt.  You'd think she was alive the way those nails dug in. Then I went to the phone. Hello, this is Martin Delavan calling from 22 Beach Street, South.  I just murdered my stepmother. For suspense, Auto-Lite is bringing you Mickey Rooney in Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrill's Suspense. Hey, that's quite a stack of letters you got. Ah, that's my fan mail. Laudatory letters. Payons of praise. You mean people like you? Of course they like me, because I tell them to replace old narrow-gap spark plugs with white-gap Auto-Lite resistor spark plugs. And naturally they like Auto-Lite resistor spark plugs once they try them. Here's one from Mr. W. E. Schmitz of Houston, Texas, who writes, Gentlemen, I recently switched to Auto-Lite resistor spark plugs for my 1942 car. I've been trying other brands for years, but when I switch to Auto-Lite, I can truthfully say I've never seen such an improvement in my 43 years in the automobile business simply by changing plugs. Well, from an automobile man, eh? From the sort of man who'd know that switching to Auto-Lite resistor spark plugs means smoother idling, better performance on leaner gas mixtures, and actual saving of gas. And Auto-Lite resistor spark plugs cut down spark plug interference with radio and television reception. Oh, right, Harlow, but let's not interfere with the reception of suspense. And now, Auto-Lite brings back to a Hollywood soundstage, Mickey Rooney as Martin Delavan in The Lie, a tale well-calculated to keep you in suspense. Don't get cocky with me, young fella. And just remember that you put yourself in a jam that always turns out to be pretty rugged. Let's have the story again. Look, I've told it to you twice. Let's have it again. You don't have to play McTavish of Scotland Yard. You don't have to find the killer. I told you I did it. But you make it sound so exciting. Let's have it again. Okay, okay. Beginning where? You were expelled from college this morning for drinking. They always expel me for drinking. You took the early afternoon train at State Junction, got out here about six and telephoned from the station. Take it from there. The line was busy. I took a bus from the station. I came in without making any noise. Just didn't happen to make any. From the hall out there, I hear this... this... I heard my stepmother talking on the phone. To a man? Yes. How'd you know it was a man? I could tell. Smart boy. What was she saying? She... she said enough. I'd like to find out what makes enough. Well... What makes enough? The point when you put your hands around somebody's neck and start to squeeze. She was two-timing your father, huh? All right, go on. I guess I lost my hitter. I remember grabbing her by the neck just as she heard me and turned around. And I remember her fingernails coming up toward my eyes and digging into my face. Would you say she did a good job on me? Yeah, look at these scratches. You did a better one on her. Well, this is about checks with what you sent before. Good for me. You don't want to change anything? I want you to take me downtown and book me. No hurry. I want you to re-enact this for us before our motion picture camera. Movies?  Hey, what's the matter? You don't look happy. Would it have pleased you more if you'd had to beat it out of me with a rubber hose? Maybe. Maybe it would. Andicate. Right here, Lieutenant, in the kitchen. Now break out your camera. Somebody burned the newspaper in the kitchen stove. The ashes are still warm. In which paper? Can you make it out? No, no, no. The ashes are all stirred up. Did you burn a newspaper, kid? Yes. Why? Well, after I killed her, I got kind of a chill and I thought it'd start a fire. And then you changed your mind. That's right.  Listen, if people were always rational, they wouldn't come at murders. Oh, psychologists too, huh? Okay, set up the first shot from the hallway and a cut as it comes in. Jack, where's your father, Delavan? Where can we reach him? I don't want him pulled into this. Leave him alone. Don't start jabbering at him, making things worse than they are. Yeah, hold your blood pressure, Bob. It happens that you killed his wife. Now, where do we reach him? He's in Baltimore. Henry Delavan, company import and export. Commutes every day? Yeah, yeah, but he wouldn't be at his office now. It's long past closing time. All right, William. You like your old man, huh? I guess he passes. And that's all? We haven't seen much of each other since he got married again. I get expelled from different colleges and he balls me out and I ride him for checks and he sends them. Okay, let's make our try for the Oscar, shall we? You just go through the motions starting at the door exactly as it happened. Without my makeup, Lieutenant? Very funny, except there's a dead woman in the bedroom. You better change your attitude, kid. Who's this? It's my father, please. Take it easy with him. Dad! Dad! What's going on in my house? Marty, what are you doing here this time of year? Let me break it to him my way. Where's Glad? Where's your mother? And what are all the police doing around here? Marty, speak up. All right. I'll give it to you straight. She's dead. What? What do you mean?  She's dead. I killed her. No, no, Marty, don't say that. It isn't true. You... Why, you don't know how...  How would you know anything about it? You were in Baltimore. You were in Baltimore, weren't you? Gentlemen, please. I'm Lieutenant Steele. Lieutenant, don't listen to my boy. He couldn't have possibly... Don't try to tell anybody what I couldn't have done.  Anyway, you weren't here. You were in Baltimore until now at your office. I wasn't in my office. Dad! I didn't feel very well or long about noon. I quit for the day. May I see my wife, please? In the bedroom. And what did you do for the rest of the day, Mr. Delawareman? You don't have to answer that, Dad. You don't have to say anything. I've signed a full confession, Dad. I went to a Turkish bath and I stayed there for several hours. Yeah, we can check that easily enough. Of course. I'm sorry to say that my son is right, Lieutenant. I wasn't here. When you commit a crime, it's as though someone snapped a switch and the sun went out. Now you live in shadow. You wear faded blue denims with your number on them. You're surrounded by so much iron. Doors and bars in your bed you sleep on. You weigh every word before you say it. Because it might make the difference between living and dying. Most of the time you're angling to live. By the time I was through, I'd made sure I would die. You did a bad thing, Marty. Why did you do it? The important thing is that I did it. That's what we've got to keep remembering. Now don't let me down. You haven't said anything, have you? About what? About you. What's there to say? What's there to... Oh, oh, I get it. I get it. Swell. Swell, we'll keep it that way. Oh, I suppose I ought to be able to understand what you're trying to say, Marty, but I can't. I'm so confused. They keep hammering away at me, trying to break down my story where I was. Well, that Turkish bath routine wasn't very bright. They can check on that dad. They did. There's no question about that, Marty. I was there. When? All that afternoon, from two until five. Who says you were there beside yourself? Well, the clerk, the attendants, the rubbers. Now they all know me, Marty. I've been going there every Wednesday for months. This couldn't be true. Everything else about the whole nightmare could have happened. It was happening. But not this. He had killed her. He must have killed her. I'd hung a perfect frame on myself. Because he did it. What's the matter, son? Dad, how would that days ball and more paper get into our house before you came home? Well, it's delivered to me. I buy one in the morning to read it on the way in, and the one that's delivered, I read in the evening at home. It's that simple. And I suppose you're going to tell me that since I've been away, Gladys learned how to smoke those Turkish blowtorches. No, but well, you know how chain smokers are, son. They're bound to run out of their own brand some time, and they'll smoke anything they can get their hands on. Anything they can get? Oh, sure. Anyone could figure that out. But why talk about newspapers and cigarettes, Marty? We have only five minutes together. Don't talk about anything.  What a slap. Oh, Dad. Dad, you don't know. I know only one thing, Marty, that you didn't do it. How do you know that? Well, who would have known better? What does that mean? Well, you're my boy.  And when she turned out to be what she was. Oh, you don't have to keep reminding me of that, son. Oh, I'm sorry, Dad. I'm sorry.  Makes no difference, Dad. They got in their tight case against me. I'm going to fry just as crisp as though I did it. I never thought for more than a second that you killed her, Marty. The way you kept jabbering, you were in Baltimore. I was here. You were in Baltimore. Like a needle stuck in a wrecking. Oh, what can we do now, Lieutenant? Do? Well, it's out of my hands.  Trial? For what?  Listen, kid, you framed yourself too well. You didn't leave a shred of evidence that points to the real killer. You had a motive. You cleaned up every trace of someone else, and now that someone else is laughing up his sleeve. But, wait a minute. They can't convict me and execute me for a crime I didn't commit. Take it easy, kid. Take it easy. You mean to take the rap?  Well, have you got a real idea who that somebody could be? How would I know? Do you think I ran around with her friends? I never saw one of them.   According to police routine... But we're talking about her life! Don't you understand my life? And I'm trying to tell you that you're talking to the wrong man. See the DA, kid. He's the only one who can help you. Every word of my confession was a deliberate lie, sir. See, I dictated it and I re-enacted the whole thing before the camera because I thought I was protecting someone else. The real murderer? No, no, but I thought so at the time. So what was this somebody's name? I'd rather not tell you that. Why not if he's innocent? Because I don't want him dragged through the mud. Here's the report you've been waiting for, sir. Oh, thanks, and again. Yes, sir. Now look, Delefinne, I'm too busy to play games. This report establishes beyond doubt that it was your skin and blood under her fingernails. That clinches it for me. But wait a minute. That's all. I'll see you at the trial. And I guess you know how it'll come out. So callous was this killer, so consciousness that not only did he freely admit his guilt, he willingly re-enacted the whole ghastly thing before the police department's cameras you've seen. Far from showing remorse for his crime, he gloried in it. You know the evidence. His fingerprints, his blood under her nails. I ask that you return a verdict that will make mandatory the extreme penalty. Death for Martin Delefinne.  Dad, Dad, find a way out for me, would you? I don't know where to turn, Marty. I'd give my life to save you.  I sometimes wonder if they really would do a thing like that. Isn't that what you did for me? It's such a shame, Marty, that this should happen to us because of her. The only good thing she ever did was to bring us together again. By dying. Then you knew all about her. For a long time. But I kept hoping. Well, maybe she didn't appreciate you, Dad, but... but I do. You're not so bad yourself. Dad. Yes? It's probably too late, but... one part of my story was true. She had been talking to somebody. What? The receiver was off the hook and there was still a party on the other end. Who was it? That I don't know. I picked up the receiver and I said, Hello? I heard a funny kind of gasp and then a click. But, Dad, don't you see? It means somebody's ear was in on that murder. We've got a witness. Somebody who knows I didn't do it. He and the guy who murdered her. All right. Time's up, kid. I think we have just another five minutes. We've got rules here, mister. I'm just the right guy to be worried about rules. Shove off, will you? Wait a minute. Let's not make a fuss now. Shove off, will you? Dad, did you try everything? Try everything. Take your hands off of me. Listen. Just because you're going to die, don't give you any special privileges. Don't. Leave me. Hey, Joe. Dad. Dad, help me. Come on, Marty. Tell me what to do. Help me, Dad. Marty, tell me how to help you. Steal. Steal, Dr. Steal. Tell him. Tell him about the phone call. Tell him we've got a witness. Dad, remember it's a matter of time. I haven't got much time. Jane, a boy's life depends on this and we haven't got much time either. Is there anything I can do to help? Fine. Now, let's see. It was around six in the evening when Marty Dullivan got off the train and tried to call home. Uh-huh. He got a busy signal. Let's give ourselves a break and say it was the same party who was on the line when he came home. Could you trace that call? Well, I can try, Lieutenant. A call that long would have plenty of overtime on it. Well, stretch it out a little, kind of narrow down the field. Say, five minutes before he called, another ten before he gave up, another ten to get out to the house on the bus and then coming in, looking around, finding the receiver off the hook. Say, uh, say 45 minutes. Oh, my gosh. What's the matter? I just happened to think. What if Mrs. Dullivan put in that call? You'd have a record of it, but the charge would be on her bill. That wouldn't show the name of the person she was calling. Those are the breaks. I'll see what I can do. Hello. Hello, Lieutenant. Oh, what'd you find? Well, that call... Sure. What? You see, Miss Jean never stopped saying we were cheating her. Well, we had to put a monitor on her telephone and make a record of every number she called. Fine, fine. But, uh, what was that name? Beginning Mrs. Dullivan talk for 39 minutes to a subscriber named William J. Simmons, 798 Shore F. That kid isn't any of the things she called him in the courtroom. I know. And I couldn't stand by and see him fry for a murder he didn't commit.  Now, this weasel you brought in here, his story is only as good as the amount of proof you can attach to it. Look, I'm no weasel. I didn't want to get mixed up in this because I got a wife and kids, see?  Tell it into the Dictograph. Huh? How do I start? With your name. Um, uh, William J. Simmons, 798 Shore Avenue. Okay. You were acquainted with Mrs. Gladys Dullivan? Yes. You were in love with her? Well, in a way. Tell us what you heard over the telephone at six o'clock on the evening she was murdered. Well, we were talking. We were just talking, see, about... about how we felt. Suddenly I hear this guy's voice on the phone somewhere off in her house. He yells, where were you yesterday? We had a date, didn't we? Then he comes closer. Still yelling. What did he say? Oh, all kinds of stuff. Names, things like that. Then she begins to scream, don't Steve! Don't! You're hurting me, Steve! I can tell he's got her by the neck. He's choking her. I can tell he's choking her. On, kid, on your feet. Is it... Is it time? Time for what? You, you know... I don't know anything. You want it in the warden's office. Come on. Well, what's up? Search me. Hey, that's pretty good. I'm the guard. You're the prisoner. But I say you search me. Do you know who's with the warden? Well, that local Dick Steele. McTavish of Scotland Yard. A couple of other guys in your old man. My father. What do they want with my father? Search me. Hey, I said it again. You ought to hold you for obstructing justice, young fellow. But I suppose you and your father have suffered enough. So it was somebody else. Somebody else all the time. Your description of the murdered lady was very accurate. She got around. Who, who is he? How'd you find him? Well, that's a pretty terrific story, Marty. You say we traced the guy who was on the phone and he heard Mrs. Delevin holler the name Steve. Now, a detective has to be smart. He's got to be a psychologist, a science bug, an incredible kind of a guy who can take the name Steve and pick a murderer out of 140 million people. So how did I do it? Well, how? I opened her little black address book. Remember, you tip me off to that and look for a guy named Steve. And there he was, Steve Barton.  McTavish of Scotland Yard. And this time of the real confession. How do you feel now, Simon? I don't know. I've done so much thinking about what it means to die that I'm not sure which world I'm standing in. Now, tell me, kid. What was the name of that newspaper you burned and who did smoke that cigarette? Dad, is all this on the level? On the level, Marty. Well, just to keep it on the level, gentlemen, it was the Baltimore star the paper my dad always reads and the cigarette was his favorite brand. Maybe you understand now. Come on, Dad. Take me home. Thank you, Mickey Rooney, for a splendid performance. It was fun to do. Say, hollow, I've heard great things about some new award suspensors received. Well, yes, Mickey. The Alfred P. Sloan Award for the Outstanding Radio Program in 1948 Promoting Highway Safety was awarded to CBS and Auto Light last week. Well, say, wasn't that the Jimmy Cagney Suspense Show of last December? Right, Mickey. And coincidentally enough, last week the National Safety Council announced a similar award to Auto Light for the same program and for their promotion of safety on the highways. Wow, that's great going. And it reminds me, haven't I often heard an announcement on this show? Let's see, how does it go? Oh, yeah, I know. Drive carefully. The life you save may be your own. That's right, Mickey. Yes, Auto Light is proud to lend support to the promotion of highway safety. They're proud, too, of the more than 400 products for cars, trucks, airplanes, and boats that are made in 28 Auto Light plants from coast to coast. And Auto Light also makes complete electrical systems for many makes of America's finest cars. Batteries, spark plugs, generators, starting motors, coils, distributors. All engineered to fit together perfectly, work together perfectly because they're a perfect team. So folks, don't accept electrical parts that are supposed to be as good. Ask for and insist on Auto Light original factory parts at your neighborhood service station, car dealer, garage, or repair shop. Remember, you're always right with Auto Light. Now again, here is Mickey Rooney. It's been a real pleasure to be here and I'll be listening next week when Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrills presents Bob Hope in Death Has a Shadow. Another gripping study in... Suspense. Mickey Rooney appeared by arrangement with Metro Golden Mayor, producers of the Technicolor Picture Little Women, starring June Allison, Peter Loughard, Margaret O'Brien, and Elizabeth Taylor. Tonight's Suspense play was based on a story by William Irish and adapted by Herb Meadow. Music was composed by Lucian Morrowake and conducted by Lud Bluskin. The entire production was under the direction of Anton M. Leder. In the coming weeks, Suspense will present such stars as James Stewart, Claire Trevor, Frederick March, and many others. Make it a point to listen each Thursday to Suspense, Radio's Outstanding, Theatre of Thrills. And next Thursday, same time, hear Bob Hope in Death Has a Shadow. You can buy Auto Light Resistor spark plugs, Auto Light Stafel batteries, Auto Light electrical parts at your neighborhood Auto Light dealers. Switch to Auto Light. Good night. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.


So by the time most of you see this, Super Tuesday 3 will be over, but before anyone even cast their vote, there were already Democratic Party Super fans basically declaring the race all but over. Now look, admittedly the numbers didn't look good for Bernie Sanders going into Super Tuesday 3. With that being said, they don't want the process to play out because they want to hurry up and finish it, coordinate Joe Biden and just allow him to be the nominee. And they want us to back down. So this is what they're saying and this is my response and basically my response is what I think Bernie Sanders should say to what will become increasing calls for him to drop out. So Bakari Sellers tweeted after tonight with no path to secure the nomination Bernie Sanders should drop out. We should proceed to the mission at hand, beating Trump. We don't have time to waste. Getting beat by 10 points plus I'm being generous and getting swept isn't a path to winning anything. Jennifer Rubin tweeted out Sanders by remaining in the race will prevent Biden from assuming control of the DNC, planning for virtual convention and shifting to an unwieldy general election. He needs to exit today. Period. Now supposedly Jennifer Rubin is a conservative, but she's really concerned with what's going on in the Democratic Party primary. Now also just ask yourself this, if the shoe were on the other foot, would they all be telling Joe Biden to drop out? If Bernie Sanders were in this position, we'll know because after Nevada, when it seemed as if he would secure a plurality of Pledge delegates, they were all talking about the prospect of stealing the nomination away from Bernie Sanders at the convention. Everyone in the race, including Elizabeth Warren, said they were going to stay in, rack up as much delegates as they possibly could and make their case to the super delegates at the convention. So there was no talk of, you know, letting us focus on the real mission at hand, defeating Donald Trump. They're only saying that now because the guy who they like is winning. These are political hacks. Now after Super Tuesday 3, we will all see this become more common. More and more Democratic Party loyalists and establishment hacks and news pundits are going to call on him to drop out and I'll admit his path to the nomination is diminishing very rapidly. It sucks to say that, but it's true. He's not mathematically eliminated, but it's getting to a point where it's very clear that the Democratic Party's base is just coalescing around Joe Biden because they believe the propaganda about him being more electable in spite of the fact that they agree with Bernie Sanders policies more. But regardless, you know, it seems like Bernie Sanders is not going to win based on the trajectory that we're on. So if I'm Bernie Sanders and I hear these calls, what do I do? I refuse to drop out. I commit to stay in to the convention at a minimum, but possibly beyond because here's the thing, they would never give Bernie Sanders this luxury if he were the presumptive nominee, right? Joe Biden said he would contest the convention if Bernie Sanders didn't get a majority of Pledge delegates. And here we are in a situation where Joe Biden has not even secured a majority of Pledge delegates and there's already loud calls for Bernie Sanders to drop out. So if I'm Bernie Sanders, I'm saying absolutely not. I will not drop out and I'll stay in all the way until November if I have to. Because guess what? We're all dealing with the severity of COVID-19 and we're responding, I think in a way that it recognizes the gravity of the situation. But there's another crisis that Joe Biden is refusing to address. Medicare for all. A Yale study just confirmed that 68,000 people die every single year due to a lack of health insurance and that estimate is conservative because when you account for people who are underinsured, the number is probably far higher. So if I'm Bernie Sanders, I'm