Latest / Drawn of History / Erin Brockovich Tells the Story From Her Namesake Movie(M4A_128K)

Transcript

Erin Brockovich Tells the Story From Her Namesake Movie(M4A_128K) · Drawn of History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I know you, as probably most of people, a lot
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of people do, I know you as an environmentalist, right?
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Kind of a truth seeker, I guess I would say.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Like an activist.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: I guess?
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: How do you like to be?
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I never say activist because that's always like a connotation.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: I advocate for clearly people.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: What about the term like a consumer advocate? Is that
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: fair to say, kind of?
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: A people advocate.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, a people advocate. Me too. I feel like I
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: try my best to be.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: I do too.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: And for our listeners that don't know, how did you
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: get on this track, right? Like take me through your journey.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: You know, I know about the movie starring Julia Roberts
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: that was made about your life, Erin Brockovich. But take
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: us into the journey of like what happened to create
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: the story that led to the film? Like how did
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: your activism like lead to one of the largest settlements
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: at the time that it ever been? I think it
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: was like over $ 300 million.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: $ 333 million.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: 333 million that was awarded.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: At the time.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: At the time.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Now they're selling for like 33 billion.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: It's not to laugh at, but times have changed. Aaron
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: walked to the bank so they could run to it.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: That's for sure. So I want you to take us
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: through that journey for our listeners that don't know. Obviously,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: you had to care for the outdoors. How did that start?
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Well, I've always been an outdoor enthusiast. I was born
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: and raised in Kansas, and I love the outdoors. Everything
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: about it spoke to me. Mostly because I hated school.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: I sucked at school. And it took years before they
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: really understood I have dyslexia.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, you do?
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: I do.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Let's go do my friend has it.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: I'm a dyslexic.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Hell yeah.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Dude, you guys don't get any credit.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: And some of you shouldn't. But a lot of you
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: guys should, dude.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: You should.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: You know, interestingly enough, off topic, and I'll just say
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: it really quick. So I'm ambassador for Made by Dyslexia,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: run by Kate Griggs and Sir Richard Branson.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Who's also a dyslexic.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: No way.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Dude, we got to get a good dyslexic on here.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: You do. And they're everywhere.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I know, dude. Half of my friends are like, they
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: can't even complete a handshake. They're just not doing good.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: You know, it's like.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: We just like code differently. We have pattern recognition.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: But I didn't even know until I became ambassador for
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Made by Dyslexia that there's one billion dyslexics on the planet. No.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: One billion. One billion. One billion Ds in this world?
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: That's crazy. Let me see.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: A billion? Nuh-uh. I'm saying that's ridiculous. Yeah. I got
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: to learn a little bit more about this. So take
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: me through, you know, your journey or experience as like
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: a human advocate, like as an environmentalist, you know. Can
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: you just take us through that so that for our
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: listeners that don't know?
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: So... I have to say I think I was as
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: surprised as anybody else, honestly. So how it happened was
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: as I grew up in Kansas, went to school at
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Kansas State, then I went to a design school in Texas,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: and then I moved to California. I ended up being
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: a regional manager for Kmart.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: And it wasn't my favorite job, and then I ended
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: up working at Fleur Engineers and Constructors.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: So I was raised by an engineer. It was kind
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: of fun for me.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: I like to create things, et cetera, et cetera, even
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: though everybody always told me I couldn't do anything, you know,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: with the dyslexia. Oh, yeah. But I always pushed against that.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: So I'm one that pushes against these things.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: So out of the gate, that dyslexia might have gave
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: you that edge, like, ah, I can still do it.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: I was born.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: Don't put me in a box because I will get
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: out and I will kick and scream the whole way there.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: That's one of my traits. I'm like, yeah, no, I don't.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: None of us like it. I don't like being labeled.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: I don't like being judged. I don't like being put
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: in a box.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Mine's like it.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: I'm like, fuck off. I mean, that's just my motto. Wait,
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: what's your motto? Fuck off.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good motto.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: Fuck it, fuck you, fuck off.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Dude, that's the best motto. That should become our national
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: anthem in this fucking country, to be honest with you.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: But I'm an F-dropper bomb, so I hope that doesn't
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: offend anybody.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll pick them up at the end of the show. Okay,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: so you got the dyslexia, you got the spirit, you
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: got what you need.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: That's right. So I go through all this process. I
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: end up getting married. That was the biggest mistake of
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: my life. Three times over. And had children and got
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: in a car wreck in Reno, Nevada and moved down
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: to California. Met an attorney by the name of Jim Vitito,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: who was Ed Mazury's partner. So Ed Mazury was the
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: attorney in the film. And we had a trial and
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: I lost. The jury told me to get a job.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: You had a trial for what? Oh, for the auto accident?
