Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: Fauci's Secret COVID Diaries, Ben Sasse on Dying Well & the Left's Attack on Motherhood

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Normally Podcast: Fauci's Secret COVID Diaries, Ben Sasse on Dying Well & the Left's Attack on Motherhood · Normally

0:07
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, we are back on normally the show with Normal,
0:09
Speaker 1: which takes for when the news gets weird. I am
0:11
Speaker 1: Mary Catherine Ham and I am here today with my
0:14
Speaker 1: friend Bethany Mandel. She's a co author with Carol Markowitz
0:19
Speaker 1: of Stolen Youth, which you can get anywhere and you
0:22
Speaker 1: still should, and she writes everywhere and does everything, and
0:27
Speaker 1: here she is Bethany.
0:28
Speaker 2: Welcome. Thanks. Folks can find me like podcasting normally, yes,
0:33
Speaker 2: at the mom Wars and I'm not as responsible as
0:37
Speaker 2: you guys and have not been recording lately, but I
0:39
Speaker 2: have been lately, so people should go check that out.
0:41
Speaker 2: Check it out, check it out.
0:44
Speaker 1: I just got back from the Great Camp drop off
0:47
Speaker 1: and pick up of two thousand twenty six. So how's
0:52
Speaker 1: yours going? Have you sent away children?
0:56
Speaker 2: So my older two are gone, my third is joining
0:59
Speaker 2: them in a week, and I'm so sad. I miss
1:01
Speaker 2: my oldest daughter. Do I miss my oldest son?
1:04
Speaker 1: Not?
1:04
Speaker 2: Really? For just being honest. Is it mutual? Yeah, it's
1:08
Speaker 2: very mutual. It's like I'm good. Yeah, we were both
1:11
Speaker 2: kind and it's funny. You remember when he was a baby,
1:14
Speaker 2: he was glued to me, and I don't like something
1:18
Speaker 2: happened when he hit like nine or ten years old
1:20
Speaker 2: that he's like, I have no use for this woman.
1:22
Speaker 2: And I'm not so desperate. I have five other children.
1:26
Speaker 2: I'm like, you know what, fine, you don't need me.
1:28
Speaker 2: I don't need you. No.
1:30
Speaker 1: This I'd openly tell my older children. I'm like, look,
1:33
Speaker 1: you're both gonna decide that you don't like me, and
1:36
Speaker 1: I'm going to have these littles who still like me.
1:38
Speaker 2: That's what we're gonna do. He little boys like me
1:40
Speaker 2: very much.
1:41
Speaker 1: My second you'll recognize this behavior in her. I dropped
1:45
Speaker 1: her off. We dropped her off at camp for sleep
1:47
Speaker 1: boy camp, and she's with her cousin but not with
1:49
Speaker 1: her sister, and on her bunk, she has a picture
1:53
Speaker 1: of her siblings in her for her week that she's gone.
1:57
Speaker 2: I love it. My younger daughter is breathed about the
2:02
Speaker 2: loss of her older sister. She's just laying in bed,
2:05
Speaker 2: moaning her name, looking at pictures of her. I looked
2:08
Speaker 2: up this morning at six am. When I woke up,
2:10
Speaker 2: I was like, could I send her next year? Like I,
2:13
Speaker 2: she's just she can't handle being away from her sister.
2:16
Speaker 2: But I can't send her next year. So I'm just
2:18
Speaker 2: I'm I'm going to pay for it next year with her.
2:20
Speaker 2: She's she's so sad. There are right now, have a
2:23
Speaker 2: French exchange. She didn't stay with us in part so
2:26
Speaker 2: that she can have there you go an older sister of.
2:29
Speaker 1: Sorry, it's a girl, she's a galpal okay, Oh, let's
2:33
Speaker 1: get to the news. There are new diary entries from
2:38
Speaker 1: Anthony Fauci released by Rand Paul as part of his
2:42
Speaker 1: congressional investigation into what the heck Anthony Fauci was doing
2:47
Speaker 1: during twenty twenty and how much power he had and
2:50
Speaker 1: how many bad decisions he made and how many people
2:53
Speaker 1: he smeared and how.
2:53
Speaker 2: Many lies he told? And I will tell you so.
2:57
Speaker 1: I didn't realize we were going to get access to
3:00
Speaker 1: Anthony Fauci's Regina George journal at some point. But the
3:06
Speaker 1: burn book is fascinating. It's unclear to me exactly how
3:09
Speaker 1: this came to light, because it could have been subpoenaed,
3:12
Speaker 1: it could have been voluntarily handed over. I guess it
3:14
Speaker 1: could have been Floyd if this was official work. But
3:17
Speaker 1: this is official work. Why were you writing this down?
3:19
Speaker 2: My dude? Anyway?
3:21
Speaker 1: Let me, Shelley, just give us an introduction to the.
3:26
Speaker 2: Before you do that? Isn't it crazy that he keeps
3:29
Speaker 2: a diary? So when our friend Lindsay Fifield had this
3:32
Speaker 2: whole saga with Graham Platner, yes, I was making fun
3:36
Speaker 2: of her so much because I was like, Lindsay, you
3:37
Speaker 2: are the only person in the twenty twenties who keeps
3:39
Speaker 2: a handwritten diary. And she's in good company, apparently, her
3:43
Speaker 2: and Anthony Fauci.
3:46
Speaker 1: His His is rather an indictment of her him instead
3:49
Speaker 1: of Lindsay's being So I'm not sure the lesson should
3:52
Speaker 1: we be keeping handwritten diaries? I'm not so sure. So
3:54
Speaker 1: what did Fauci say? Okay, so this is from the
3:57
Speaker 1: New York post piece. I believe the former Chief White
4:01
Speaker 1: House Medical Advisor Ancy Fauci was keenly aware of the
4:03
Speaker 1: media's interest in him early on the COVID nineteen pandemic
4:07
Speaker 1: and considered some of the attention quote flattering. According to
4:09
Speaker 1: diary entries released by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky over
4:13
Speaker 1: the weekend, Paul published more than a thousand pages of
4:16
Speaker 1: Fauci's diary entries.
4:17
Speaker 2: And this is this is.
4:19
Speaker 1: Grimly the end of an entry that starts with a
4:23
Speaker 1: death tallly of those who are dying in the US
4:27
Speaker 1: and ends with this press is going wild with me
4:31
Speaker 1: front page in the Washington Post yesterday and ap ed
4:34
Speaker 1: by Maureen dud in New York Times today about me
4:37
Speaker 1: and my relationship with Potus. Profile by Peter Nicholas on
4:40
Speaker 1: me in The Atlantic. I am trying in several articles
4:43
Speaker 1: and on TV to clarify that Potis is talking about
4:46
Speaker 1: hope for therapies although there are no good data, while
4:49
Speaker 1: I must stick to science and so fundamentally we are
4:51
Speaker 1: approaching this from different but not conflicting standpoints. This is
4:54
Speaker 1: March twenty second, twenty twenty, when we're all supposed to
4:58
Speaker 1: be panicking, but Anthony Fausci is taking them clips down.
5:04
Speaker 2: He is a sociopath. You can only take that conclusion
5:09
Speaker 2: from that. He is an actual sociopath. Do you remember
5:12
Speaker 2: I read this book. I told you about it at
5:15
Speaker 2: the time, but it was like years ago. I read
5:17
Speaker 2: this book from someone who wrote about his sexual abuse,
5:21
Speaker 2: and in the book he became like really consumed with
5:24
Speaker 2: all the media that he was getting about when he
5:26
Speaker 2: came out with it right, And I went into that
5:30
Speaker 2: book thinking I'm going to write about it. I'm going
5:32
Speaker 2: to review it. I think I was thinking about blurbing it,
5:35
Speaker 2: and I read that portion of it where he talks
5:39
Speaker 2: about all of the attention he's getting, and I walked
5:43
Speaker 2: away and I was like, Oh, this person is a
5:45
Speaker 2: sociopath and I'm never speaking to him again. I will
5:48
Speaker 2: not be blurbing or reviewing. I will be putting this
5:51
Speaker 2: book down and slowly backing away. And that's someone who
5:54
Speaker 2: I had like liked before that, and that was my impression.
5:59
Speaker 2: I feel this about Anthony Facci. Hearing those I will
6:03
Speaker 2: say it's okay. So here's another one.
6:05
Speaker 1: March twenty six to twenty twenty starts with a global
6:07
Speaker 1: death count and a US death talent count. Continued pressure
6:12
Speaker 1: regarding Potus's aspirational goal of wanting to open up on
6:15
Speaker 1: Easter Sunday and then at the end crazy Crazy Donuts
6:20
Speaker 1: are being named after me. T shirts have my picture
6:23
Speaker 1: on them and are being sold. San Francisco Radio is
6:26
Speaker 1: dedicating a song to me, Curtis Mayfield singing, keep on Pushing,
6:29
Speaker 1: coloring pictures with crayons for my picture. FaceTime with Trevor Noah.
6:33
Speaker 1: Instagram was Steph Curry.
6:36
Speaker 2: So here's the question. How did this get out? Because
6:39
Speaker 2: no one in their right mind would release this knowingly.
6:43
Speaker 2: But this man is not in his right mind know.
6:45
Speaker 1: So if but yes, if he has a personality disorder
6:48
Speaker 1: of some kind like he he might think this is fine.
6:52
Speaker 2: I don't know.
6:53
Speaker 1: I would hope that he was forced to let this
6:56
Speaker 1: information out, but we don't know. There are also instances
7:01
Speaker 1: where it's very clear that he was having that early
7:04
Speaker 1: conference call about the origin of yes COVID, and he
7:10
Speaker 1: even he was of the mind at that point that
7:12
Speaker 1: it had not come from the wet market, and yet
7:15
Speaker 1: he maintained in public it had.
7:17
Speaker 2: There are various times throughout the diary where he's saying
7:20
Speaker 2: privately that the death rate is much smaller than he
7:23
Speaker 2: was saying in public. So the thing that bothers me
7:26
Speaker 2: actually the most of what he ever did or said.
7:29
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of contenders, but I think
7:32
Speaker 2: if I'm going to rank them, it's he knew that
7:36
Speaker 2: the cloth masks were not protective, right, and he lied
7:41
Speaker 2: about it. That is that is also sociopathic, because this
7:47
Speaker 2: was a virus that killed people. It's not like it
7:49
Speaker 2: was nothing, and he gave people the false belief that
7:53
Speaker 2: putting a bandana on their face was protective. I still,
7:57
Speaker 2: in the Year of Our Lord twenty twenty six, still
8:00
Speaker 2: see people in Montgomery County, Maryland walking around with cloth
8:03
Speaker 2: masks on, and it makes me want to scream and
8:06
Speaker 2: cry because I'm like, obviously, there's something wrong with you,
8:10
Speaker 2: either physically or mentally, and that cloth mask is not
8:14
Speaker 2: helping you regardless.
8:15
Speaker 1: No, and then of course that led to the masking
8:19
Speaker 1: of small children for years.
8:22
Speaker 2: In some cases, I find it.
8:25
Speaker 1: Somewhat gratifying to see in his own hand that he's
8:27
Speaker 1: exactly who we thought he was. Yes, like the sane people, yep.
8:33
Speaker 1: I remember being on CNN maybe summer of twenty twenty.
8:37
Speaker 2: I was out of the country because I was traveling.
8:40
Speaker 2: I was like, sure, all you were a great to
8:42
Speaker 2: say it at the time, Yeah, I would.
8:44
Speaker 1: I would wait till I got back, and then I
8:46
Speaker 1: would be like, we're in the clear.
8:48
Speaker 2: I don't even think you posted about that trip. I
8:50
Speaker 2: think that you were you were nervous about getting canceled.
8:52
Speaker 1: Well, I did a national TV hit from the trip,
8:54
Speaker 1: so I couldn't have been that nervous. Then I also
8:58
Speaker 1: went to Colonial Williamsburg. Yeah, to give our kids normalcy yes,
9:03
Speaker 1: So I was like, yeah, sure, I'll do your appearance
9:06
Speaker 1: on Anthony Fauci. And they come to me and I'm like,
9:10
Speaker 1: they're like, can you believe that people distrust him? And
9:13
Speaker 1: I was like, well, the reason that they distrust him
9:15
Speaker 1: is because he has lied several times and then admitted
9:18
Speaker 1: to lying those several times.
9:19
Speaker 2: And he says he's doing it for our own.
9:21
Speaker 1: Good, but he is a liar because he keeps lying
9:24
Speaker 1: about things. And they were like, oh, I guess we
9:27
Speaker 1: won't have you on for another four months.
9:29
Speaker 2: Yep.
9:31
Speaker 1: But like revealed in here too, of course he's having
9:34
Speaker 1: regular conversations with all these celebrities because he's now in
9:38
Speaker 1: this upper echelon. He was having dinner with people like
9:43
Speaker 1: this man was going to baseball games and having dinner
9:45
Speaker 1: with people. And the rest of us were not supposed
9:47
Speaker 1: to see our dying grandmothers, that's correct. And not only
9:50
Speaker 1: not supposed to see see our dying grandmothers, we were
9:53
Speaker 1: not allowed to see them. They closed the hospitals, they
9:58
Speaker 1: closed the nursing homes. We were not allowed to even
10:01
Speaker 1: if we decided, And a lot of people were willing
10:04
Speaker 1: to make this calculation that well, Grandma's dying anyway, and
10:08
Speaker 1: we're not afraid of this, So let's think about what's
10:11
Speaker 1: important in life and go and say goodbye to Grandma.
10:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we weren't allowed to make that cost calculation.
10:17
Speaker 1: And further, you were not allowed to complain about it, right,
10:21
Speaker 1: Like if you had the temerity to object to the
10:25
Speaker 1: fact that you couldn't have a normal funeral for your
10:27
Speaker 1: loved one, or to visit them in their last days,
10:30
Speaker 1: or to have I don't know, a cancer screening that
10:33
Speaker 1: they might need in those early days of twenty twenty,
10:36
Speaker 1: that made you enemy public Enemy number one as well.
10:42
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's just he lied about so many things.
10:46
Speaker 1: It's obvious that he's enjoying his time, by the way.
10:50
Speaker 2: That's another thing.
10:51
Speaker 1: Remember the standard back then was if you were enjoying
10:54
Speaker 1: your life in any way that that was disrespectful to
10:58
Speaker 1: everyone who was having a harder time than you. You
11:01
Speaker 1: and I tried to give our kids normalcy and at
11:04
Speaker 1: times were berated for it. This man's out here collect
11:08
Speaker 1: in his clips and writing down how famous he is
11:12
Speaker 1: and how much fun he's having being this famous.
11:15
Speaker 2: Yeah. I if we're going to look at silver linings
11:18
Speaker 2: of COVID For me, it was teaching my kids about
11:23
Speaker 2: the power dynamics and how people will do a lot
11:28
Speaker 2: of really sociopathic, horrible things when they are in power,
11:31
Speaker 2: and that the vast majority of their fellow Americans will
11:37
Speaker 2: just like sheep, do what people tell them to do,
11:39
Speaker 2: even if it's as silly as you walk into this
11:43
Speaker 2: was the law in Montgomery County. You walk into the
11:45
Speaker 2: restaurant wearing a mask, it's cloth, it's fine. Then you
11:50
Speaker 2: sit down and then you can remove your mask and eat.
11:55
Speaker 2: But in order to leave the restaurant, you have to
11:58
Speaker 2: put your cloth back on your face and walk out
12:01
Speaker 2: the door and everything is fine. And our kids were
12:05
Speaker 2: young during COVID, and my young children were like, this
12:09
Speaker 2: doesn't this doesn't make much sense. And we read the
12:13
Speaker 2: fable of the Emperor has New Clothes more times than
12:18
Speaker 2: I can possibly count in the year twenty twenty, twenty
12:21
Speaker 2: twenty one and somewhat twenty twenty two, because that's a
12:25
Speaker 2: thing right now.
12:26
Speaker 1: It was valuable for them to learn in our family, like, Okay,
12:30
Speaker 1: sometimes the people who think they know what they're talking
12:32
Speaker 1: about maybe only no one specialized thing and actually don't
12:37
Speaker 1: know enough to make decisions for the entire economy in
12:40
Speaker 1: the entire United States. Let's also talk about whether they
12:43
Speaker 1: have the power to do that. Let's talk about what's
12:46
Speaker 1: driving that decision making. Sometimes not the best intentions. Sometimes
12:50
Speaker 1: it's the clips that you're getting on the cover of
12:52
Speaker 1: in Style magazine for doctor Fauci. And yeah, those are
12:58
Speaker 1: good questions to ask and to have in your head
13:01
Speaker 1: when you move forward, knowing that people can do this. Also,
13:04
Speaker 1: I would note that the same people who were happy
13:08
Speaker 1: to embrace all these things, and in fact we're mad
13:10
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump was not more of an authoritarian at
13:14
Speaker 1: the time, YEP, are now like I mean, we're obviously
13:18
Speaker 1: the defenders of civil liberties.
13:20
Speaker 2: That's our thing.
13:21
Speaker 1: And I refuse, Catherine, I refuse to forget this part
13:26
Speaker 1: of their history when they were absolutely begging for a
13:30
Speaker 1: boot on their necks at I wonder, I don't so
13:35
Speaker 1: in my drive between my home and Trader Joe's, someone
13:39
Speaker 1: had a sign on their front lawn not in this
13:42
Speaker 1: house we believe in science.
13:43
Speaker 2: But thank you, doctor Anthony Fauci. I wish I remembered
13:48
Speaker 2: which house that was on so I could go knock
13:50
Speaker 2: on their door and be like, so, how you feeling
13:52
Speaker 2: about doctor Fauci These days.
13:54
Speaker 1: Well, a lot of people, I think just erase it,
13:56
Speaker 1: which is why I normally we cover it. Still, it
14:01
Speaker 1: was the most blatant, widespread curtailment of regular, normal, everyday
14:07
Speaker 1: liberties that I have ever experienced, and certainly within my
14:12
Speaker 1: lifetime memories.
14:14
Speaker 2: Right like the idea that I be say, since World
14:17
Speaker 2: War Two, Well, yeah, the.
14:18
Speaker 1: Idea that they could be like you can't go to church,
14:24
Speaker 1: you can't have a barbecue in your backyard.
14:27
Speaker 2: Those are crazy things.
14:29
Speaker 1: By the way, Phil Kirpan notes that in July of
14:32
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, when Trump was interested in getting schools open,
14:36
Speaker 1: Fauci is writing, I was in the sit room and
14:38
Speaker 1: not part of the press conference that followed. Purpose of
14:41
Speaker 1: this was to push for the opening of schools. Good
14:43
Speaker 1: thing I was not part of the press conference since
14:46
Speaker 1: much negative public response. Clearly Trump is pushing to open
14:49
Speaker 1: the schools no matter what. There is concern about the
14:51
Speaker 1: safety of children and teachers. Yet Trump, together with Redfield,
14:54
Speaker 1: who was at the CDC at time, is saying that
14:55
Speaker 1: the CDC guidelines should not stand in the way of
14:58
Speaker 1: opening schools. What requestion marks Glad that I'm not involved
15:02
Speaker 1: in that discussion. He of course, would later happily be
15:05
Speaker 1: involved in that discussion argue that they should remain close.
15:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and it's interesting also to see that
15:11
Speaker 2: in the moment, because that was that was not accurate.
15:17
Speaker 2: It wasn't accurate in the moment. It's not accurate now.
15:20
Speaker 2: It was safe to reopen schools in twenty twenty and
15:23
Speaker 2: the only reason that they chose not to was because
15:26
Speaker 2: Donald Trump supported it.
15:27
Speaker 1: Well and we had evidence from Europe where they had
15:32
Speaker 1: done it in real time that it wouldn't be a problem.
15:34
Speaker 1: And that's one of the other things about Fauci is
15:36
Speaker 1: that because Fauci's conception of himself was that he anything
15:42
Speaker 1: he thought was science. So that's a dangerous place to be.
15:46
Speaker 1: That's that's what Oh what's his face, FBI guy. That's
15:50
Speaker 1: what James Comy thought about justice. He's like, I am
15:53
Speaker 1: living justice when I think it is justice. Yeah, this
15:57
Speaker 1: is what he thought. Then Trump, by the way, had
16:00
Speaker 1: the same weaknesses, which is less problematic because his thought
16:03
Speaker 1: is what I believe is good for America period, Like
16:06
Speaker 1: I am aligned completely with America, and sometimes like, your
16:09
Speaker 1: interests are not the national interests, sir. But Fauci was
16:13
Speaker 1: like that with science, so whatever he believed was science.
16:16
Speaker 2: And then he came.
16:17
Speaker 1: Across like the CIA folks who were saying, yeah, I
16:20
Speaker 1: actually do think there's a pretty good chance according to
16:23
Speaker 1: our intel, that this came from a lab.
16:25
Speaker 2: And even though he knew that.
16:28
Speaker 1: That was real, he was like, these people don't understand science.
16:33
Speaker 2: Well, it's these same people who profess in this house.
16:36
Speaker 2: I believe in science. He represents all of those people,
16:39
Speaker 2: and it makes everyone less trustful of the entire enterprise
16:44
Speaker 2: because they see how willingly they're there. They lie and
16:47
Speaker 2: they're like, you know what, And I am a person
16:50
Speaker 2: who really really wants to trust science writ large, like
16:56
Speaker 2: I think vaccines are great. Am I as to get
17:00
Speaker 2: a vaccine that's released this year as I was, you know,
17:04
Speaker 2: ten years ago. No, I am not, and I wish
17:06
Speaker 2: that were not the case. I would love to have
17:09
Speaker 2: like a little rewind button in which I'm not red
17:11
Speaker 2: pilled by COVID, but here we are. And I also
17:15
Speaker 2: I trust science that's fifteen years old versus now, So
17:19
Speaker 2: like if it's an old vaccine, I.
17:21
Speaker 1: Don't know, I feel like I'm man feeling better about
17:24
Speaker 1: it that was released this year. Distrust and in fact,
17:28
Speaker 1: at some point in April Trump. He recounts that Trump
17:31
Speaker 1: told him and Burks, I should never have listened to you.
17:35
Speaker 1: This is in April. I should never have listened to you.
17:38
Speaker 1: You have ruined us. And that was correct. Yeah, he
17:42
Speaker 1: was correct in mid April of twenty twenty. And to
17:46
Speaker 1: the extent that I have issues with Donald Trump at
17:48
Speaker 1: that time, it is because he was too willing to
17:51
Speaker 1: listen to these people, and the lefties ironically wanted him
17:55
Speaker 1: to be a king question Mark.
18:00
Speaker 2: Make all of the decisions for us.
18:02
Speaker 1: But that's Fauci's real legacy, is that we don't trust
18:05
Speaker 1: these people because he gave us all these reasons and
18:07
Speaker 1: now we see them in front of our faces. By
18:10
Speaker 1: the way, he is conveniently pardoned for many offenses thanks
18:15
Speaker 1: to Joe Biden. So we'll investigate, we'll learn more, but
18:20
Speaker 1: we will remain angry and probably not get justice.
18:23
Speaker 2: Shout out to Rand Paul for doing this anyway, Yes,
18:26
Speaker 2: no appreciated.
18:27
Speaker 1: We need to know these things and it is helpful
18:29
Speaker 1: in preventing the rise of another would be Fauci, who
18:33
Speaker 1: thinks he is science or what have you. So alrighty,
18:36
Speaker 1: we will be back on normally with more in a minute.
18:41
Speaker 1: All right, we are back on normally with some talk
18:45
Speaker 1: about mortality, because Bethany and I do that from time
18:48
Speaker 1: to time our friend and former Senator Ben SaaS and
18:52
Speaker 1: former University of Florida president.
18:54
Speaker 2: But I will forgive him for that. As a Dogs fan.
18:59
Speaker 1: Is of pancreatic cancer, and he is doing a lot
19:04
Speaker 1: of talking about it in public, which I think is
19:07
Speaker 1: very good for the public. It's generous of him to
19:10
Speaker 1: give his time to do that. He is wrestling with
19:13
Speaker 1: something very large, but that all of us will have
19:15
Speaker 1: to contemplate at some point. He's spoken to sixty minutes.
19:18
Speaker 1: He does a podcast. He talked to Jake Tapper this
19:21
Speaker 1: past week, and I know you've been contemplating and writing
19:25
Speaker 1: about this as we're praying for him as he continues
19:27
Speaker 1: to get treatment for this terrible disease.
19:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's actually kick can I say killing it? He's
19:33
Speaker 2: killing it. He's killing it. He's killing it at dying
19:37
Speaker 2: in several ways. First of all, he was only given
19:39
Speaker 2: three months to live in December, and here we are
19:40
Speaker 2: in August and he's still sitting down and talking to
19:43
Speaker 2: Jake Tapper. So that's impressive. He's been the recipient of Really,
19:46
Speaker 2: if I'm going to dismiss the science in the previous segment,
19:49
Speaker 2: I'm going to give it credit where it's due. A
19:52
Speaker 2: new cancer technology that is really doing a number on
19:56
Speaker 2: the pancreatic cancer. And hopefully we have him as long
19:58
Speaker 2: as possible. But he is dying, whether it's like you know, tomorrow,
20:02
Speaker 2: or a month from now, or maybe even a year
20:04
Speaker 2: from now, the probably not, but he's killing it at
20:07
Speaker 2: dying because he is being so profoundly open about it.
20:13
Speaker 2: Most people understandably, you know, this is like what mammals do.
20:17
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've like ever had a pet die,
20:19
Speaker 2: but like they go and hide when they die. And
20:22
Speaker 2: I've heard from people who work in ICUs in hospitals
20:25
Speaker 2: when Seth's grandparents were dying that most people, actually, this
20:29
Speaker 2: is an interesting thing. They wait until they're alone until
20:33
Speaker 2: they pass, like when all of their family is gathered.
20:36
Speaker 2: That moment is actually not so common, if they have
20:39
Speaker 2: their say, most people when they're dying naturally wait until
20:43
Speaker 2: the middle of the night and no one is there
20:44
Speaker 2: and then they die. So it's like this very mammalion
20:49
Speaker 2: impulse to die alone. And he's going against the grain
20:52
Speaker 2: and doing so publicly, and I think it's really profound
20:55
Speaker 2: and really beautiful, and I've written about it for somewhere.
20:58
Speaker 2: I don't know where I'm going to pitch it to yet,
21:01
Speaker 2: but it reminded me a lot of my parents. My
21:03
Speaker 2: parents died when I was sixteen and nineteen, and the
21:08
Speaker 2: like click baity headline that I would give this piece
21:11
Speaker 2: that I wrote is the biggest gift that my parents
21:14
Speaker 2: gave me was their deaths, because it taught me how
21:17
Speaker 2: to live like. Their deaths taught me that life is finite,
21:21
Speaker 2: and it should be valued, and we should do the
21:23
Speaker 2: things that bring us joy and fulfillment. And it's not
21:27
Speaker 2: really our careers and it's not really It's why I
21:30
Speaker 2: had six kids because they make me happy. So I
21:33
Speaker 2: just kept doing it until I felt really tired, and
21:36
Speaker 2: then I stopped. I just really like them.
21:38
Speaker 1: No, I think that was actually you and I have
21:42
Speaker 1: talked about this stuff in the past, having lost my
21:44
Speaker 1: then husband in twenty fifteen, I think sort of an
21:49
Speaker 1: acquaintance with.
21:50
Speaker 2: That mortality as a.
21:52
Speaker 1: Fairly you know, you were very young, but to me,
21:56
Speaker 1: enduring that informed my view of how I was going
22:00
Speaker 1: to live life after that probably informed my response to COVID. Actually, yep,
22:06
Speaker 1: me too, dovetailing with what we were just talking about.
22:09
Speaker 1: Where you know, my parents who are still with us,
22:13
Speaker 1: were like about five weeks in They're like, oh no,
22:16
Speaker 1: we're not going to be not seeing grandchildren. And I
22:19
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, well that's their calculation, and they're fairly
22:22
Speaker 1: healthy and we're fairly healthy, so let's do the thing
22:25
Speaker 1: because that's what matters. So that was part of how
22:28
Speaker 1: we made decisions during that era. I have a little
22:33
Speaker 1: clip of Sas talking about how to prioritize what's important
22:37
Speaker 1: in life and noted what he notices when he's taking
22:42
Speaker 1: stock of where he's been here he is talking to
22:44
Speaker 1: Jake Tower.
22:45
Speaker 3: I have serious regret about how much I traveled. I
22:49
Speaker 3: would just come back from all my trips and take
22:51
Speaker 3: all the talkies and throw them on the floor of
22:54
Speaker 3: a closet in my home office, and all of a
22:57
Speaker 3: sudden it became thousands and thousands of keys. That's a
23:00
Speaker 3: hell of a lot of miss dinners, and you look
23:02
Speaker 3: at it kind of like forlornly. I would look at
23:04
Speaker 3: my kids and I felt like they had a chain
23:07
Speaker 3: around their neck with an hourglass, and I was watching
23:11
Speaker 3: the years, the months or the years or the dinners
23:13
Speaker 3: we had left as a family, and I'd look at
23:15
Speaker 3: my kids and I'd see the sand through the hourglass,
23:18
Speaker 3: like what the hell was I doing instead of being
23:20
Speaker 3: with you?
23:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it, really, I feel that way. I
23:23
Speaker 2: think that's like one of the gifts about having and
23:26
Speaker 2: you have this too, of like kind of a wider
23:28
Speaker 2: age span of My oldest is almost thirteen, my youngest
23:32
Speaker 2: is three. And I look at my iPhone has this
23:35
Speaker 2: amazing feature and everyone should avail themselves of it where
23:37
Speaker 2: it cycles through old, really good pictures. I don't know
23:41
Speaker 2: how the AI does it, and so it will pop
23:44
Speaker 2: up like a picture of my thirteen year old when
23:47
Speaker 2: she's three, and it's like all of my favorite pictures
23:49
Speaker 2: and it makes me think to myself, God, that went fast.
23:54
Speaker 2: And I look at my three year old and I'm like,
23:56
Speaker 2: please just stay like this, don't ever grow up. But
24:01
Speaker 2: we don't live in Peter Pan's like we don't live
24:03
Speaker 2: in Neverland, and eventually they do grow up. And I
24:06
Speaker 2: think it was really profound that Sas is saying this
24:10
Speaker 2: because he left the Senate for this reason, Like this
24:12
Speaker 2: is not like it just occurred to him like what's
24:14
Speaker 2: important in life? Like, it's not. What's the movie about Christmas?
24:19
Speaker 2: A Christmas Carol? Yeah, right, where they like also a book?
24:22
Speaker 2: But yes, yes, it's not like he had this sudden
24:27
Speaker 2: realization when the oncologist was like, and you have cancer,
24:30
Speaker 2: Like he always thought this. He always prioritized his family
24:32
Speaker 2: in a really beautiful, profound way that cost him a
24:36
Speaker 2: lot professionally. And yet he's still saying this, yeah.
24:40
Speaker 1: Which which makes you think, like, how much more can
24:42
Speaker 1: you do given that this is his take after having
24:46
Speaker 1: invested lots of time in his family, particularly for somebody
24:50
Speaker 1: who hit a senate level of public notoriety. No, I
24:56
Speaker 1: think about it just and again I keep looping back
24:59
Speaker 1: to COVID, But it was very formative for all of
25:01
Speaker 1: us who were living through it and certainly parenting young
25:04
Speaker 1: children at the time. It feels like yesterday to me.
25:07
Speaker 1: And then I look at my children and they were
25:10
Speaker 1: tiny during COVID, and it feels like it has flown by.
25:14
Speaker 1: And then I had this second set of children, and
25:17
Speaker 1: it feels like that has flown by because they're now,
25:20
Speaker 1: you know, really of rational age at this point, and
25:23
Speaker 1: I feel like they should still be newborns, but they're not.
25:26
Speaker 1: And I got everybody out of diapers, like here we are.
25:29
Speaker 1: That went in a flash. So I am I'm very
25:32
Speaker 1: cognizant of that. Particularly during summer. You homeschool, so you're
25:35
Speaker 1: spending more hours with them than I do.
25:38
Speaker 2: When my kids go back.
25:39
Speaker 1: To school every summer, I am like soaking it up.
25:44
Speaker 1: And there are so many sort of online presence versions
25:48
Speaker 1: of motherhood where people like, oh, they're home, and I'm like, yes.
25:53
Speaker 2: They're home.
25:54
Speaker 1: I get to do so many things, and I get
25:56
Speaker 1: to go on road trips and I get to goof
25:58
Speaker 1: off with them, and I think about I will I
26:01
Speaker 1: will be thinking about ben sas during those times.
26:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, because we only get eighteen summers with them. I
26:08
Speaker 2: feel like that about summers in the reverse. Actually, I
26:10
Speaker 2: hate summer because I miss my kids. Yeah, and even
26:14
Speaker 2: my oldest son who doesn't who doesn't love me, I
26:17
Speaker 2: do miss him. I'm just kidding, And I miss him
26:21
Speaker 2: in like, you know, because they're individuals. Like I miss
26:23
Speaker 2: cooking for him. I like, I made something that he
26:27
Speaker 2: loves the other day and I put leftovers in the
26:29
Speaker 2: fridge and I was like, how do I store this?
26:31
Speaker 2: Because I've never had to store it before because he
26:33
Speaker 2: eats the whole thing. And it's like, I hate I
26:37
Speaker 2: hate summers, and I also hate if we're talking about
26:40
Speaker 2: things that I hate. I hate the woman who complain
26:42
Speaker 2: about their children at home in the summers, because I'm like, what, then,
26:45
Speaker 2: why do you have kids If you can't find enjoyment
26:48
Speaker 2: in the people that you made? They are tiny little
26:51
Speaker 2: reflections of you, and lady, you are unpleasant if your
26:54
Speaker 2: children are unplaceus. It's just there's so much fun.
26:57
Speaker 1: There was that, you know, the homeschooled viral clip that
27:00
Speaker 1: we talked about last week on this show with Jennifer
27:04
Speaker 1: Wells while check or co co nagger talking about how
27:11
Speaker 1: homeschooling parents are weird because they want to be with
27:12
Speaker 1: the kids all the time, and she expressed very plainly
27:15
Speaker 1: that she doesn't want to be around hers at all
27:17
Speaker 1: and that she would crawl over glass to deliver them
27:20
Speaker 1: somewhere else. And although my kids are educated somewhere else,
27:24
Speaker 1: I don't feel that way. I want them back home
27:27
Speaker 1: when I can get them back home, and I enjoy
27:29
Speaker 1: hanging out with them, and I think normalizing that might
27:31
Speaker 1: be helpful. By the way, I get dinged for being
27:33
Speaker 1: a hypocrite because I like my kids and happily homeschooled
27:38
Speaker 1: them during the pandemic, but also argued that people should
27:41
Speaker 1: have access to the public schools they pay for. And
27:44
Speaker 1: the Libs think they've really got me on that one.
27:46
Speaker 2: No, And it's funny because I have always homeschooled from
27:50
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen until the present day. And it's funny because
27:54
Speaker 2: they used to yell about check your privilege, and I
27:57
Speaker 2: remember it that and they used to tell me to
28:01
Speaker 2: check my privilege. I am privileged to be able to
28:04
Speaker 2: homeschool my children. I am so grateful that we are
28:06
Speaker 2: in a position in our careers and in our finances
28:08
Speaker 2: and all those things where we can make this work,
28:11
Speaker 2: and that we do make it work, like it is
28:14
Speaker 2: not just a gift, like make we work to make
28:16
Speaker 2: it work. And these people completely addicated their responsibility to
28:23
Speaker 2: kids who are not privileged, who did not have two parents,
28:27
Speaker 2: who did not have someone who could work from home.
28:29
Speaker 2: And zoom Butler, then that was maybe the best phrase
28:32
Speaker 2: you've ever come up with in the history of your
28:34
Speaker 2: entire public career, zoom butlering it.
28:36
Speaker 1: Was we were all zoom Butler's Yeah, I tapped out
28:40
Speaker 1: of that. Yeah, and you see the results of it
28:43
Speaker 1: in the national report card all the time that in fact,
28:46
Speaker 1: it was those who were already struggling. It was those
28:49
Speaker 1: without resources who were going to struggle the most and
28:52
Speaker 1: then lose the most ground and perhaps never make it up,
28:56
Speaker 1: which is something that occasionally some school districts in like
28:59
Speaker 1: mississip Tennessee, Alabama, and Louisiana are trying to fix. But
29:03
Speaker 1: the Blue States have not caught on yet.
29:05
Speaker 2: And Houston Independent School District I just wrote about a
29:07
Speaker 2: piece about them in the New York Post recently there.
29:10
Speaker 2: But they also they're tackling that problem by just being
29:16
Speaker 2: honest about the fact that, like, we have a lot
29:19
Speaker 2: of ground to make up, and they're not wasting their
29:21
Speaker 2: time on teaching them about pronouns. They're not spending the
29:24
Speaker 2: entire month of June looking at rainbows. They're like, we
29:28
Speaker 2: have a mission in front of us, and it is
29:31
Speaker 2: the literacy and the math, and that is it, and
29:33
Speaker 2: that's you just have to get down to brass tacks
29:36
Speaker 2: and you have to be business about it. And if
29:39
Speaker 2: for so many people on education it's still.
29:40
Speaker 1: Joke, well, yeah, you have to have people who are
29:43
Speaker 1: willing to recognize the problem and not people who are
29:45
Speaker 1: getting paid to perpetuate the problem. Yep, because we have
29:48
Speaker 1: a lot of that, and that goes back to COVID
29:50
Speaker 1: too and partly Defauci.
29:51
Speaker 2: And his buddy uh Raindy wine Garden at the time.
29:53
Speaker 1: All right, we will be back on normally with a
29:56
Speaker 1: bit more about Maga maternity where okay, we are back
30:03
Speaker 1: on normally with another hit piece on pregnant women wearing clothing.
30:10
Speaker 2: Literally, that's it, that's the whole thing. This is in
30:13
Speaker 2: the Spectator.
30:14
Speaker 1: Well, I guess it's right leaning women who are pregnant,
30:17
Speaker 1: who wear clothing and are seen in public. It's very
30:20
Speaker 1: problematic for some. This is a new piece from the Spectator.
30:23
Speaker 1: There was a New York Times piece a couple of
30:25
Speaker 1: weeks ago, and the premise is just, I don't know,
30:30
Speaker 1: they don't like Usha Vance and Katie Miller and Carolyn
30:35
Speaker 1: Lovitt wearing anything that shows their bump. Suddenly they're Puritans,
30:41
Speaker 1: I guess, and you're not allowed to do that. But
30:44
Speaker 1: this piece ludicrously goes after Usha Vance, who dresses so
30:49
Speaker 1: classy and did the entire pregnancy. I don't know what
30:52
Speaker 1: this she's alleging that it's like baby Khan that you
30:55
Speaker 1: wear these tight dresses. It's like, no, you're so cheaply.
30:58
Speaker 2: Oh yes, she got her.
30:59
Speaker 1: Old navy dress that they've made fun of amazing for
31:03
Speaker 1: eight dollars with coupons, so like, of all the people
31:07
Speaker 1: to go after, this seems strange.
31:10
Speaker 2: The allegation is that all of.
31:12
Speaker 1: These women are becoming the literal picture of pro natalism
31:17
Speaker 1: by showing off their baby bumps.
31:19
Speaker 2: I don't.
31:19
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're familiar, Bethany. It's hard not to show
31:24
Speaker 1: off your baby bump by the time you are six
31:27
Speaker 1: months pregnant and you're on your fourth kid, like, there's
31:30
Speaker 1: little you can do about that. Here's a great paragraph
31:34
Speaker 1: from this. Personally, I think it's lame to treat a
31:38
Speaker 1: natural pregnancy like an achievement.
31:40
Speaker 2: This is going to take you off, especially, Bethany. Are
31:42
Speaker 2: you ready? Yeah?
31:42
Speaker 1: When I was pregnant with my daughter, I found it
31:44
Speaker 1: after the monstrous first trimester, a pleasant side effect easily forgotten.
31:49
Speaker 1: Yet I couldn't believe how much sympathy and how many
31:51
Speaker 1: allowances were made when really I was just going about
31:53
Speaker 1: my business with a biological process occurring inside me. I
31:57
Speaker 1: didn't wear clingy garb, and I didn't feel particularly sexon.
32:00
Speaker 1: I prioritize comfort as most normal women not trying to
32:03
Speaker 1: make a point, must do when pregnant. She's the second
32:09
Speaker 1: Lady of the United States, Like, she has to put
32:10
Speaker 1: a dress on my girl, Like, okay, So origin story
32:15
Speaker 1: of our friendship, yes, was we kind of knew each other,
32:18
Speaker 1: but not really and we.
32:20
Speaker 2: Were both pregnant thirteen years ago and sicker than we've
32:25
Speaker 2: ever like it was it was like having non stop,
32:29
Speaker 2: unrelenting food poisoning for months at a time. And that's
32:35
Speaker 2: how we had to And there's only so much that
32:37
Speaker 2: you can complain to your husband, yes, And so we
32:41
Speaker 2: would trade tips and tell jokes about all the places
32:44
Speaker 2: we vomited.
32:46
Speaker 1: The idea that people can forget they're pregnant is crazy.
32:50
Speaker 2: Nice must be nice, Absolutely crazy.
32:53
Speaker 1: But the further indictment of Usha vance that she's not
32:56
Speaker 1: prioritizing comfort.
32:58
Speaker 2: First of all, she's.
32:58
Speaker 1: Wearing a nine dollars old navy rest, so I think
33:01
Speaker 1: she might be prioritizing comfort.
33:05
Speaker 2: She has to do things, Yeah, she has.
33:08
Speaker 1: To be dressed appropriately, and any woman and this is
33:11
Speaker 1: the second woman because the New York Times writer was
33:13
Speaker 1: also a woman who comes down on pregnant women or
33:18
Speaker 1: how they present informal occasions in public is a monster
33:23
Speaker 1: because it's very hard to dress well when you are
33:27
Speaker 1: pregnant and growing all the time.
33:29
Speaker 2: So these are people who do not believe that children
33:33
Speaker 2: are a miracle. Yeah, and that this is a miracle.
33:36
Speaker 2: And it's actually very sad, like it is not a
33:39
Speaker 2: normal biological process. It's a miraculous one. That's really hard.
33:44
Speaker 2: It's really hard on me as a person. Yes, it's
33:47
Speaker 2: also just like hard as you know. It's the more
33:52
Speaker 2: that you have babies and the more friends that you
33:54
Speaker 2: have that have babies, the more that you realize like
33:57
Speaker 2: all the horrible things that can go wrong, and when
33:59
Speaker 2: it doesn't and you just have an you know, totally
34:03
Speaker 2: normal pregnant that is a miracle. That is a beautiful thing.
34:07
Speaker 2: And these are people who are triggered by fecundity, by
34:11
Speaker 2: someone else's ability to have children and relishing in it.
34:16
Speaker 2: And it's not something they feel like they have to hide.
34:19
Speaker 2: It's not like it's some movie with Ellen Page before
34:23
Speaker 2: she decided she was a boy. Do you know she
34:26
Speaker 2: didn't hide it. They're not ashamed of it, Like this
34:29
Speaker 2: is a great wonderful thing that should be celebrated. And
34:31
Speaker 2: this is the origins of why they're so triggered by
34:35
Speaker 2: it is because we have very fundamental disbeliefs I get,
34:39
Speaker 2: I don't know, disagreements about like the miracle that is
34:44
Speaker 2: children and parenting and all that well.
34:45
Speaker 1: And it's so funny because it turns these liberal feminists
34:48
Speaker 1: into puritans who are longing for the hiding of the
34:54
Speaker 1: baby bump by former female public figures instead of what
34:59
Speaker 1: you would think they would, which is like women can
35:01
Speaker 1: dress how they want to dress.
35:03
Speaker 2: I'll leave you with this insane.
35:04
Speaker 1: Paragraph from the New York Times that points to this.
35:08
Speaker 2: Says, if the bear chested muscle mixed martial.
35:12
Speaker 1: Arts fighters the UFC match that President Trump posted on
35:14
Speaker 1: Flag Day where the poster guys for maga's image of masculinity,
35:18
Speaker 1: then the pregnant women of Trump World are one half
35:21
Speaker 1: of their feminine counterparts. Along with the sheath clad, lip filled,
35:25
Speaker 1: pageant haired mar A Lago set, they offer an image
35:28
Speaker 1: of idealized womanhood that gives literal shape to the pro
35:31
Speaker 1: natalist movement. They're they're just wearing clothes, guys.
35:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's really it. And if the roles were reversed
35:41
Speaker 2: and this were I don't know, Kamala with her miracle pregnancy.
35:46
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, can you imagine, Oh my god, it would
35:49
Speaker 2: be resplendent. This is one of the This is one
35:52
Speaker 2: of the things that frustrates me about Trump arrangement syndrome
35:55
Speaker 2: is that the women of Trump world are incredible dressers
35:59
Speaker 2: and are being deprived of that coverage by it's true
36:03
Speaker 2: means media.
36:05
Speaker 3: Yeah.
36:05
Speaker 1: No, they show Usha in both pieces. They show Usha
36:08
Speaker 1: in this absolutely gorgeous Millie dress with like flowers on
36:12
Speaker 1: the Front's beautiful and perfect for any occasion. Uh, just flawless.
36:19
Speaker 1: And they're like, that's the problem. I need more coverage
36:23
Speaker 1: of Usha's pregnancy fashion. I do too, Oh and I'm
36:26
Speaker 1: not going to get it now unless they have a
36:28
Speaker 1: fifth wing. Both you and I both noted that she
36:31
Speaker 1: did the Kate Middleton white dress flex after the pregnancy.
36:35
Speaker 2: That was incredible. Who shows up looking great in a
36:40
Speaker 2: white dress after she's had a baby.
36:41
Speaker 1: I'm like, look, I can't do it, but brave, brave
36:48
Speaker 1: anyway we stand. And what they're really mad about is
36:52
Speaker 1: like three more kids born to conservative families.
36:55
Speaker 2: Yep, that's because at the end of the day, we're
36:57
Speaker 2: the one that are having kids because we feel optimistic
36:59
Speaker 2: about America's future. Sure, yeah, we love it.
37:02
Speaker 1: We had so many of them alrighty, thank you Bethany
37:05
Speaker 1: for joining us.
37:06
Speaker 2: Where can we find you on X and other places?
37:08
Speaker 2: Let us know real quick, Bethany Shondark on Instagram and Twitter.
37:11
Speaker 2: And I think that's it, because that's just enough. And
37:14
Speaker 2: listen to the mom Wars.
37:15
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on normally normally airs Tuesday and Thursdays,
37:18
Speaker 1: and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. Get
37:20
Speaker 1: in touch with us at normallythepod at gmail dot com.
37:22
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and when things get weird, act normally