saying, look, you want me to drop out? I'll drop out. But I need a firm commitment, both in video form and in writing that Joe Biden will introduce or tell Congress to introduce legislation. That is my Medicare for all bill. If he does that, then I'll drop out. And if he doesn't commit to that, then guess what? This is a crisis that so far at this point in time is worse than COVID-19. We have 68,000 Americans dying every single year due to a lack of health insurance. So I can't drop out right now because we need a president who is going to treat this crisis with the seriousness that it warrants. And Joe Biden isn't going to do that. So it looks like I'm going to have to stay in and run independent against Joe Biden and Donald Trump because we can't not have a president who takes this issue seriously. So if I've got to stay in all the way until November, then so be it. Because for Joe Biden to assume the role as Democratic Party nominee and say he vetoed Medicare for all, that's unacceptable. So if he doesn't commit to Medicare for all, I drop out. Now, there's a couple of caveats here. First of all, Joe Biden, even if he committed to Medicare for all, that in and of itself isn't going to guarantee that we get Medicare for all. Of course, I wouldn't even believe him. He'd just be doing it because it's politically expedient in that situation. But the goal is to get him to not veto it at a minimum, right? At least to sign it into law if Bernie Sanders using his influence in the Senate can somehow get it passed. And this is a long shot. But at the same time, we have to move the overton window. We have to move the needle. We have to make sure that Americans know what's at stake. People are dying. They may not know anyone who died because they don't have health insurance. No access to health care whatsoever, but it could happen to them. So people need to realize the gravity of this situation. Now, I know that Bernie Sanders would never, ever threaten to run third party and he doesn't have to. But he just has to make them think that he's willing to do that if Joe Biden doesn't concede on this one very important issue. And this is why the Republican establishment back in 2015 and 2016, they couldn't actually successfully rig it against Donald Trump in the way that they wanted to, because Donald Trump was playing hardball with them. He threatened to run independent. That's why they introduced that bogus loyalty pledge that they made him sign. And then I think right after that he was saying, maybe I'll still run independent. It just depends. So Bernie has got to play hardball and I know that Bernie won't do this. He is too nice of a guy and he doesn't want to risk, you know, taking votes away from Joe Biden that would otherwise help defeat Donald Trump. And I get that. I empathize with that situation. He doesn't have to actually run third party, but he has to play hardball and really use the leverage that he has now. That's the thing that's so irritating.  Like, do you think that when Obama most likely made that call to people to judge and Amy Klobuchar and Beto O'Rourke to come out and endorse Joe Biden, they did it just out of the goodness of their hearts. No, they were expecting something. Now, I don't know what it is. Maybe it's a position in Joe Biden's cabinet. Maybe it's the promise to endorse people to judge if he wants to run for governor of Indiana. I don't know what it is, but you don't give up your political leverage without getting something in return.  No, Bernie needs to stay in as long as possible because he has a lot of leverage. He has a gigantic movement that Joe Biden and Democrats know they need if they want to win. And if you want to actually try to make a difference, get Joe Biden to concede, do not drop out unless he firmly commits both on video and in writing to the American people that he will tell Congress to introduce Medicare for all and put it on his desk. If he doesn't do that, then you've got to basically threaten to stay in the race indefinitely, because, I mean, we have a crisis where thousands of Americans die every single year, every single year in this country. Multiple 9-11s are happening. I mean, what was it? Like 3,000 people died on 9-11, 68,000 people are dying every single year according to this Yale study. Now, you can basically say that the methodology in that study is flawed. You can doubt it. It's a peer-reviewed study. But I mean, like, even if we cut that number in half, 35,000 approximately, is that what you want to go on in this country? I think the American people don't want that to go on. Hence why at the exit polls, they're overwhelmingly siding with Medicare for all, even in states where Joe Biden is winning. They just are prioritizing beating Donald Trump. And the mainstream media told them it's Joe Biden is more electable and they're listening. So you've got to use this leverage. And I really hope that Bernie Sanders resists these calls for him to drop out, take the leverage that he has gotten and utilize it to do good for the country. I think he will try to do that in whatever way. But I just know that he's not going to play hardball as much as he should. And that's really unfortunate because he has a lot of political power and political capital currently, and he could really use that to potentially at least shift the Overton window. I don't think he'd get any policy concessions that actually become codified into law, but to just move the rhetoric in the Democratic Party, use that leverage to get them to stop attacking Medicare for all, use that leverage to at least get them to commit to supporting Medicare for all. Even if we don't believe them, I think that's a step in the right direction. And I think that Bernie Sanders is at least going to try to use it. The leverage that he has, that is in some way. So we'll just have to wait and find out.


In this video I'm going to share with you how Caleb Ewan, a professional road cyclist with UCI World Tour team Lotto Sardal and arguably the best sprinter in the entire world, a man that won three stages of the Tour de France in 2019 and a man that tore my legs off in the local Nusa Bunt ride in 2020 just a few days ago now. You see it's the professional off season as we speak so many of the Aussie pro-cyclists are back in town and Caleb is in Nusa in my local hometown staying with his family as we speak. In addition to showing you this leg tearing attack I will also share some Bunt riding tips and tactics in this video and explain what happened to Caleb's bike which pretty much made it a certainty that he would rip the bunch to shreds going up the Coulomb Hills. Just note that in this video I will skip forward pause and or slow down the footage from time to time just to ensure we can make the most of our time together here and hey if you've just landed on this channel a reason to support or subscribe to the channel in 2020 if you already haven't the channel is going to have a new format from February onwards which will be Wednesdays a road cycling training tip video from me a road cycling coach and on Fridays when I say Wednesday and Friday here we're talking Aussie time we'll have a vlog style video which is all about mixing bike racing with a busy family lifestyle so if all that sounds up your alley please consider supporting the channel by subscribing below. Now before we get back into this video I just wanted to take a small amount of time to express some incredible misfortune that is occurring in Australia at the moment notably the severe bushfires that are occurring across the country to date many have lost their lives or homes and families have been devastated by what has occurred many people are in distress and my heart goes out to everyone involved I've left a donation link below for anyone that would like to get behind a disaster appeal the Nichols family have just donated a hundred dollars ourselves but please remember particularly to all those Aussies out there that these communities don't only need our help now but in the years to come help can be as simple as visiting an affected area on holidays simply to help inject much needed funds into local economies over the years so this bunch ride is roughly 55 kilometers all up it's a Saturday bunch ride but the smash fest component is just under 15 kilometers or nine miles from my US friend so essentially where I have started the GoPro from today is where this bunch ride ramps up if you want the full low down on this bunch ride I've made another video about it which I'll link to below this bunch right was much bigger today than it usually is because of the holiday period typically you'd see about 10 to 20 riders on this bunch but this day there would have been somewhere around about 50 I reckon but most of them were behind my wheel so I really do need to invest into a rear GoPro in 2020 so stay tuned for that as you can see though I've gone straight to the front here reason being it's a big bunch today a lot of unfamiliar riders so for safety reasons I don't want to be anywhere near the back in doing so though I find myself at the front and unexpectedly given the volume of riders here today I get left hung out to dry for quite a while here in fact let's play some elevator music and see just how long I get left out here for while we're watching me dry roast at the front of the bunch here I'm going to pull up my zones and power numbers to make a little point you see typically at the start of most bunch rides people get excited quite often you'll see monster efforts by a certain few within the first five to ten minutes and in many cases you never see those riders again so I'm making a concerted effort not to go too hard here lingering in my bottom end the mid-range zone six so I've still got some juice left in the tank for further efforts in this bunch ride today you see if I was pushing 100 to 200 more watts here for the total of this effort I'm currently doing I would have been toast for the remainder of the ride so being smart about your efforts in the bunch particularly up front will ensure you can go harder for longer as opposed to being a one-hit wonder so it was roughly two minutes after I got the bunch going here my good north coast racing mates in the white come to the rescue although I was kind of thinking what bloody took you so long lads as the chain of riders finally commences you'll see two pro cyclists actually freddy ovay I think that's how you say his name I hope from the israel cycling academy and of course Caleb now as you can see there's quite a big conga line in today's bunch with many getting involved between here and where the leg tearing occurred why not I'd say it's one of the great things about road cycling how many other sports in the world can you go out and have a go with a professional alongside you so we're going to skip forward slightly here to a set of traffic lights it was at this stopping point where I must admit that I butted in to get behind the great Caleb youn while I was slightly aggressive about getting into this pole position for those local riders who were directly exposed to this and now think I'm a giant knob please know that I was purely doing this for YouTube viewing pleasure as we lead into the leg ripping area which is brought to you by this 1950s chainsaw Stanley here who is wearing a mask even the level of debris he will be exposed to today will be tearing this bunch of locks to pieces thanks to a brand new chainsaw that is supercharged by something deep inside called you and in fact Stanley only needs to run you and adjust under 60% before logs will start snapping into pieces and the entire bunch will be ripped to shreds nice one Stanley so I'm on Caleb's wheel here and I wanted to point something out for you here and what I found out post ride is that Caleb's di2 was flat apparently he realized as soon as he stepped out in the morning so he rode the entire bunch in the 54 16 so as Caleb begins this leg tearing attack I just wanted to point out that this climb is only an average of 2% gradient according to Strava but it does have some nasty pinches at around 8 to 10% and because it flattens out and then rises again it's a tricky one to get a rhythm for what is just under a three minute effort note here also that I've done a turn into the bottom of the hill so I'm carrying slightly lactate induced legs into a tearing attack so let's just watch this now unfold so not a ridiculous volume of power up that first pinch but definitely going deep into the neuromuscular system which is a point I want to isolate after we get to the end of the bunch here so let's watch round 2 unfold so I've pulled over really quickly here why is that many in this position in a bunch ride would typically hang onto the wheel until they drop for way too longer period see the problem with that is by the time they have dropped the wheel they're normally one two maybe even three bike lengths back and the rider behind them has to make up two to three maybe even four bike lengths to get back onto the wheel so essentially it's inconsiderate to the rider behind you and the others who have to follow so what you're better off doing is what I'm showing you here right now I am starting to cook I'm just under 800 watts for the second mini attack my legs are full of lactate and Caleb is still out of the saddle punching it so my chances of staying on the wheel here are limited and as a result I make a very quick call pull over real quick flick the elbow and let the rider behind go through and that rider which you'll see is Freddy from the Israel Cycling Academy only has one to 1.5 bike lengths to make up and just know I'm not dropping myself here the plan is to have a slight breather and get back onto the back of the bunch so what I didn't know was that Caleb would sit up shortly after I pulled off so potentially I would have been okay if I hung on to the wheel although you are about to see another punch out of the saddle so probably not as I look behind me here I saw some riders coming what I didn't realize though is there were only two remaining of a starting bunch of about 50 riders and what I have since learned after the ride is that there was also a split just after the traffic light stop so what I've done here is I pulled over to the side haven't really rested and now I am in no man's land potentially what I should have done when I pulled off is spend a few moments in a lower gear giving myself a proper rest and then sprinted back onto the group instead what you're seeing here is me dangle for a while and then the light bulb moment to put some pressure down and get back onto the wheel what's also a bit disappointing here is that I am dangling out on the road as opposed to being over in the bike lane which is a demonstration of how fatigue can make you ride and also awareness we all need to have in these pressure cooker situations on the road so the remnants of the bunch are back together we roll through the coulomb area before putting the pressure back down now what I personally found interesting during this section is normally I can recover well through coulomb and get back involved in the turns pretty quickly however on this occasion I was done I rolled a couple of times but I could feel the legs were no good now many of you out there will conclude that it was Caleb's leg tearing episode which caused this level of fatigue but really looking at the numbers Caleb was probably only going about 60 percent and I wasn't pushing out massive watts so why was I so cooked here I pondered aha I did figure it out reflecting later that day about two months ago I transitioned my training from being criterion fit not that I was doing a ton of criterias but that's kind of like the fitness I typically like to maintain I transitioned to getting prepared to tackle a 265 kilometer bike race being the Melbourne to warnable as a result of this style of training I simply have neglected to train my sprint or my neuromuscular system mainly because I simply haven't had the opportunity to blend it into what has been some major endurance rides that has been the predominant focus for me in recent times however normally I would head to the local track and do some sprint efforts after a high intensity workout working the neuromuscular system or my sprint which ultimately teaches you to be able to go deep multiple times in a row so this was a little wake up call for me actually it's time for me to bring the sprinting back into training and quickly on training as we now watch a very unusual finish to this bunch right I think everyone was a bit cooked including myself and not sure where Caleb had gone either I have a free video training below for road cyclists looking to take their cycling performance to the next level and I've actually reopened an online course that I have welcoming 10 students into up level road cycling course for January over the next week links below just know this was a big day out for me actually I rode 170 kilometers all up in preparation for the Melbourne to warnable and let me tell you I enjoyed a couple of quiet ones later that evening you can get it right I'll catch everyone in the next video you can get it slightly you can feel it coming on about four a hard earned thirst needs a big cold beer and the best cold beer is Vic Vic bitter you can get it in a hole or up a pole you can get it doing nothing at all a hard earned thirst


Alrighty, let's play this the full first. It's on the short side. Let me play this again That's cute. All right, and you're saying here first pass Only first pass and look for any comments particularly just whatever you think needs to be improved I would say Watch out. I will probably avoid covering Faces even though it's just a couple of frames There's so much room here that you could tweak it and it goes into the second note of I know this is visually in 2d space different If you just look at that if you'd fill out the silhouette, I totally get it At the same time it just feels a bit simple With Somewhat again for her twin. I know it's visually different But there's just something about this feeling a bit too simple to be honest this like this could be a really Cute moment like this could be anything Where it's ah, it's today's a nice day or welcome Giant or look at the Sun nice day today. It could be kind of anything It's I feel like again, this is very it's a very silly note We're like make it you know at more personality. I know this is not easy But ideally I wish this would be something a bit more specific to her or she gets a bit more excited about it with like a little Something at least with the hands and fingers so she might have a little jumping around a little bit There's something where I feel like this could be more complex in terms of a character Getting ready to catch someone. She really likes like that is really cute like this It's really nice. I like the the catching and then you have the little squeeze It's almost like I would hold this for a couple frames longer. She does a and then immediately this I think this could be a catch and Then turn into do that What shot this is it's okay for a moment I thought she's gonna look at me and this is cute, but then I would involve these a bit more I know this is kind of pushed against her body here But maybe it could have that a bit more up and down almost like a little flappy like how does he show? That he's happy as well. He lands And Let me just see something he does It also feels like maybe that's intention when it feels like that creature is driving the move back And it's not her holding on Moving the character over so just watch out how you want to portray this is this You know is that maybe maybe you see little fins or whatever that is his arms flapping And maybe something strong in the legs and the heck goes over this way almost signaling Hey, you know, okay, like let go of me. I want to move over and then this happens Or is it her holding in an adjusting but either way Once you're here and you got that cute little thing They could be a little bit something in the leg But I would bring that up and down with some flappy and maybe it's something slightly bigger in the head She's cute because the thing is right now It's almost like everything's about her Still all about her. It's could be a pillow and Then when this Happens, I like that. She's not too big in her movement like there's some cute stuff in there But then you can make a big deal out of out of him He can have a bigger waddle with like in the body. So there's the kind of like that was a moment now This is a moment if that makes sense also objective but He's probably not that heavy But it could also be interesting if you had even if it's cubes or anything in the background and then Boom with this she would maybe take one step over and then you know This thing would be here You would have to pan over the camera a little bit but because if you have objects in the scene We understand what the camera is moving because we wouldn't if it's all empty Let's kind of open the shot a little bit and give it give it the body a bit more complexity It's technically if I do my onion skinning here And draw that box She is kind of always in that box So if we need to get her out of that fixed position and kind of So open up the shot Again doesn't have to be crazy just a little bit of a but then you can combine it into boom Then she moves over turn off the onion skin here and then she takes a step over So she's then maybe almost a bit bent over and then she would shoot up again with a reverse Into this and that's this moment of So it really goes from something like that to Really straightening back like really a bigger like squeeze hug there like oh and then turn into Maybe slightly more over because he is just moving a bit stronger I mean she wants to be close to him not move away But something like that if that makes sense the bit more movement in the scene And even a bit of up and down will kind of help can open this up a bit And like I said with some object so you can understand the camera move And that's kind of that I know it's first pass just throwing out a couple ideas Obviously feel free to take or ignore whatever you need and that's it. All right. Thanks All right, there's an email you can sign up you can start whenever you want you can submit whatever you want You get 16 submissions either way a like and subscribe would be awesome. All right. Thank you


Thanks for checking out this episode of brutal battle beer break today I'm very excited to do a beer that I've had sitting in my cellar for a little bit of time This one's actually by crux fermentation project, and they are a small brewery out of Bend, Oregon I had done one of these for their I believe their outcast IPA, which I like very much So this will be the second offering from them. I've had and I have high hopes for it This is our tough love and their tough love is a Imperial stout that is bourbon barrel aged with Kentucky bourbon barrels for nine months In addition to that I have aged this an additional two years after it was put in the bottle, so Hopefully it's gonna be very good. I have very high hopes for it once once again this one had some wax on the top and I went ahead and took that off ahead of time because you don't want to see me messing with getting the wax off But that says to me there shouldn't really be any oxidation going on with this one of the big problems with you know Letting a beer ages if there's not wax, you know or something else to keep the air from getting under potentially You could come up with some pretty off flavors from oxidation in the beer So this one should be good now this one was given to me by my awesome mother-in-law Once again, there have been some other beer. She's given me that I've had on the podcaster done this with Awesome, it's very nice when you have a mother-in-law who's looking out for your beer interests. So don bowling. Thank you very much 11.5% I'll call by volume not sure if I said that already They have a little bit of information on an information card that they put on there It's got their little emblem down there crux fermentation project. Let's put that down out of sight And you have to see their labels their labels are very cool Always something interesting going on with them. I believe I showed it on the outcast as well. So here goes the tough love There's ton of bourbon. Oh, man. Are you kidding me? There's a cork in there, too. They tricked me Now I'm gonna have to go get a corkscrew Good thing we are also a winehouse. So I keep a corkscrew Clothes at hand. I didn't know they were gonna do that to me No Just imagine if I had not already taken the wax off Then you'd be sitting here forever watching me do all this stuff It's really in there I Got this oh And now it broke off Just a reminder to everyone when you're going Take a cork out of any sort of bottle you might want to go ahead and take the corkscrew all the way down Don't get too eager because otherwise you're gonna get what I just got a broken Don't want especially because if you get it far down start shredding You get that in your beer wine, whatever and everything is good Just gonna pour a little bit of this sucker It's pouring dark pouring very dark makes me happy As you can see it's very dark around the edges It's a little bit of a reddish Aspect to it brown going on as well not a whole lot of head to it Typically don't get that with higher ABB beers Get the bourbon right up front you get some oaky aspects you give vanilla you get a nice Cocoa dark chocolate get a caramel-y note from the bourbon Lot of bourbon lot of bourbon coming through on this, but it smells smooth.  It's tasty. It's very tasty. I get so much like vanilla caramel Milk chocolate.  This is bourbon barrel aging done very well I'm happy to say had high hopes for this and it's nice. It's super nice people who like bourbon barrel aged beers that aren't Too astringent that aren't you know kicking you over with the spirit aspect to it You're getting the spirit flavor here of the nice bourbon aspect, but the alcohol is not crazy. It's not too aggressive It's so smooth and easy This is a nice beer. This is a very nice beer problem is small brewery out of Oregon The only way you can get is if you're close to it or you have an awesome mother-in-law or something Who will get you a beer like this?  It's kind of a special release. I believe it's their banished series So check the internet look at their website and see when it's coming out And like I said make those friends so they can get you this beer Damn fine beer damn fine beer. Hope other people can find it and if you can hit me up Let me know what you think brutal battle podcast at gmail.com will also take any sort of suggestions I got to cheers this to everyone out there hell of a beer everybody go out have yourself an awesome beer Preferably a barrel-aged one tonight to cheers me back. Thanks so much everyone and Go have an awesome beer