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: For the auto accident.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, got it.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: And we lost.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: And of course, you know, the lawyers told me we're
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: going to win all kinds of money and make this
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: right by you, Aaron.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: That did not happen.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: So I went back to Ed Mazury and I said,
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: you promised me things would be okay.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: And they weren't. And I need a job.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: So Ed gave me a job.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: So in the beginning of the film, Aaron Brockovich, you'll
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: see her doing all these interviews and And, of course,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: I'd been a single mom and I was turned down
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: for every job.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: But I had Ed cornered. You promised me something.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: Pay up, Eddie.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: And I showed up.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Pay up, Eddie.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: It's that power of stick-to-itiveness that I talk about.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: When you show up, things are different.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: And see, that's something.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: And we'll get into that in a minute. I don't
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: want to jump ahead of it. But that's what's going
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: on right now in this country. People are showing up.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: And I love it because I'm watching it.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: We all are, especially with the data centers. We're united, bipartisan.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: And when we get united, we change things.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Things can happen.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: And I love it.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Amen. I love that.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: And so that's what happened. I showed up with Ed.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I ended up getting a job starting in the workers'
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: compensation department.
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: I like people.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: I'm a people person. I'm a chatty person. I want
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: to know about you, what's going on in your life.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: That seems odd. So I was a perfect fit in
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: the workers' compensation department. So one day, Ed came into
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: the office, just like you see in the film, with
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: a big archive box of files.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Got it. And the movie's Erin Brockovich. For people that
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: haven't seen it, you can go watch it.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: It's starring Julia Roberts.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Starring Julia Roberts.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: And Albert Finney.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: And Albert Finney. Oh, great actors.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: Known for her great push-up bra.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, look. You know, I'd hold them in place. You
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying? I'd donate my hands to Hanes
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: or whoever made that thing and let them just, you know,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: I'd be the wiring in that thing, baby. Anyway, let's
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: move on.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: I had to giggle when the film came out.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I'm like, that's what you got out of the film
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: was the push-up bra, not what happened to the people.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: You got to bait and you got to get them
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: on the hook.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: You do.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: So they were on the hook.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: So you're working in workman's comp?
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: So I was working in workers' comp, and then Ed
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: brought a box in to me that was a PI case,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: a personal injury case. And he said, do you know
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: how to open a personal injury file? I had not
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: a clue what I was doing, but I said, sure,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: I know how to open it. So when I started
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: to go through the file, I'm like, okay, so I've
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: now put myself out here.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: I don't know what I'm doing. I better learn what
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: I'm doing.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Got it.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: I started reading the files. Inside this file box were
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: medical records.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, and it's just one of the files that's like
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: in the box?
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was just everything about a personal injury case
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: was thrown in a box. And what kind of made
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: me go, well, that's odd, is there were real estate
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: records in there. I'm like, why are real estate records
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: and medical files in the same box? Yeah. And the
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: reason for that was to jump ahead and I'll go
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: right back.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: Unbeknownst to me at.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: The time, Pacific Gas and Electric was a utility company
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: trying to buy Roberta Walker's property.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Okay. And Roberta Walker was one of the plaintiffs. One
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: of the plaintiffs.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Got it.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: And so she had contacted Ed. Because PG & E
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: was trying to buy her house. And so she just
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: threw everything into a box. As a matter of fact,
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Roberta kept everything in a suitcase. So it all just
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: got thrown in a box. So I like, you know,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: I like a challenge. So I'm pulling everything out of
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: the box, making my little piles. But I was curious
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: about the medical records because they were of children.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Hmm.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: And everything was done in a bar graph, so all
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: their T cells were off, their white cells were off,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: their red counts were too high. Now, I'm a mom,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: and I'm thinking to myself, God, if I saw blood
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: tests like this on my kids, what the fuck is this?
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: You'd be spooked.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: And so I started researching it.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: More, and it was leading me to cancer and diseases.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: So I asked Ed if I could go out to Hinkley, California,
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: which he was thrilled to let me go. Nobody in
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: the office liked me. I annoyed everybody. My skirts were
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: too short. My attitude sucked. My bras were showing and
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: nobody wanted me around.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: So it was like, score, get out of here and go.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: That's classic.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: So off I went to Hinkley, California.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: And the reason why, so just to get a little
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: bit clearer, so in this box, in this box, This
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: woman had hired the attorney for what purpose?
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: To settle a real estate claim.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Okay. So that's why the initial hiring was there. But
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: then there was all these other records in there. Why
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: was a Pacific and gas trying to buy her house?
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Because Roberta was onto something and they had water issues
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: and PG and E was holding these town hall meetings,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: trying to convince everybody that there was nothing wrong with
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: the water. Now I'll tell you something I've learned. Ever
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: since I began Hinkley. You piss off one mom and
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: you pissed off Roberta and they've got great instincts and
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: they think you're lying to them. They're going to go
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: find 10 other fucking pissed off moms and they're going
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: to actually use these instincts and they will come at you.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: And so these moms were getting upset.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Hell yeah.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: And they knew it was just that moment.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: It's time for moms to get upset.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: And they've got this hunch, this instinct, this intuition. And
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: they make it their job to find out because you've
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: harmed their child. Yeah.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: And they don't believe you.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: And so that was the first clue for me, even
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: in the files, talking to Roberta on the phone before
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: I ever met her. Something was going on. And, you know,
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: I have learned I always listen and believe the people.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: And people will show up, but somebody else tells them.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: And when I first even started my work in Hinkley,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: I was getting the, you're not a doctor.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: You're not a lawyer. You're not a scientist. You're not
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: a politician.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Like, so what do you do and why are you
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: here and why should we believe you? And I had
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: a moment where I was gobsmacked. I'm like, it never
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: dawned on me that I had to be any of that. Right.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: All you have to be really is just a curious baddie.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: And to be a human and to tell you those
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: two headed frogs and the green water coming out of
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: your tap is fucked up and I'm not leaving.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: That's what happened.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: I'm not leaving until these frogs have one head again.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: So if y'all think that's normal, I'm sorry. You call
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: me crazy.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: There's so much of that gas. I'm like, You see
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: that all the time, even just like about podcasters talking
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: with people like you're not a politician. You're not like
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: a science science or you're not an astronomer. Stop talking. Yeah,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: because you're none of those. And I'm like, bitch, but
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: I'm fucking curious and I'm fucking loud.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: How about that?
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. And you know what?
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Curiosity is a good thing. Yeah, it can oftentimes get
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: you in trouble. But sometimes it's quite surprising where it
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: might lead you.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Well, it just, I don't know. It's not, things should
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: be fair. But I think if things are fair, people
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: can operate from a place of comfort, of peace, and
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: a place that gives them more autonomy.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: If things are fair. Like, I know that there's going
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: to be, like, setbacks in life, and some people aren't
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: going to have the same advantages and disadvantages, and people
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: are going to have disadvantages and stuff like that, and
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: some people are going to be born in less, like, circumstances.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: But overall, if you could, I don't know. And I
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: guess things are never fair, but it's like, I don't know.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: That's something I think that a lot of people try
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: and fight for is things should be fair. You should
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: be able to raise your kids in a healthy enough environment,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: you know?
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: You know, that's a great word, fair.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: And in Hinkley, what I have learned over 30 years
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: is people and communities always handle the truth.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: They won't handle the lie. That lie is unfair.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: And when they're not told the truth, it's unfair that
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: they have to suck up the consequences of that lie.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: So fair is an interesting word. And they were being
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: treated unfairly.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Unfairly. Well, there's a lot of transparency issues now. We're
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: going to get into some of that in a bit.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: But all right. So you get out to Hinkley, California.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: And what's popping out there?
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: So all the trees are dying. I'm out there.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: First of all, when I'm boots on the ground, and
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: that's what I like to do. I'm out there generally barefoot.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: I feel things. I connect to nature.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: And the moment I was there, I could feel something
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: was wrong. You can just feel it.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: We're energy. Water's energy. An environment that's damaged, it's energy.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: But the trees were dead. The cows were covered in tumors.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: People were reporting really bizarre things to me. They themselves
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: had these chronic headaches, skin rashes, constant nosebleeds. Yeah. The
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: fish had tumors on their body. The frogs had two heads.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: And the water was green.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Are you serious?
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: I'm serious.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: The frogs had two heads.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: Two heads.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Bring up one of them. Well, two of them.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: You got a two-headed frog on there?
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Hey, you want to see this two-headed frog? That's
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of pedophiles used to have stuff like that.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: You can see, like, so there's other chemicals that can
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: cause frogs to.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: Have two heads.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, look at the second one. That one is.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: They had two heads.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: That one has dyslexia. Look at that one.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I could believe that because definitely, I've
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: been told before, you have two heads.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Sorry to laugh at my own joke, but I thought
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: that was.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: Two different brains colliding together.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: That was pretty good, I thought, based on the looks
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: of that one.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: But it was stunning. I'm from Kansas. I don't see
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: this shit in Kansas.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Well, that's probably because the nature was a little bit
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: more like... I mean, if you're heading out to California,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: it's a place where there's a lot more probably industry
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: going on and things could be a little bit more damaged,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: you know, because there's... But in Kansas, you were probably
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: coming from a purer environment, I'm guessing.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: I was.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: And also, dude, I remember a time in our town,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: like people couldn't whistle for like two months or something.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: And maybe it was something in the air or something
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: was going on. You know, we had a long, what's
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: it called when the moon and the sun cross each other?
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: Eclipse? Yeah. Yeah.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: We had an eclipse one time. I swear that thing
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: lasted probably three days over there and people couldn't whistle.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: You couldn't hail a taxi for probably, you know, for
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: half a week over there.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: I've been down in Louisiana.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: I spent six, eight weeks down there on the, Down
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: in the bayou with the whole BP oil spill.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, did you really? We'll get into some of that. Okay.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: So you get out to Hinkley. You're seeing all these
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: things going on.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: By the time I finally got Ed to go out
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: there with me, he did not know.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Who PG & E was.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: So we're driving along. He goes, okay, so kid, let's
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: go over this. And I've seen all the stuff you've
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: brought back. PG & E is a water utility.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: I'm like, what? He goes, yeah. I go, and I'm
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: from Kansas, and I know who PG & E is.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: They're a ginormous utility. He's like, what?
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: So that's how the whole thing began. And so it
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: was through my record search at the water board, that's
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: when I started discovering in writing reports that the area
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: was contaminated with a chemical called known as hexavalent chromium. Wow.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Bring it up. Let me see it right there. Hinkley
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Groundwater Contamination, PG & E, Pacific Gas and Electric, used
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: chromium-6 or hexavalent chromium, a cheap and efficient rust suppressor.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: In its compressor station for natural gas transmission pipelines, hexavalent
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: chromium compounds are genotoxic carcinogens.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Hmm.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: What does that mean, genotoxic?
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: And they're mutagenic. They can affect the genes.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: And they can be passed on? Correct. Oh, my gosh.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: And you can see trisomy 7 and different diseases like
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: that in the children. See, and I was seeing a
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: pattern of nasal pharyngeal cancer, throat cancer, lung cancer, kidney cancer.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Got it.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: So as I started, we could— at this point, getting a
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: year into it, Ed can clearly see what's going on.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Now— What had happened with PG & E was, again,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: as I said earlier, they were holding like these town
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: hall meetings and they were telling everybody. And again, talk
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: about unfair. They were telling everybody that it was chromium
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: in their water, which is a natural element and it's
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: good for you. You can find it in your breakfast cereal.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: They weren't telling him that it was hexavalent chromium and
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: it was a poison. Damn.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: And so as all.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: This data started getting put together and I put together
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: what I call a hot doc book. So as a dyslexic,
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: I'm here and I don't take numbers in the environment
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: like 5 ppm and calculate forward. I always calculate backwards.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: And I needed to go find those higher numbers in time.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: to prove what they had been exposed to over 20,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: 30 years. Wow. So as I started getting into my
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: record searches, I create these hot dog books, which is
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: like almost a trial notebook, which I'm just doing instinctually
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: because I'm just trying to put the pieces together myself.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Trying to make it make sense to you.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Wow. Yes. And by doing that, you're putting together a
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: great case.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, unbeknownst to me.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Got it.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: And, you know, I was just out there every day
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: of my life. I was like, nah, this doesn't make
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: sense to me. And this was a huge cover-up. And
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: this is where I've said, you know, people would have
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: dealt with the truth. Hey, we need to get you
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: out of here.
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: We're poisoning you.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: But it was the lie that becomes so insidious that
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: you just drag him through that. But once Ed realized
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: this was a lawsuit, he had to go hire a
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: couple more attorneys because he was about broke borrowing money
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: against his house.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: To keep things going. Wow.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: So he started to believe in it that much? That much.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah. And so he found two other law firms.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: That was Engstrom Lipscomb and Lack was the head attorneys there.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: And we had a lawsuit and we had six had 634.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: Plaintiffs and it was filed as a direct action, not
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: a class action. Because in a direct action, everybody's damages
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: were different. Some people were closer to the PG &
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: E facility where they had higher readings in their wells.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Some were further away where we couldn't prove that the
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: plume had gone through yet.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: So we filed a direct action.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: And just to go back real quick, the hexa.
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: Hexavalent.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Hexavalent chromium. What was it in there? It was in
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: there to prevent rust from the pipes from rusting?
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: It's an anti-rust inhibitor. So it was a gas compressor facility.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: So actually there was other cases that I went and
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: backtracked and found later. But from Topoc, California, they're pushing
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: and pulling natural gas out of Texas. And then it
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: would go from Topoc, California to Barstow. And then in Barstow,
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: it would get pushed and pulled up to Kettleman. And
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: so think of it like the engine of your car.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: And these facilities are big, huge piston engines pushing and
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: pulling this gas through. And so they have to run
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: water through the system so it doesn't cease to operate. Wow.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: And these chemicals have, like chromium-6 is an anti-rust inhibitor
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: because if you don't have it, rust will corrode the pipes, right?
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: And then they would take all the used materials water
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: through the system and dump it into unlined ponds.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: So it goes right back into the soil.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: Right back into the aquifer.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Right back into the what?
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: Aquifer, the water zone.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And now I see how this, the data centers
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: came on your radar because that's sort of the same thing.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: They're using this, there's a similar thing that kind of
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: happens is they use so much water to cool off
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: what's going on. So I just, now I kind of
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: correlate like, okay, This makes perfect sense why her involvement.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: There's a whole lot of things about data centers.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: And I know we'll get there. I'll stay on your pace.
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: That set me off. And that, that was one of them. Yeah.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: And we will, we're almost, we're almost to data centers.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: But what, what was, what was one of the toughest
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: parts about going after a company that big? Like, did
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: you start to get scared? Did you personally get scared?
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Was there times you were laying in bed at night
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and be like, they, somebody might try to take you out.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Like how heavy did it get really?
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: People brought that up, and I didn't kind of go
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: there until one day. I was stealing toxic hazardous waste off-site.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: You were stealing it?
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, you were pulling up somewhere that had it?
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: Oh, I'm a bad guy.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: I'm stealing the toxic hazardous waste.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: To have evidence.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Got it.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Okay, so I'm sorry I stole your two-headed frog and
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: a bunch of green fucking soil.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: Sue me. So PG & E called the cops, and
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: I was going to get arrested.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: I'm standing with my two-headed frog and my little file,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: you know, my little, what do you call it, igloo,
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: because I knew to keep things cool.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: I had my chain of custody, writing everything down.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: You really had one in an igloo. Yeah.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: So I called.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: I'm like, are you arresting me? I said, can I
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: at least call my attorney? So I called Ed. Ed goes,
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: wait a minute. You're going to arrest her for what?
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: And they're telling him.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: He goes, you know what?
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Let him.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: Do it. And I'm going, what the fuck?
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Then it's on file.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: What the fuck, Ed? Anyway, he said, you do it.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: You do it because it's going to be headline news
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: that I want you to arrest this girl for what?
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: Stealing two-headed frogs from a polluted site? Do it.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: And they let me go. And I call Ed and
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: I'm like, are you really going to have me arrested?
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: He goes, oh, hell yeah.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: I would have had you out in five minutes. So, kiddo,
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: don't worry about it. Wow.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: What a journey. So. And how did he work afterwards
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: with the plaintiffs? So the plaintiffs? There was over $ 330
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: million awarded, and that was divided up between the different
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: families at certain amounts, et cetera?
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so done as a direct action. So people who
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: live way out from a plume boundary received awards for
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: fear of cancer versus the people that lived there 35
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: years right next to the facility that were exposed to
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: high levels that had cancer. Wow. And so the judges
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: made all those rulings based on the facts surrounding their
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: particular case. Oh, wow.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: That's pretty amazing. What a journey, huh? Did you know
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: at the time that it was going to become such
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: a big thing? You had no idea?
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: No. Wow. None. It was just one of those moments
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: for me that It just didn't make sense to me.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: And it just wasn't right. And I felt bad for
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: the people. And listen, they became my family. I mean,
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: half of the group up there helped potty train my
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: youngest daughter, Elizabeth. And I loved them. And it just
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: didn't make sense.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah.