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SMNTY Interviews: Elica Le Bon · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to Stephane
0:07
Speaker 1: never told your protection of iHeartRadio, and welcome to today's episode, which,
0:22
Speaker 1: as you listeners always know, when it comes to guests
0:24
Speaker 1: and people that I admire from AFAR, I get really
0:27
Speaker 1: nervous and fangirly. And today's another one of those episodes
0:31
Speaker 1: where I'm going to be really nervous and fangirly, So
0:33
Speaker 1: put that little warning at the top. But I'm actually
0:36
Speaker 1: we are crossing over my TikTok world to the podcasting world.
0:40
Speaker 1: I love it. I love when I do these intersections,
0:42
Speaker 1: don't you. Annie, I do, especially because I'm still not on.
0:47
Speaker 1: You introduced me to Yes, and I have introduced you
0:51
Speaker 1: to her videos, but I've been following her for a
0:55
Speaker 1: while now and her content on social justice, the criminal system,
0:59
Speaker 1: and her coverage of the revolution of Iran, and it's
1:02
Speaker 1: the information we so need today. Alica, Yeah, so excited
1:07
Speaker 1: to have you on. Thank you for having me. Can
1:10
Speaker 1: you introduce yourself to our listeners? Yes, I am Elica Labon.
1:15
Speaker 1: I am a criminal defense attorney, and I am an activist,
1:20
Speaker 1: human rights anticostal state activist and more recently Iran revolution
1:26
Speaker 1: activist and I live here in California in the United
1:29
Speaker 1: States America. About that about sums me up. Yeah, I
1:35
Speaker 1: love your TikTok videos and I know we're going to
1:38
Speaker 1: tell everyone at the end. I think it's pretty easy
1:39
Speaker 1: to find you. You're on all the all the social
1:42
Speaker 1: medias that you do a lot of an amazing coverage
1:45
Speaker 1: of things that we don't know that's happening in Iran.
1:47
Speaker 1: But you also do a lot of conversation about the
1:50
Speaker 1: criminal justicism in the US and the lack of justice
1:55
Speaker 1: rather that is happening in the US. And you do
1:58
Speaker 1: such an amazing job in making sure that you are
2:02
Speaker 1: not only giving us this information, but you do it
2:05
Speaker 1: with heart and passion. And first of all, I have
2:08
Speaker 1: to say thank you for doing that, because it's amazing
2:11
Speaker 1: hard content. It is hard. It is very difficult content,
2:15
Speaker 1: especially in you know, today's world. Everything is like, you know,
2:19
Speaker 1: you don't know what you can even say anymore, but
2:21
Speaker 1: this stuff is like always in the forefront of like
2:24
Speaker 1: the public conversation, you know. Yes, And with that you
2:27
Speaker 1: also have some amazing clapback videos videos. Yeah, I know,
2:35
Speaker 1: it's so funny when there's there's always that person that's like,
2:38
Speaker 1: you're so much bigger than this, and it's like, but
2:40
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm just not. I love that you just
2:44
Speaker 1: attack because I know there's a lot of trolls and
2:47
Speaker 1: people who just out there trying to come at you,
2:50
Speaker 1: and you're like, uh, let's get this straight. And you know,
2:53
Speaker 1: I love that. And that's the thing is that I
2:56
Speaker 1: never go after people, but if you come into my
2:59
Speaker 1: home where I minding my own business, I mean, the
3:03
Speaker 1: consequences are up for grabs. So and you do it
3:07
Speaker 1: so eloquently it doesn't even feel like a clapback. So
3:10
Speaker 1: thank you. This is where I get to the fan
3:14
Speaker 1: girl and I'm like, oh my god, You're just amazing
3:16
Speaker 1: and everything you do is amazing. So I needed that
3:19
Speaker 1: today so well deserved. But yeah, we are so excited
3:25
Speaker 1: to have you here, and we wanted to talk about
3:28
Speaker 1: several things that you have been covering recently, but first
3:32
Speaker 1: kind of go to them. One of the more recent
3:33
Speaker 1: posts that you've had, especially on TikTok, and I'm sure
3:36
Speaker 1: it's crossed over where you kind of give everyone a
3:39
Speaker 1: reality check about how long this revolution has been happening,
3:44
Speaker 1: dating all the way back in the seventies. And we
3:46
Speaker 1: kind of did a small kind of I guess summary
3:50
Speaker 1: of it. That's really awful to say, but we just
3:52
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of tell everybody what was going on
3:54
Speaker 1: to date, and we did kind of say, Okay, this
3:56
Speaker 1: is a big thing that happened in the seventies and
3:58
Speaker 1: it's just literally attaching it's after that. So can you
4:01
Speaker 1: talk first about the history of the women fighting back
4:04
Speaker 1: in Iran from the beginning essentially? Okay, Yeah, So in
4:07
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine there was a big revolution and that
4:11
Speaker 1: is when the Islamic Republic came into power for the
4:13
Speaker 1: first time. So that's when the landscape of women's rights
4:17
Speaker 1: drastically altered in Iran. So they were that's when the
4:21
Speaker 1: imposition of mandatory hijab became part of the law. That's
4:26
Speaker 1: why women's rights across the board became extremely restricted. No
4:31
Speaker 1: more singing in public, no more dancing in public, no
4:34
Speaker 1: more being seen with a man, no more being able
4:37
Speaker 1: to do things without your husband's permission. So it was
4:40
Speaker 1: like it was a drastic alteration of the landscape in
4:44
Speaker 1: the country where women had previously enjoyed more of those rights.
4:48
Speaker 1: And so the reason that I made that video is
4:51
Speaker 1: because when people talk about the revolution in Iran today
4:54
Speaker 1: in twenty and thirteen, they're like, you know, this revolution
4:58
Speaker 1: has been going on since the death of Mini Massohina
5:01
Speaker 1: Amini September sixteen, twenty twenty two, and it's five to
5:05
Speaker 1: six months in the making. But the reason that I
5:09
Speaker 1: made that video is to explain that this revolution has
5:11
Speaker 1: been going on since the same year that the Islamic
5:15
Speaker 1: Republic came to power, which is nineteen seventy nine. So
5:18
Speaker 1: there have been waves of this revolution. There was two
5:21
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, there was twenty nineteen, there was two
5:23
Speaker 1: thousand and seven, like it's just been ongoing. But the
5:26
Speaker 1: very first protest was on International Women's Day, March eighth,
5:32
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, and the women of Iran took to
5:35
Speaker 1: the streets for six days straight to protest mandatory her job,
5:39
Speaker 1: and there was all of it looked just like today,
5:41
Speaker 1: but there just weren't the cameras right. There was all
5:43
Speaker 1: the violence, all the beatings, all the executions, but they
5:47
Speaker 1: fought for six days straight for their rights and they've
5:50
Speaker 1: been going ever since. And I think that's an amazing
5:53
Speaker 1: conversation that we have to have, is that we cannot
5:56
Speaker 1: forget the women and the people that came before. There
6:00
Speaker 1: is a little something different in the air paving the way.
6:03
Speaker 1: But the women who have actually been there and have
6:06
Speaker 1: been there and have been exiled or communicated or executed
6:11
Speaker 1: and persecuted for so long. And that's kind of one
6:13
Speaker 1: of the big things that we have to remember is
6:15
Speaker 1: this is not anything new. It's just new to us
6:18
Speaker 1: who is trying to figure out what's happening today exactly.
6:21
Speaker 1: It's just been made aware to the international community because
6:25
Speaker 1: of access to media and cell phones and all of
6:28
Speaker 1: this stuff. Now people are finding out what's been going on. Yeah,
6:31
Speaker 1: I mean this context is so important in the conversation
6:34
Speaker 1: that's happening now, and especially with the news that we
6:39
Speaker 1: might get here in the United States or what news
6:41
Speaker 1: we don't get here in the United States. But can
6:43
Speaker 1: you talk about what is happening right now and perhaps
6:49
Speaker 1: specifically the role women are playing and what's happening right now? Well,
6:53
Speaker 1: I think the role of the women in Iran is today.
6:58
Speaker 1: It's as you know, prominent as it always was, because
7:03
Speaker 1: you know, women are the ones that feel the brunt
7:06
Speaker 1: of a lot of these laws. Women are the ones
7:09
Speaker 1: who are the first one to be driven out into
7:12
Speaker 1: the streets to process against them. I mean, especially like
7:15
Speaker 1: you said today, we're living in a world where because
7:17
Speaker 1: we have access to information and we have access to everything,
7:22
Speaker 1: let's not forget that the women of Iran, who, by
7:24
Speaker 1: the way, are overwhelmingly gen z. Right now in Iran,
7:28
Speaker 1: I think it's something like eighty five percent of people
7:30
Speaker 1: in Iran are under thirty. So these are just babies
7:33
Speaker 1: like gen Z, and they all have TikTok, and they
7:36
Speaker 1: all have Instagram. One of the protesters that was killed,
7:41
Speaker 1: Haddisna Jaffee, who was only twenty years old. You still
7:43
Speaker 1: can see her TikTok's where she's dancing, making dancing videos
7:46
Speaker 1: on TikTok. So these girls and these women are subject
7:51
Speaker 1: to these laws, but they're on TikTok and they're seeing
7:53
Speaker 1: the rest of us just living these three lives, and
7:56
Speaker 1: they're like, hang on a minute, why can't I live
8:00
Speaker 1: like everyone else? Like why do I have to live
8:03
Speaker 1: in a way that doesn't align with who I am
8:06
Speaker 1: and what I want? Right? Because it's about freedom of choice.
8:08
Speaker 1: Some women want to wear the high up, but if
8:10
Speaker 1: they don't want to, they don't understand why they can't
8:13
Speaker 1: have that choice. So having that access to that information
8:17
Speaker 1: and to you know, these apps and TikTok and Instagram,
8:20
Speaker 1: and seeing the way that the rest of the world's
8:22
Speaker 1: lives and the way that women have those freedoms, not
8:25
Speaker 1: necessarily all the freedoms, but at least those freedoms. That
8:29
Speaker 1: is driving them even more now to take to the
8:33
Speaker 1: streets because now they're not going to settle, you know,
8:36
Speaker 1: now they know what kind of life they have, Why
8:41
Speaker 1: would they settle, you know? Right? Yeah, I think that's
8:45
Speaker 1: a big conversation in what's happening today. I know, at
8:49
Speaker 1: the beginning with Massamani's death, the conversation was it was
8:53
Speaker 1: a protest, and then the conversation shifted to this is
8:57
Speaker 1: a revolution. Can you tell us how it got to
9:00
Speaker 1: that point? Yeah, So, I think initially after Massa Gina
9:06
Speaker 1: Amini's death, it seemed to the world like protests because
9:10
Speaker 1: I guess the world wasn't fully aware of the historical
9:13
Speaker 1: context of what was going on in Iran, and maybe
9:16
Speaker 1: they didn't even intend for it to be a revolution
9:18
Speaker 1: at first. But I think the protests grew because of
9:22
Speaker 1: the fact that it wasn't just about h job, right,
9:25
Speaker 1: So This was about so much more than that. It
9:28
Speaker 1: was about freedom across the board. You know, they referred
9:32
Speaker 1: to it as a women's led revolution because it started
9:36
Speaker 1: with a woman. It started with the oppression of a woman,
9:40
Speaker 1: but then it developed into a full scale, across the
9:43
Speaker 1: board revolution where it's like, hang on, none of us
9:46
Speaker 1: are free. Women are not free, men are not free,
9:49
Speaker 1: children are not free, and they're not even free to
9:53
Speaker 1: exercise their basic right to protest. Right, these men are
9:57
Speaker 1: being hanged just for protesting. So because of that constriction
10:03
Speaker 1: on their freedom overall, and because it's been going on
10:07
Speaker 1: for so long it's been forty four years now, I
10:10
Speaker 1: think the protests ripened into a revolution because it got
10:15
Speaker 1: to a point where it's like, we don't just want
10:17
Speaker 1: you to end mandatory hitch job. We don't just want
10:20
Speaker 1: you to fix this or do that. We don't want reform,
10:23
Speaker 1: we want a revolution. We don't want you anymore we
10:26
Speaker 1: want regime change or iron We want democracy, secular democracy,
10:32
Speaker 1: true democracy, which is yeah, that's such a huge conversation.
10:36
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I found interesting, and
10:39
Speaker 1: it could be me misreading some of the articles and
10:43
Speaker 1: you let me know, is that they have there's a
10:45
Speaker 1: conversation about something that is different with this time around,
10:49
Speaker 1: with this revolution, is that for the first time, maybe
10:53
Speaker 1: not so much, but there seemed to be more support
10:56
Speaker 1: from the people. Do you agree with that or you
10:59
Speaker 1: think that's just the mislead of like, No, they've always
11:01
Speaker 1: had the support, you mean, from inside or from outside
11:03
Speaker 1: of Iran, from inside, from inside Iran and outside of Iranda,
11:07
Speaker 1: but mainly inside first and foremost. Yes, yes, So I
11:11
Speaker 1: think there was a survey recently and the survey was conducted.
11:15
Speaker 1: I need to remember how many people. It was two
11:19
Speaker 1: hundred thousand people. I think one hundred and fifty thousand
11:21
Speaker 1: of them were inside of Iran, and it was something
11:24
Speaker 1: like maybe eighty seven percent wanted the Islamic Republic gone.
11:31
Speaker 1: So it's overwhelming support for this revolution and get getting
11:38
Speaker 1: rid of the Islamic Republic. Right again, we're gonna get
11:42
Speaker 1: into the whole propaganda machine. But as people are saying, oh,
11:45
Speaker 1: it's died down, but then we get more images of
11:47
Speaker 1: people from all over the country, rural areas coming in
11:52
Speaker 1: and to the support. Is that growing? Yes, So, like
11:57
Speaker 1: you said, propaganda. One thing that they do is that,
12:01
Speaker 1: you know, they shut down internet, so the reason that
12:03
Speaker 1: they shut down internet is to stop the information coming
12:06
Speaker 1: out of Iran, to stop it, you know, being in
12:09
Speaker 1: the consciousness the awareness of the international community. So when
12:13
Speaker 1: they have protests in you know, Zahedan and places that
12:17
Speaker 1: more rural areas and they you know, fully block off
12:20
Speaker 1: the Internet. What they don't want is for the rest
12:23
Speaker 1: of the world to see how many people are going
12:25
Speaker 1: out into in droves in the streets to protest them daily, weekly, whatever. Right,
12:32
Speaker 1: So that's part of making it seem like the protests
12:36
Speaker 1: aren't happening. But the protests are happening there every day,
12:40
Speaker 1: you know, and they've been happening, they're just not in
12:44
Speaker 1: the videos aren't always accessible because of their that control
12:48
Speaker 1: over the access to the internet. So can we kind
13:06
Speaker 1: of talk about that a bit more like that control
13:08
Speaker 1: of the Internet and what we're what should we look
13:11
Speaker 1: out for when it comes to the Iranian regime and
13:16
Speaker 1: propaganda that is used against this movement. So there's a
13:21
Speaker 1: lot when it comes to that. So the shutting down
13:25
Speaker 1: of the Internet is one thing, so it doesn't allow
13:28
Speaker 1: people to like I said, share information or receive information.
13:33
Speaker 1: Another one is the accounts online. So the Islamic Republic
13:37
Speaker 1: has long engaged in cyber wars and it's documented. It's
13:40
Speaker 1: not just a conspiracy theory. They have documented history of
13:44
Speaker 1: cyber wars. And they pay people to and bots to
13:50
Speaker 1: cause problems online. So they'll fight with they'll cause you know,
13:54
Speaker 1: division amongst the diaspora. They will you know, present an
13:59
Speaker 1: image of support for the Islamic Republic. They'll pay them
14:02
Speaker 1: to go online and say this is all fake, it's
14:04
Speaker 1: all made up by Israel and the USA. It's not happening.
14:08
Speaker 1: Everyone lost the Islamic Republic. These protesters aren't even being executed.
14:12
Speaker 1: It's not real. Mass Sogina Mini didn't really get killed.
14:17
Speaker 1: She just side of a heart problem. So they get
14:20
Speaker 1: paid to go online and make up, you know, this propaganda.
14:24
Speaker 1: And another thing they do is that. So there was
14:28
Speaker 1: three whistleblowers from Meta who came forward and said that
14:32
Speaker 1: the Islamic Republic, the regime was trying to pay people
14:37
Speaker 1: at Meta to delete the account of Iranian activists and
14:42
Speaker 1: delete their posts. So and that's why we all started
14:46
Speaker 1: noticing that our content was being suppressed and we were like,
14:51
Speaker 1: what is happening? Like videos will just disappear off the internet.
14:55
Speaker 1: It's a lot, right it's scary. It is so scary,
14:59
Speaker 1: and because really don't know who to listen to because
15:02
Speaker 1: part of the propaganda is also in the US, we've
15:06
Speaker 1: had many episodes about misinformation that's happening just like the
15:09
Speaker 1: US politics, So going international, I'm sure it's even bigger
15:14
Speaker 1: as to who is controlling what narrative and who was
15:17
Speaker 1: allowing for what narrative to come out, and who's being paid,
15:21
Speaker 1: as you had said, and like that's so scary that
15:23
Speaker 1: the meta finally came out with like, hey, yeah, we're
15:26
Speaker 1: being paid to suppress these things. Like when we see that,
15:30
Speaker 1: what are some of the things that maybe we should
15:31
Speaker 1: be aware of in when things like that are happening,
15:34
Speaker 1: especially in the US. And I'm saying this as a
15:36
Speaker 1: US centric obviously conversation right at this moment, but in
15:40
Speaker 1: the US who we really do want to know? But
15:43
Speaker 1: it's so hard to know who to listen to. Yeah,
15:46
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the whole point of doing this,
15:50
Speaker 1: it's not even necessarily to make people believe the counter narrative.
15:55
Speaker 1: It's just that even if that fails, to make you
15:58
Speaker 1: so confused that you just site to not believe anything
16:01
Speaker 1: or to just not trust anything, and that's what we
16:03
Speaker 1: see a lot of here in the US as well.
16:05
Speaker 1: You know, they insert the confusion, they come up with
16:08
Speaker 1: the theories, and then you don't know who to trust.
16:11
Speaker 1: So you're like, I'm just gonna avoid the whole thing
16:13
Speaker 1: and I'm just not going to listen and I'm not
16:15
Speaker 1: going to pay attention. I'm going to be apathetic. And
16:18
Speaker 1: that's how they win, because apathy for them, it's also
16:21
Speaker 1: a win. It's as much as a win as you're
16:23
Speaker 1: taking their side, right because the apathy is what they're
16:25
Speaker 1: looking for. They want you to be apathetic to Iran.
16:28
Speaker 1: They want you to be apathetic to whatever's going on
16:30
Speaker 1: in the US. So that's the same sort of thing
16:33
Speaker 1: that they're doing by the propaganda that they are listening online.
16:39
Speaker 1: I think the best thing to do and the best
16:43
Speaker 1: thing to look out for is whether you are listening
16:45
Speaker 1: to a credible source, someone who has first of all,
16:50
Speaker 1: an account with a face and you know you can
16:54
Speaker 1: actually see them. They have videos, they have content where
16:57
Speaker 1: they're showing themselves because a lot of the times people
17:00
Speaker 1: will hide behind profiles, fake profiles, And the other thing is,
17:04
Speaker 1: you know, what are they talking about? What is the narrative?
17:08
Speaker 1: What is the incentive, where is it going and is
17:10
Speaker 1: that a credible source? Because I've also had people counter
17:15
Speaker 1: narratives coming from like white men in America who don't
17:20
Speaker 1: know anything about Iran, and people will be like, hmm,
17:23
Speaker 1: maybe I should listen to him, and I'm like why, why,
17:27
Speaker 1: why should you? Why are you doing this? No, I
17:32
Speaker 1: don't know just why men in general were, but no,
17:40
Speaker 1: I think you did a really good tekdok video recently too,
17:44
Speaker 1: about one of the propaganda things. And I think I've
17:46
Speaker 1: seen a few of these types of conversations that have
17:49
Speaker 1: come up from the regime, things like they're pardoning people
17:53
Speaker 1: or they're not executing everyone. Everybody calm down, that was misinformation.
17:58
Speaker 1: Can you kind of talk about the breakdown out of
18:00
Speaker 1: their usage of rhetoric like that? Yeah, So I think
18:04
Speaker 1: the video that you're talking about is where there was
18:06
Speaker 1: I think it was a Router's News article that said
18:08
Speaker 1: that the Supreme Leader was pardoning all of these prisoners.
18:14
Speaker 1: So from the heading, it was like, Oh, that's amazing,
18:19
Speaker 1: like everyone's getting off of a death throw. And then
18:22
Speaker 1: you look at the subtexts and it's like everyone's getting pardoned,
18:27
Speaker 1: except and it's like listening every possible everyone who protested,
18:32
Speaker 1: anyone who breathed the wrong way, anyone who didn't apologize,
18:36
Speaker 1: anyone who you know, had a conversation with the media,
18:40
Speaker 1: and so once you got to the end of it,
18:42
Speaker 1: you were like, Okay, since no one seems to be
18:46
Speaker 1: being pardoned except for like rapists that wasn't that wasn't
18:49
Speaker 1: on the list, then we know that the purpose of
18:53
Speaker 1: that information is to present to the world that, you know, something,
19:00
Speaker 1: what's going on in Iran isn't really going on in Iran.
19:02
Speaker 1: You know, these people are not the people that you
19:04
Speaker 1: think they're not, the terrorists that you think they're not,
19:06
Speaker 1: you know, the occupiers that you think it's just misinformation
19:09
Speaker 1: because look how lenient we are. We're even pardoning all
19:12
Speaker 1: these people. But then you find out that they're actually
19:14
Speaker 1: not pardoning anyone. You know, Yeah, I think that's really interesting.
19:18
Speaker 1: The whole same conversation about when that article came out
19:21
Speaker 1: that they were going to execute so many of the
19:23
Speaker 1: protesters and they did it by like flight of night,
19:26
Speaker 1: and then people countered it very quickly. We even like
19:30
Speaker 1: had that moment of like, oh wait, maybe it's not.
19:33
Speaker 1: But the conversation was we weren't getting the full information.
19:36
Speaker 1: That first article was probably more true than not, but
19:40
Speaker 1: because the regime was so quick and swift in order
19:44
Speaker 1: to put that propaganda that we believed it. And it's
19:47
Speaker 1: almost it's hard to take that back because I think
19:51
Speaker 1: people are still having hard that didn't really happen type
19:53
Speaker 1: of conversation. Yeah, I think, you know, it's important to
19:58
Speaker 1: remember that the regime exists in power without any accountability.
20:02
Speaker 1: So people who live and are raised in the West,
20:06
Speaker 1: they view the rest of the world through this Western
20:09
Speaker 1: construct where like things seem really implausible and impossible because
20:13
Speaker 1: they would never happen here, you know, like here, I mean,
20:17
Speaker 1: the US government does stuff, but it's so like underhanded
20:20
Speaker 1: and sneaky, then it would never be that obvious, where
20:23
Speaker 1: like the US government would be like, oh, we're executing
20:26
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand people, just kidding nowhere, not like it just
20:28
Speaker 1: it wouldn't work that way. So because it's so much
20:31
Speaker 1: more underhanded, people think like that can't be going on
20:34
Speaker 1: in the rest of the world, Like it can't be
20:36
Speaker 1: a situation in the rest of somewhere in the world
20:38
Speaker 1: where there's this supreme leader and he just you know,
20:42
Speaker 1: nods his head and fifteen thousand people are gone, and
20:44
Speaker 1: it's like, well that that kind of is the way
20:47
Speaker 1: that it is over there. So because it's so hard
20:49
Speaker 1: for them to believe that that could be true, it's
20:52
Speaker 1: very easy to believe a different narrative, which is like,
20:56
Speaker 1: come on, guys, don't be unrealistic. Of course that's not happening.
20:58
Speaker 1: There's like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. I thought that
21:02
Speaker 1: was a bit dramatic, and it's like, yeah, but you
21:04
Speaker 1: it's hard to believe because that wouldn't happen here, even
21:07
Speaker 1: though there is still the death penalty over here, but
21:09
Speaker 1: obviously much more procedural way of getting to that. So
21:15
Speaker 1: that's why I think they just want to go. They
21:17
Speaker 1: it seems so hard to believe that. They just don't
21:19
Speaker 1: want to believe it, you know, right, right, But then
21:23
Speaker 1: you have to you have to remind them that this
21:26
Speaker 1: is something stuff that's been been happening in Iran. You know,
21:30
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight there was the massacre of up to
21:33
Speaker 1: thirty thousand protesters, you know, and so when you see
21:38
Speaker 1: that they've done it before, it's not that hard to
21:40
Speaker 1: believe that they would do it again. And they did
21:43
Speaker 1: start right executing them like one by one, Right, Yeah,
21:48
Speaker 1: that's that conversation. It's like, just because you don't want
21:50
Speaker 1: to believe it doesn't mean it's not happening, And it's
21:53
Speaker 1: really irresponsible for us not to take a second log
21:56
Speaker 1: and wait, let's talk about what the underlying conversation or
22:01
Speaker 1: underlying aspect of this is, which is a powerful regime
22:06
Speaker 1: is want to squash anything to keep their power, which
22:10
Speaker 1: is that whole evil construct narrative that's like the beginning
22:14
Speaker 1: of all the superhero movies that unfortunately doesn't exist, right,
22:18
Speaker 1: But I think that's another conversation. I did want to
22:21
Speaker 1: kind of go into specifics, not necessarily about the past
22:25
Speaker 1: history or the regular Iranian laws, but like there is
22:29
Speaker 1: a specific prison which has become kind of the keyword
22:32
Speaker 1: of like if they're going here, that means they're in danger.
22:35
Speaker 1: Can you kind of talk about why we need to
22:38
Speaker 1: pay attention to these specific places and with the conversations
22:41
Speaker 1: they may be leaving out. So there's a prison in
22:45
Speaker 1: Iron called Evan Prison, and that's where they take all
22:49
Speaker 1: the political prisoners. Political prisoner just literally means someone who protested.
22:54
Speaker 1: So my mom was in Evan prison, my aunt was
22:58
Speaker 1: in Evan prison, her husband was in prison. He was
23:01
Speaker 1: executed in Evin prison. So yeah, my cousin never met
23:05
Speaker 1: her dad because her mum was pregnant while she was
23:08
Speaker 1: in Evin prison. And yeah, she gave birth just right
23:12
Speaker 1: when she came out and they executed her dad. So
23:17
Speaker 1: it's kind of known as like that, it's like the
23:20
Speaker 1: place of no return. So after all these protesters were
23:25
Speaker 1: arrested and they were sent to Evan prison, and then
23:29
Speaker 1: sure enough, one by one they kept getting convicted of
23:32
Speaker 1: like waging more against God and corruption on earth and
23:35
Speaker 1: all of these random, you know, obscure charges that are
23:39
Speaker 1: very all encompassing, and then their penalty would be death
23:44
Speaker 1: because it's just very easy to give someone a death penalty,
23:47
Speaker 1: and ran in a sham trial could literally last a
23:50
Speaker 1: couple of minutes. So we started seeing that these people
23:54
Speaker 1: kept getting the death penalty, the death penalty, the death penalty,
23:57
Speaker 1: and that is kind of when we began our campaign
24:00
Speaker 1: to try and you know, quote unquote make them famous
24:04
Speaker 1: to get them out of there, which is something that
24:06
Speaker 1: we've seen work throughout history in Iran. Right, Yeah, I
24:12
Speaker 1: think it's so First of all, I'm so sorry for
24:18
Speaker 1: what has happened with your family I cannot imagine the
24:21
Speaker 1: trauma alone from that from in your family and then
24:25
Speaker 1: hearing about what's happening, like trying to be helpful but
24:27
Speaker 1: knowing the reality of it all. Yeah, they know it
24:30
Speaker 1: first turned exactly when it comes to women that have
24:34
Speaker 1: been arrested, it seems like there's less information about what
24:37
Speaker 1: is happening with the women and some of the men.
24:39
Speaker 1: I know that as the campaign say their name to
24:41
Speaker 1: save their lives, which I do want to get into
24:43
Speaker 1: in a second. Is there a background of why that
24:47
Speaker 1: would be so? Yes, So I actually made a video
24:50
Speaker 1: about this because this started as kind of like a
24:53
Speaker 1: women's led revolution, and you know, the Islamic Republic is
24:57
Speaker 1: aware of the sense activity over women's rights in this
25:03
Speaker 1: context and other places in the world. Of course, right now,
25:06
Speaker 1: women's rights has become a hot topic, a misogyny has
25:09
Speaker 1: become a hot topic. My opinion is that they have
25:13
Speaker 1: two goals to achieve. One is that they don't want
25:16
Speaker 1: to piss the world off so much that there's a backlash,
25:20
Speaker 1: right But they want to send a message that if
25:23
Speaker 1: you mess with us, they'll be consequences. So the best
25:26
Speaker 1: way for them to do that is to avoid doing
25:29
Speaker 1: something so inflammatory such as publicly hanging a woman, right,
25:34
Speaker 1: which is that's going to get the world's of attention.
25:37
Speaker 1: Like feminists, people who care about women's rights are going
25:40
Speaker 1: to be like, oh my god, they're hanging women, you know.
25:43
Speaker 1: So the women are raped and killed in secret or
25:48
Speaker 1: in the streets right where it's not so such a
25:51
Speaker 1: public statement, but they still do the hanging of the
25:55
Speaker 1: young men to send the message to the people inside
25:59
Speaker 1: of you're on if you protest, this is what's going
26:02
Speaker 1: to happen to you. And they hang them publicly from
26:05
Speaker 1: a crane, so that that message is sense. It's not
26:09
Speaker 1: done in secret or in private, it's so that they know.
26:12
Speaker 1: So there is a gender apartheid the under the Islamic Republic,
26:17
Speaker 1: but there's also a kind of mini gender apartheid in
26:20
Speaker 1: the way that they treat them, in the way that
26:23
Speaker 1: they molest them and torture them and kill them, you know, right.
26:26
Speaker 1: And I guess one of the things we've been circling
26:30
Speaker 1: around and want to really get to in this conversation
26:34
Speaker 1: is about social media in the use of social media,
26:38
Speaker 1: and we have been talking about it, but can you
26:42
Speaker 1: talk about the difference social media can make in revolutions
26:47
Speaker 1: or movements like these, and the impact of social media
26:50
Speaker 1: on this one specifically. Yeah, So even though the Islamic
26:57
Speaker 1: Republic is not held accountable to itself in its position
27:02
Speaker 1: inside of Iran, it obviously has some degree of international accountability.
27:08
Speaker 1: And so I guess it started in twenty twenty where
27:12
Speaker 1: there were these three guys that were protesting the price
27:14
Speaker 1: of gas and they were sentenced to death in Iran.
27:18
Speaker 1: And I remember at that time the international community was
27:23
Speaker 1: up in arms about it and everyone started talking about it,
27:25
Speaker 1: everyone started posting about it. And then what happened is
27:28
Speaker 1: that their sentences were commuted to life, and then people
27:33
Speaker 1: kept talking about it even more, and then eventually it
27:35
Speaker 1: was reduced again to five years, So they went from
27:38
Speaker 1: having the death penalty to just I mean not just
27:42
Speaker 1: five years, because five years and death in prison is
27:44
Speaker 1: like a lifetime, but obviously a difference. So then when
27:49
Speaker 1: this revolution came around, I had that in my mind.
27:52
Speaker 1: I was like, what if we get the international community
27:56
Speaker 1: to talk about these people, maybe there's a chance that
27:59
Speaker 1: we could get them off death row. So the first
28:02
Speaker 1: say their names to Save their Lives campaign I did
28:04
Speaker 1: was for two girls who were on death row for
28:08
Speaker 1: their LGBTQ status. So that was Zachar sent Itali, Hammadarni
28:14
Speaker 1: and Lham Chubdar. So they were just these two young
28:17
Speaker 1: women again just like on TikTok, living their lives and
28:20
Speaker 1: they were arrested and sentenced to death for their LGBTQ status.
28:25
Speaker 1: So I made this video and it got like two
28:28
Speaker 1: million views on Instagram. It was like shared by everyone,
28:31
Speaker 1: like even celebrities and people started sharing it, and then
28:36
Speaker 1: I continue to do it on TikTok and these videos
28:38
Speaker 1: were getting like millions of views and everyone at the
28:42
Speaker 1: same time. Obviously I'm not just one person. Everyone worth
28:46
Speaker 1: like campaigning for these people, Like the people whose names
28:49
Speaker 1: were becoming known. People would like make videos and make
28:52
Speaker 1: infographics and slides and like the names became prominent, and
28:58
Speaker 1: then we started to notice that they were like being
29:00
Speaker 1: released on bail, they were having their convictions overturned. And
29:04
Speaker 1: so it's crazy because people think, like there's no way
29:09
Speaker 1: that you're talking about these people can do anything on
29:11
Speaker 1: social media, and yet we've literally seen these people, you know,
29:16
Speaker 1: we make them famous on social media and the Islamic
29:19
Speaker 1: Republic backtracks and they're like, hang on a minute, we
29:22
Speaker 1: don't want the international uprising if we execute these people
29:28
Speaker 1: who are literally they're so well known that their names
29:30
Speaker 1: are even in the news, you know, And so they
29:33
Speaker 1: just either overturned their death sentence or they let them go,
29:37
Speaker 1: or they let them go on well they release them
29:39
Speaker 1: temporarily pre trial. It's also interesting to see the effect
29:44
Speaker 1: of social media for other governments try to get involved.
29:46
Speaker 1: I know, this whole conversation about sponsorships that happened unfortunately
29:50
Speaker 1: in the US, but they're outside, Like social media has
29:53
Speaker 1: really started to catch attention to governments outside of pressuring
29:57
Speaker 1: hopefully countries to whether it sanction or to at least
30:00
Speaker 1: speak against they're running and regime all those things that
30:03
Speaker 1: it really seems to have a push on that level
30:06
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, I mean, I think this was an
30:09
Speaker 1: idea that was introduced in Sweden or was it Germany,
30:12
Speaker 1: I can't remember. Where. You have these representatives that would
30:17
Speaker 1: kind of like adopt or be a godparent to or
30:20
Speaker 1: sponsor specific people that were on death row, and it
30:24
Speaker 1: gave them something to it gave them a person to
30:29
Speaker 1: kind of protect, and someone they became. The person at
30:32
Speaker 1: the Islamic Republic was going to have to be accountable too. So, hey,
30:36
Speaker 1: if you execute this person, you're going to have to
30:38
Speaker 1: be accountable to this representative in Germany, Sweden, France, whatever, right, So,
30:44
Speaker 1: and it gave them a line to follow up with
30:49
Speaker 1: the Islamic Republic about the health and status of that prisoner,
30:53
Speaker 1: because now you have a representative from an EU country,
30:57
Speaker 1: which you don't want to be on their terrorist list,
30:59
Speaker 1: you don't want to be signed by the EU. So
31:01
Speaker 1: you have a representative from an EU country reaching out
31:04
Speaker 1: to you like, hey, what is the status of doctor
31:09
Speaker 1: Hamman Lara Hassan, What is the status of this person?
31:11
Speaker 1: What is the status of this person? I want to know?
31:14
Speaker 1: And that type of pressure of just receiving that phone
31:17
Speaker 1: call or that email that's life changing for prisoners, you know, right. Yeah,
31:24
Speaker 1: And speaking of that, what are some of the the
31:29
Speaker 1: tags or the people specific accounts we should be following
31:37
Speaker 1: about this revolution? Um, gosh, there's so many of us,
31:41
Speaker 1: they don't know where to begin. So you have a
31:45
Speaker 1: big voice. That's the one of the coalition leaders now
31:48
Speaker 1: because they've formed an opposition coalition. So one of the
31:54
Speaker 1: big voices in that regard. Her name is Massy Ali Najard.
31:58
Speaker 1: So she is a Iranian woman. She is a journalist
32:02
Speaker 1: and she's very very vocal against the Islamic Republic, and
32:07
Speaker 1: I mean they've actually attempted kidnap assassination on her. Yeah.
32:12
Speaker 1: I think we did a small thing on her. Yeah,
32:15
Speaker 1: she's great. Um, there's so many. There's so many because
32:19
Speaker 1: this is like all I do now is followed. Like
32:23
Speaker 1: I'm like, just I might as well just go through
32:25
Speaker 1: my followers list and just share it with Essentially, what
32:28
Speaker 1: you're telling us is go on to your your social media,
32:31
Speaker 1: find who you're following, and follow them exactly. Okay, gotcha.
32:37
Speaker 1: But I guess one of the big tags again is
32:39
Speaker 1: say their names, save their lives. Is there other tags
32:42
Speaker 1: that we should be aware of that are specific to
32:44
Speaker 1: the Iranian revolution? Yes, that one say their names to
32:47
Speaker 1: save their lives? Um Iran hashtag Iran Revolution, hashtag Iran
32:54
Speaker 1: hashtag master and mini hashtag Iranian protests. Those are the
33:00
Speaker 1: main ones. I think the following your on how do
33:17
Speaker 1: you think the movement and the revolution is going right now?
33:21
Speaker 1: What do you think the status, how do you think
33:23
Speaker 1: it's going. What should we be aware of as for
33:25
Speaker 1: a morale, I think that every revolution has peaks and valleys,
33:33
Speaker 1: it goes up and down, and I think that that's
33:35
Speaker 1: just a natural part of human nature, is that you
33:39
Speaker 1: have the moments where you're out there and you're fighting,
33:41
Speaker 1: and then you have the moments that you need the
33:43
Speaker 1: reprieve and the rest to recharge and recuperate. So I
33:47
Speaker 1: think recently we've been seeing that period of just like
33:51
Speaker 1: needing to recharge and you know, have that bit of respite.
33:55
Speaker 1: But then I think following the formation of the Coalition,
33:59
Speaker 1: that has a lot to inspire people that there's something,
34:03
Speaker 1: there's actually a trajectory for this movement. Now we have
34:07
Speaker 1: something someone to replace the Islamic Republic. It's given them
34:11
Speaker 1: a goal, like a fixed goal to work towards. So
34:15
Speaker 1: I think that the morale had dipped a little bit,
34:18
Speaker 1: but I think now I'm noticing it kind of going
34:21
Speaker 1: back up because of the coalition, which is which has
34:24
Speaker 1: kind of changed things. I don't know if I know
34:26
Speaker 1: much about the coalition, Can you explain that a little bit? Yeah,
34:29
Speaker 1: So the coalition is Reza pala Vi, Marcy Ali, Najard,
34:34
Speaker 1: Nazanin Boniardi, and Hamad a Smile. I don't know if
34:37
Speaker 1: there's anyone else, but these are just a group of
34:41
Speaker 1: leaders who have been prominent in the Iranian revolution from
34:46
Speaker 1: outside of Iran. They will have a different role. One
34:49
Speaker 1: of them as a German journalist, one's a former prince,
34:52
Speaker 1: one is an actress, one is the guy who lost
34:56
Speaker 1: his wife and child when the flight seven five two
35:01
Speaker 1: was shot down by the Islamic Republic. So they have
35:05
Speaker 1: come together to form an opposition to the Islamic Republic.
35:09
Speaker 1: So now what's happening is that you're having events that
35:14
Speaker 1: are being held where instead of like every year, the
35:17
Speaker 1: EU will invite whatever whatever, instead of inviting the Islamic Republic,
35:21
Speaker 1: now they're inviting the opposition, the coalition, and that is
35:26
Speaker 1: a big sign to the world that there's now an
35:29
Speaker 1: alternative to the Islamic Republic and they're taking that seriously. Wow, Okay, yeah,
35:37
Speaker 1: that's fantastic. I know, pretty great. I mean that was
35:44
Speaker 1: the one thing that was missing this whole time was
35:46
Speaker 1: a leader, right, and now we have a coalition of leaders. Right.
35:50
Speaker 1: That's phenomenal. So one thing we've been talking about on
35:56
Speaker 1: this show is what are some things that we could
35:59
Speaker 1: do as people on the outside. Well, it's interesting because
36:04
Speaker 1: everything that we've achieved so far is really just because
36:08
Speaker 1: we've managed to keep eyes on iron. You know, everything
36:13
Speaker 1: that we've done has just been the success of international attention,
36:18
Speaker 1: And people don't realize how much this makes a difference.
36:22
Speaker 1: I mean, when I'm talking about attention, literally watching a
36:26
Speaker 1: video all the way through increases engagement, even if you
36:30
Speaker 1: didn't do anything, Even if you just watched it and
36:32
Speaker 1: kept scrolling, you did something right, You boosted the algorithm.
36:36
Speaker 1: If you downloaded it, you boosted the algorithm. If you
36:38
Speaker 1: shared it, you boosted the algorithm. If you commented something,
36:41
Speaker 1: you boosted the algorithm. So awareness has dramatically changed the
36:48
Speaker 1: landscape of everything that's happening in Iran right now. Of course,
36:51
Speaker 1: there's more that you can do. You know, you can
36:53
Speaker 1: sign the petitions, You can call your representatives. You know,
36:57
Speaker 1: you can call your representatives and ask them to coospond
36:59
Speaker 1: to them to act, which is an act that sanctions
37:02
Speaker 1: the regime's leaders. Like there's always if you're following accounts
37:07
Speaker 1: of Iranian activists, there's always going to be things that
37:10
Speaker 1: they can get you to physically do. But I think
37:12
Speaker 1: people underestimate how much they're doing by just keeping their
37:15
Speaker 1: eyes on the subject, not looking away. Not scrolling, you know,
37:19
Speaker 1: staying engaged. By just engaging, you're keeping eyes on Iron
37:23
Speaker 1: and with that attention, we have managed to achieve so much,
37:27
Speaker 1: and we will be able to continue achieving so much.
37:30
Speaker 1: That's a lot and I'm glad you can let us
37:32
Speaker 1: know because there's so much like you just don't know
37:35
Speaker 1: what you can do from the outside, especially when people
37:38
Speaker 1: are disconnected, as Iranian regime has done a great job
37:42
Speaker 1: in trying to disconnect at the outside world from what's
37:45
Speaker 1: happening inside, including the people. Obviously they're not doing a
37:49
Speaker 1: great job because we still do still like you, I
37:52
Speaker 1: also think right, but I also think it's important to
37:56
Speaker 1: give people tasks that they can actually do because you know,
38:00
Speaker 1: if people say, oh, what we can can we do
38:02
Speaker 1: and we say like, oh, well, you know, get on
38:03
Speaker 1: the bus and go to DC, and it's like, okay,
38:06
Speaker 1: well people are not going to do that. So if
38:08
Speaker 1: we give everyone in the world or everyone who has
38:11
Speaker 1: access to a smartphone whatever and Instagram TikTok, like a
38:15
Speaker 1: very simple task of like, hey, if you see a
38:17
Speaker 1: name video on Iron Watch all the way to the end, yes,
38:21
Speaker 1: like just leave a comment like love this, so share
38:25
Speaker 1: it if you feel really compelled share it, download it.
38:28
Speaker 1: You know, that's something where people can feel like they're
38:32
Speaker 1: making a difference without having to you know, take them
38:35
Speaker 1: outside of their comfort zone, right right, which honestly though
38:40
Speaker 1: we should be able to go outside of our comfort zone.
38:42
Speaker 1: But you know, that's a whole different, whole different conversation.
38:47
Speaker 1: I just want to meet people where they're at. I
38:50
Speaker 1: love that you are that, Yes, we need more people
38:53
Speaker 1: like you, But I'm like, why are you doing it?
38:55
Speaker 1: I get that what's wrong with you? But you know,
39:02
Speaker 1: some of the other things that we talked about, especially
39:03
Speaker 1: when it comes to our government in the outside government
39:06
Speaker 1: and having the government do something bigger, Can we as
39:09
Speaker 1: citizens do something to encourage our own people, our own
39:13
Speaker 1: representatives to be more involved, or what can we do
39:16
Speaker 1: to get that push? So there's a few things we
39:20
Speaker 1: would laugh to Biden administration to increase sanctions against the
39:24
Speaker 1: Islamic Republic, so putting pressure on this administration to do that.
39:29
Speaker 1: We need to get the IRGC on the EU terrorist list,
39:34
Speaker 1: so we're putting pressure on the EU to do that.
39:38
Speaker 1: And we have you know, political prisoners that we are
39:42
Speaker 1: trying to get released, like too, Marge, who's the biggest
39:45
Speaker 1: rapper in Iran. So we have like our free to
39:48
Speaker 1: Marge campaign, so we like, we want to get people
39:51
Speaker 1: to repost free to Marge hashtag free to Marge, post
39:54
Speaker 1: is picture is content whatever. And then there's the Master Act,
39:59
Speaker 1: which I mentioned, which is an act that sanctions the
40:03
Speaker 1: regime's leaders. And we want to get people to call
40:07
Speaker 1: their representatives and ask them to co sponsor the Massa
40:11
Speaker 1: Act because that's something that they're gonna need to do
40:13
Speaker 1: in order for it to be enacted. So for the
40:16
Speaker 1: people who are ready to come out of that comfort zone. Yes,
40:20
Speaker 1: it's that on our list, right. That's sooth things, both
40:23
Speaker 1: things that can easily be done so easy if you
40:28
Speaker 1: have a smartphone and time. Yes, I think you exactly.
40:30
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty easy. Representative, you don't even have
40:33
Speaker 1: to speak to them. You won't speak to the representative.
40:35
Speaker 1: You'll just speak to some clerk that picks up. That's
40:39
Speaker 1: like interning. They'll be like, what are you talking about?
40:44
Speaker 1: That's what they always say to me, the Master Act
40:48
Speaker 1: And I'm like, no, Master like Massa Amni and they're
40:51
Speaker 1: like who oh no, yeah, wow, yeah that's again. Yes, sorry,
41:02
Speaker 1: you'll just call them and You're just going to speak
41:04
Speaker 1: to interms and don't worry, you know more than they do. Yeah,
41:09
Speaker 1: do you literally have to tell them that you're like Iran?
41:13
Speaker 1: You know, Middle East? Who state is that? That makes
41:22
Speaker 1: me so sad? I love because I'm just me every day. Basically,
41:31
Speaker 1: speaking of which one of the questions we often ask
41:34
Speaker 1: our guests, and I know you are a busy person,
41:38
Speaker 1: because we haven't even talked about what you do as
41:39
Speaker 1: a career, which is can be deflating and oftentimes so
41:42
Speaker 1: stressful as a criminal attorney in LA, especially fighting a
41:47
Speaker 1: system that's so set up to make people fail. A
41:51
Speaker 1: whole different conversation. But don't even get me started. I
41:56
Speaker 1: will don't get me started. What do you do between
42:00
Speaker 1: the vision and your work? How do you care for yourself? Oh?
42:04
Speaker 1: My god, I don't. That's the problem, I know. And
42:07
Speaker 1: this is why I'm sick. I mean, I'm literally like,
42:10
Speaker 1: I'm sick for the second time this year, and I
42:13
Speaker 1: was sick for all of January and I was just
42:16
Speaker 1: I think it's just because I'm so burnt out, like
42:19
Speaker 1: I've been going for like six months straight on this revolution,
42:23
Speaker 1: and before that I was still doing my TikTok stuff
42:25
Speaker 1: every day. Like through everything that was going on in America,
42:28
Speaker 1: I was like angry, and then the revolution happened and
42:31
Speaker 1: I was like very very angry. And then so I
42:35
Speaker 1: was just been producing content every day and then you know,
42:38
Speaker 1: going to work and I'm like literally in court and
42:42
Speaker 1: like tweeting or like in court and making a story
42:44
Speaker 1: and the judge is calling me and I'm like brb. Yeah.
42:50
Speaker 1: So I think I just got really burnt out. But
42:52
Speaker 1: now more recently I've actually gotten to the stage like
42:55
Speaker 1: because I got sick again and everything, like I was
42:57
Speaker 1: just like depressed and like emotionally burnt out. I got
43:01
Speaker 1: to the point where I'm like, Okay, I actually cannot
43:04
Speaker 1: do this to myself anymore because I'm just driving myself
43:07
Speaker 1: into the ground. So this past week, I've just like
43:10
Speaker 1: been in bed a week. This is the most that
43:12
Speaker 1: I've done this week. So that's and that's funny because
43:16
Speaker 1: you're not actually doing it trying to care for yourself
43:18
Speaker 1: as literally because you're sick and now you're on I know,
43:24
Speaker 1: this is this is this is the most that I've
43:27
Speaker 1: done this week, which is good because usually I would
43:30
Speaker 1: just be like morning tonight every day, and I just
43:33
Speaker 1: I stayed in bed all weekend because I mean, I
43:36
Speaker 1: actually couldn't get out of bed. It wasn't rus. I
43:43
Speaker 1: like that. You're trying to count it as with a
43:46
Speaker 1: fever in bed. Fine, I couldn't physically stand up. Aren't
43:54
Speaker 1: you proud of me? Self care? Self care? I did
43:59
Speaker 1: turn the can on, but I couldn't smell them. So well,
44:06
Speaker 1: then I think you need to take a page out
44:09
Speaker 1: of your cat's playbook and go get into a luxury
44:12
Speaker 1: bag for a while. Yeah, it was that seems like, Yeah,
44:19
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pretend like it's it's a luxury do that,
44:21
Speaker 1: do that virgin out out the part where I said
44:24
Speaker 1: flushion nova and just end it. Luxury bag we all need.
44:31
Speaker 1: But okay, so that means what we need to do
44:34
Speaker 1: is have you on in like six months so you
44:36
Speaker 1: can tell us what you've done to take a break
44:39
Speaker 1: for yourself. And you're gonna tell us something amazing because
44:42
Speaker 1: a part of the political unrest, as I believe from
44:46
Speaker 1: our week. We just did a great book club. In
44:49
Speaker 1: the book, they talk about how taking care of yourself
44:52
Speaker 1: is a part of the fighting against justice as well,
44:55
Speaker 1: because you're actually caring for yourself. And yeah, so that
44:58
Speaker 1: that's something that you need to remember because you can't
45:00
Speaker 1: help anybody when you're feverie in bed for weeks at
45:04
Speaker 1: a time. I know. Yeah, well, you know, that's just
45:06
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where you don't realize until
45:09
Speaker 1: it catches up with you. Right. So it's about taking
45:11
Speaker 1: the breaks when you don't think you need them, right,
45:14
Speaker 1: you know exactly, like you feel like, oh, I'm okay,
45:16
Speaker 1: I'm good to go. Like that's the time where you're like, nope,
45:18
Speaker 1: I've scheduled a break. I'm going to take a break
45:20
Speaker 1: so that I don't get burnt out. That's the hard
45:23
Speaker 1: that's the hard part. So I'm going to cut this
45:25
Speaker 1: club and then send it to you every two weeks
45:28
Speaker 1: on your tech talk to remind you. This is what
45:31
Speaker 1: you sall me with your own words, troll me with
45:37
Speaker 1: my own words. That's my dream, hopefully accountable. Oh my god,
45:41
Speaker 1: I need to I need to see it. Yes, this
45:44
Speaker 1: is how I make friends by being their troll. This
45:46
Speaker 1: is what's going to happen, troll for their mental health.
45:49
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's great. That's a great title. You know.
45:56
Speaker 1: That'll be on my tombstone. I was a troll for
45:57
Speaker 1: their mental health is fine. That's a great, great legacy
46:00
Speaker 1: to have truth. Well, goodness, thanks for taking the time
46:08
Speaker 1: when you've been so sick to god show. I mean,
46:13
Speaker 1: you know that had to be done, had to be done,
46:16
Speaker 1: So thank you for having me though, even when I'm sick. Oh,
46:20
Speaker 1: we were thrilled to have you, and we had no
46:22
Speaker 1: idea you could do such a great job in covering
46:24
Speaker 1: that up. I don't know if that's a good thing though. Okay,
46:27
Speaker 1: I thought my voice was going to give it away,
46:29
Speaker 1: but apparently it's not that bad. Then. Well, we would
46:34
Speaker 1: love to have you back on in the future and
46:37
Speaker 1: years check in on your self care and what's going on.
46:41
Speaker 1: Hopefully by that time we can talk about three year on. Yeah. Yeah,
46:46
Speaker 1: how that's looking like we're gonna put that out there.
46:49
Speaker 1: We're gonna come with that. We're gonna go ahead and
46:52
Speaker 1: put that out in the universe. Yeah, you can be back.
46:54
Speaker 1: So you just you just got back from Tehran. What's
46:56
Speaker 1: it like out there now that everything's free? And I'll
46:59
Speaker 1: be like, girl, let me tell you, I'll I'll be
47:03
Speaker 1: showing it from Tehran because I'll be like, I'm not
47:05
Speaker 1: coming back yet. Exactly perfect, perfect from that. Yeah, me too,
47:12
Speaker 1: and we have to do it before and after, you know, yes, yes, well,
47:18
Speaker 1: in the meantime, where can our good listeners find you?
47:22
Speaker 1: You can find me. I'm Elka labon pretty much everywhere
47:26
Speaker 1: except the TikTok I'm Elka dot LBoN so Instagram at
47:30
Speaker 1: Elca Lebon, TikTok at Elka dot LBoN, Twitter at Elca
47:35
Speaker 1: Lebon and you know, whatever else, be the same thing, YouTube,
47:39
Speaker 1: whatever thing that comes up in the future, across the board,
47:45
Speaker 1: across the board. Just search me in your hats. Yeah, yes, well,
47:52
Speaker 1: I trust that the listeners know how the Internet works
47:55
Speaker 1: and how to search things. So I've always they've come
47:58
Speaker 1: this far, if they've comes spa yeah, now they listen
48:03
Speaker 1: to a podcast, they are already like leaps ahead on
48:07
Speaker 1: this internet to find me exactly right. Yes, well, listeners,
48:14
Speaker 1: please go do that. Go follow Elica wherever you can
48:19
Speaker 1: for amazing content, informative content, important content. Um, thank you
48:24
Speaker 1: again for being here with us. It was a delight.
48:27
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. Yes, oh, it
48:30
Speaker 1: was such a delight. We hope you feel better soon.
48:32
Speaker 1: Thank you, and rest for real. I'm going to rest, yes,
48:38
Speaker 1: Samantha will haunt you. Oh, please haunt me, Please haunt me.
48:43
Speaker 1: Yes and listeners. If you would like to find as
48:46
Speaker 1: you can our email stuff and your mom stuff at
48:49
Speaker 1: I hurtma dot com. You can find us on Twitter
48:50
Speaker 1: at most a podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at
48:53
Speaker 1: stuff Mom Never told You. Thanks as always to our
48:56
Speaker 1: super producer Christina. Thank you, Christina, and thanks to you
48:59
Speaker 1: for listening self whatever told you his protection of I
49:01
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more podcast in my heart Radio, you
49:03
Speaker 1: can check out the heart Radio app Apple Podcast wherever
49:05
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite show