This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI AM six forty the Gary and Shannon Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Breaking news out of Hollywood today, Michelle Trachtenberg, just thirty nine years old, was found dead. They're saying now that her body may have rejected the liver transplant she received within the last year, causing complications. Her mother found her, of course, Michelle Trachtenberg. She was in Gossip Girl, Buffy the Vamfire Slayer euro Trip Gossip.
I already mentioned that police sources have confirmed that its natural causes. The exact cause remains unclear. Police and paramedics responded to a call for a woman in cardiac arrest found her unresponsive dead on the scene. She was pronounced she had been known to struggle with alcohol and again had that liver transplant recently within the last year.
Internationally, we know that Hama said it's going to prepare to release it the last four Israeli hostage bodies included in the initial phase of this ceasefire deal. In Israeli official confirmed that they were going to receive the bodies would be eleven o'clock local time. I believe so that
would be I think it's one o'clock our time. Israel had previously refused to release the more than six hundred Palestinian prisoners and deteenies last weekend because they accused Tamas of breaching the ceasefire deal by those ridiculous public parading of the hostages in Gaza before they would turn home over to the Red Cross, and Egyptian officials who have been working on this ceasefire have apparently gotten promises from Hamas that they won't be doing that again.
In DC, it's time for swamp watching a politician, which means I'm a cheat and a liar.
And when I'm not kissing babies, I'm still in that lollipops.
Yeah, we got. The real problem is that our leaders are done.
The other side never quits.
I'm not going anywhere. So that is how you train the.
I can imagine what can be and be unburdened by what has been. You know, Americans have always been guman act. They're not stupid.
A political plunder is when a politician actually tells the truth.
Have the people voted for you were not swap watch, They're all countero.
President Trump has previewed as plans for a new visa gold card, describing it as somewhat like a Green card, but at a higher level of sophistication.
He was signing his latest round of executive orders yesterday, one of them related to terras on copper imports. Lutnick Howard Lutnick is the Commerce Secretary, and explained that this Trump gold Card, as he called it, would replace the EB five visa, which would also or does also provide a pathway to citizenship for a wealthy foreign investor, but has been an avenue for fraud a lot of places.
Lutnick implied that the administration would be more discerning as to who would qualify for the gold card, and the plan is not just we don't want to just get a bunch of rich people in here.
Obviously their money would be.
Great, but it's the idea that they would be smart enough business owners that they would then turn around and create jobs in the United States. Is it as simple as saying it's a five hundred dollars price tag on this, I don't know. I don't know if that passes legal muster or if there would be rules against that sort of thing when it comes to immigration.
But did you say five hundred or did I have an aneurysm. No.
I may have said five hundred, but five million is the.
Feeds a million dollars. It's for very high level people for their route to citizenship. We're going to make sure they're wonderful, world class global citizens what Nick said. Trump added, it will be people with money and people that create jobs. Asked whether a Russian oligarch might be eligible for a
gold card, Trump seemed amused, Yeah, he replied possibly. He said, hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are nice people, if possible, and then he said they're not as wealthy as they used to be, but I think they can afford five million dollars.
Secretary Lutnik did say that they would have to go through a vetting, of course, to make sure that they are wonderful, world class global citizens, and Lutnik is using the exact same language that his boss is. It sounds like more than twenty civil service employees resigned from the Department of Government Efficiency, saying that they're refusing to use their technical expertise to dismantle critical public services is what they see.
These are the tech workers who are not the doze rising young stars of Elon Musk's choosing. These are tech workers that have already been in the federal government and are raising their hands and saying, we are not using our skills in the tech world to dismantle what this country is built on.
Essentially, Yeah, they resigned from the US Digital Service, which is an that was established during Obama's administration after the incredibly cocked up rollout of the healthcare dot gov web portal that they completely blew. And again, that's proof that the government is not good at some things, and this was one of those things that the government was not
good at. There's an interesting aspect This story specifically kind of crystallizes something that I've been thinking about but couldn't quite put into words.
Seth Moulten, Yes, that's Seth Moulton ran for president. Seth Moulten talk.
To everyone remembers that it.
Talks about the importance of having an actual plea. You can't just complain about Elon Musk and Doge. You got to have a plan.
Actually, the last time there was a big push for government efficiency, it was under Clinton and Gore, and it was a widely praised effort. Saved hundreds of billions of dollars, but didn't create the chaos that Musk is creating today. My case is Democrats need another plan like that. Do what Clinton and Gore did, show that we want to reform government too. We're just going to be more responsible about going about it, and we can rather than just complain about Musk.
Now, there's a thing about that he's going that's going on that I thought he brought to light. I couldn't crystallize it until he said that. This is similar to Republicans saying we've got to do away with Obamacare. It's an absolute mess, it's not doing anybody any favors, but then not having a plan to replace it with. And Democrats right now are saying Elon Musk is tearing apart government.
He shouldn't be going after the waste, fraud, and abuse, he shouldn't be cutting these programs or these workers, et cetera. But then they don't have a program to do just those things. They don't have it. That's set up.
Yeah, it's like most people, they don't like the way things are, but then they don't want change, you know. It's there was a memo that was distributed today by Trump his administration that federal agencies must develop plans to eliminate employee positions. So now they're putting the onus on the federal agencies. Come up with your own hatchet plan. They say, it's going to be a sweeping realignment of American government. The memo expands Trump's effort to downsize the
federal workforce. He's described it as an impediment to his agenda. Thousands of sorry probationary employees have already been fired, and now they're looking at people who have civil service protection and get ready for the lawsuits. We're cutting down the size of government, he says. We have to. We're bloated, we're sloppy, we have people that are not doing their jobs.
So in this memo this morning, it says agencies are directed to submit by March thirteenth their plans for what is known as reduction in force, which would not only lay off employees, but eliminate the positions all together, which would be extensive changes in how government functions. Going to get rid of a lot of people, and then you're going to have to come up with new protocols in all those departments.
The White House says that that large bruise that is on the back of President Trump's right hand is from him shaking so many hands.
He shakes a lot of hands. He shakes hands all day, every day, is what they say.
He has had visible bruising or redness on his right hand on at least two other occasions, in August and November of last year, which obviously would have been right in this middle of campaigning stuff. Bruises on his hand were also noted by various news outlets last year, and Time magazine quoted Trump in twenty in December of twenty four, saying it's from shaking hands with thousands of people.
Daily mail, which is the bastion of journalism as we know it, ran to a doctor named doctor Stuart Fisher. Stuart Fisher says that while an aggressive handshake could be partly to blame, that his age may also provide a clue. We all know this. We've all had relatives that have bruises or age spots that look like bruises on their hands.
I've got a couple of them, he says. The doctor that old age naturally weakens blood vessels, makes them more brittle, which makes bruising on any part of the body much more likely and severe. That osteo arthritis of course breaks down cartilage and bone and the joints. That could be another possibility. It can cause easy bruising or discoloration that affects joints in the hand. The doctor says he thinks it's probably all of those things together.
If you look on social media, which is also a great idea, the suggestion is that this was an IV.
That bruise.
It put an IV on the top of the hand there and that left a bruise when they removed it.
But rich people get dehydration ivs like every day. It's a thing. It keeps your energy up, you keep those B twelve shots in. It's a thing. So that also would not be out of the realm of possibility. And it wouldn't be like he needed an IV because he's near death or he's experiencing health problems. It's probably just because you get a little you get a little boost, you get a little hydration. Especially with all the diet cokese he drinks, probably doesn't drink.
A lot of water.
I won't be surprised if he got regular hydration ivs.
Are you worried about him?
No, Okay, I just said, I wouldn't be surprised if he just gets regular hydration IVS.
I know, but that consistent dehydration could be an issue too.
No, no, no, it's not like dehydration that can put you in the hospital. It's just you know, you've seen those places. They've popped up everywhere now, the hydration therapy. They're in like strip malls and stuff.
The only time I think I've even recognized them was Vegas.
They're all over the place.
Sure, yeah, there is a proposal, and I want to throw this in there only because it's weird. State assembly Member Rick Chavez Burr introduced a bill last week to substantially narrow the legal justification for homicide in California. Homicide is just person on person death. Basically, the term for murder actually is illegal homicide, which would mean that there are legal homicides that are there. For example, if your life is threatened, you can defend yourself. But they talk
about this bill. Homicide would no longer be justifiable when it's committed in defensive property or habitation. So somebody could break into your house, you can't shoot them unless they are killing you, or unless they're about to kill you.
Kamala Harris said she was going to shoot you if you broke into her home.
Well, this is one of those things that it doesn't make sense to me because I don't know who the victim is in this case or who assembly Member Rick Chavez ber is trying to protect.
Here.
Are you trying to protect the people who just happen to break into a house to steal stuff, that's who you're trying to protect.
Or you're trying to protect.
The law abiding homeowner who wants to protect his fam And how do I know when you break into my house in the middle of the night what your intentions are? And do I have to wait until you try to kill me before I defend myself.
That's why you need to get a burn a gun. You can shoot them, name them and not kill them, but they won't be breaking into your house again.
Yeah, Gun safety advocates said this bill is a way to prevent armed extremism and vigilante violence. You're not walking down the street and shooting people. This is if you are threatened. If someone threatens to you, sorry, it is a threat to you. It's criminalizing home defense. It's protecting the bad guys again. And uh, yeah, I don't know, and I don't like it.
I don't like it.
That's what you were going to say, Huh.
And I don't like it.
I do like that.
I wonder if if you named a kid a certain name, if he or she would be more apt to to shoot people.
What if you named your kids Spider something like that, or Tommy two thumbs.
Or something Tommy two thumbs.
Just thinking of mafia hit.
I think I'm gonna give my baby some time to develop its nickname in the mafia world. You're gonna think, yeah, exactly. Justin worship Is with us, host of the Dad podcast.
We like talking parenting things.
The idea of naming your kid is obviously probably step two or three of being a parent, right in the responsibility.
I like that sequence. I'm afraid to ask what one number one is?
You gotta make it?
There you go, thanks Gary, or buy it?
I mean, I don't know how people get their kids these. Yeah, that's true, but step two or.
Three is gonna be okay, So what are we gonna call this thing?
Uh?
And there's a lot you're setting up your kid for financial failure if if you don't pick these top five names.
Yep, yeah, if you if you named your kid uh Anna, Maria, Laura, Helen.
Or Sarah, you did good for them.
They're gonna do a good female.
Yeah, they're gonna do. They're gonna be great financially. For the guys, it's Andrew, Sam Alex, Christopher and Darren.
Good for you.
But my husband, I mean, I'm sorry, my brother. That's a weird slip. My brother's name is Andrew, right at the top of the list.
Zoom number one. Well, guess what, borrow some money from bro.
He's loaded.
And then if you're doing poorly. Karen's taken a lot of hits in these last few years.
She topped the list of struggling financially, probably because she's calling the cops on people that now deserve to be She's getting a lot of lawsuits, so she's got she's got a lot of retain.
Exactly.
Uh, Claire, Lisa, Jennifer and Rachel. And then for guys Allie and Rob, Dan, Chris and Dominic. Which is interesting because if you shorten it from Christopher, not so good financially, but if you got the full toafer going on, you were, you're thriving as a guy.
That's just the most ridiculous circle. I've ever read that in my life. It's insane and ps. Claire is a strong, firm name. I don't think. I don't think of Claire as a financial failure. I don't see Claire as somebody who's in a gutter in financial ruin. But that's how Claire doesn't live on skid row.
That's how strong Claire is.
She can make you believe she's thriving when in actuality, deep down, she's struggling.
She needs a hug.
No, she's not. Claire has a matching sweater set and a string of pearls on.
Yeah, but she's financed. They're all on credit card debt. Shannon, Oh, maybe that's what I'm saying. I'm telling you Claire is not okay. If you have a friend named Claire, you need to call her and make sure she's okay and buy her lunch.
She's not going to split yes about Claire.
But they don't even there's no there's no connection, I mean right, I mean they can't establish what the connection would be between these names and films.
They just basically went through and looked at social security data and figured out who was thriving. Financially and what the most common names were about for those people that were thriving financially, and then technically you should all be fired.
Those people should be elon musk. If your job is to go through Social Security data and find out what the first name is successful.
This is a This is a college funded study, So I don't think this is actually from the federal government.
What was it. I think it was Brigham Yell.
Go back to the Mormons.
College closed, but they did.
It's funny they did kind of what I The reason.
Why I brought this to you guys is for just the funny of just laughing that your name has anything to do with your financial success. But I also think it's a reflection of what I feel that these anks written parents go through. That we've now added icing onto a cake, which is this is probably more of a multiple flower icing flower that's being added on top of
the cake of like things you should worry about. You failed your kid because you didn't name them Anna, right, You would have just named them Anna.
Listen, there's pressure in the process of naming the kid already.
I think that's your point.
And in terms of what we were saying, what my wife and I were saying when we were doing this exercise of what would you even begin? Would you want a family name? Would you want to name it after your grandfather? Like? What, how do you even begin? There's plenty of pressure. You got it, and you should cut down on the rules. The rules are basically for me, the rules were, I'm not going to name my son anything close to one of your ex boyfriends.
That was really the only thing I didn't.
That is so ridiculous.
That is not ridiculous because she's had so many boyfriends that the list was pretty small.
See, this is why I brought this. I didn't know. This was an undintended consequence. Look at how much fun we're having.
That's such an early twenties thing, like I'm not what are your ex boyfriends name?
The fun game I named with I played with my wife is that my wife had been talking about like all the girl names, Kiara, Noel, these were all names that she was thrown around, and Kiara was my favorite. And so when we bought our house, we adopted this kind of feral kitten that had lived in the park across the street and walk up to us, and so she was.
Like, oh, let's keep the kitten. I was like, you know what your neighbor is Kiara. That's one of the names you like.
And my wife is so caught up in the emotional She's like, that's a great idea, and I'm like, great.
We never have a daughter named Kiara now.
And then an electric fence was built around the name Kiara.
Yeah, exactly.
It is so manipulative.
I know, I know, I'm very I'm very very rarely am I good at it?
That like, especially my wife peace of who you are?
I know, but it felt so strong. Oh my god, wait a minute, hold on. I have never felt more alive than that day.
I don't think that's an immature thing to say, is you can't name my son after ex boyfriend.
I'm not saying it's immature. I'm saying that, like in my early twenties, I was more obsessed with like like my boyfriend or now husband or whatever it was with their exes.
I was more Yeah, she's saying it was a sign of the time of your age. You're right, because because if I look, yes, because right now, if I look three years previous, I'm the only person that my wife has had sex with.
I'm not even.
Thinking about it in your forties or whatever, right, and when I'm twenty one, yes, I may not be the only person on that list three years. That's what I'm saying.
That's all.
I'm sorky, all right, good, like.
You know what's funny about me? As soon as you said it, I agreed. I was just like I would have never thought of that. I'm so glad my maaming I dotched that bullet.
And the thing is her most I think the boyfriend that she had before me was also named Andy, and if that had happened, and like, we named our kid and I know five million andies now and they all haunt me because they.
Remind me of my my wife's sex boyfriend.
I was afraid one of them was going to be named Alvin, and so she found a loophole with Calvin.
Or Alan or something.
The best part of that is like, and I think kind of we have a magnetic quality about us. Gary, Like one of your best friend's name is Andy now, right, And I think also there's this weird thing that that just happens. I call you Andy sometimes. My brother's name is Andy.
And it hurts every time.
And I do that sometimes. I haven't done it in a long time, But there's something to be said. When you really don't want something, sometimes the universe.
Does and it hurts because you're not as financially successful as.
The other thing is that my in laws for the first year that my wife and I were dating, they called me and no way, absolutely, no, yeah, and they wouldn't even catch on. Like I remember distinctly, we were sitting in the backseat of a car. We're going with them to I had to be dinner somewhere, and we were visiting them while they were in Seattle and we were living in Sacramento, and her mom, my now mother in law, kind of spun around and was like, so, Andy,
what was it like at work this week? And I mean direct eye contact and everything, and no, I was like, nobody was talking to me.
Nobody on this planet is better, by the way than your Shannon. And like the comedic response take to that of just like I just imagined going stiff and just lowering her head at a.
Forty five and.
Yeah, my wife said, My wife corrected her right away, She's like, his name is Gary, And to her credit, my mother in law now mother in law, was mortified. But and she said it like at dinner time, I'm really sorry for calling you that I didn't. I didn't and my wife then again, she pops up, she's like, you guys.
Do it all the time. No, we don't, and yes you do.
How long were they together?
Gosh, that's a great question. I don't know. Months.
It's it's so weird. And I said, how long were Shannon and Andy together? Because my whole life it's been Shannon and Andy, Shannon and Andy.
You know, we'll try living my life where I go home and they're like, who who? When I went to get notarized yesterday's signature and they're like, who's who's signing today?
And I said, Gary and Shannon.
Don't forget to download the podcast.
They together.
I think it was a year plus. I don't know. I honestly don't know. He just got a list. He didn't get time, pranks.
He just needed seems like it's enough time for the mother or the father to continually call the new one the old one.
And nice, and that's what.
Similar.
I don't think we have time to go into this blonde hair. He's also addicted to porn. But that's sorry. I couldn't just let that. Yeah, you had to take a shot at him. You won, Garrett, It's okay. You wondorn. The study that reveals that parents do have a favorite child, and to break it down, by U and Western University looked at all of these different things. Kids who are favored tend to have better mental health, to do better in school, to have better family relationships.
I'm not sure if.
That's the cause or the effect of being a favorite or but they also said that the older child and often girls, yes, tend to be the favorite child.
Daughters predominantly are favorite.
And this is what I love is bringing this in is that both of you guys have siblings that, like, you have a sister, Shannon has a brother.
Do you think that your sister got favorite of treatment.
I think they at times did get the favorite treatment, Yeah, but for different reasons. I mean, one of them was very school minded and driven and was the first to graduate college because she was older. But but and then the other one was very sporty, like she was super.
Involved and.
Yeah, and then I was like, hey, there's there's that guy keeps showing.
Up at our house every day.
That was the opinion on you.
Yeah, Shannon, do you think that you got I think, like Gary, you're a rule follower, like before you got here.
Justin we were talking about it and Gary said that his parents routinely told him that he was the favorite. And and I think that you are really good with following rules and not getting like you get into the correct amount of trouble without being a like a problem or a problem or a worry. Yeah, whereas your sisters there was two of them. Girls are kind of tricky
boys a lot of the time. I think probably get the bad rap because they're little boys, and they're all over the place, and they're dirty, and they're not rule followers, and they're you know, they're rambunctious, and that's just what little boys are. And I think that that's probably it. Girls are probably more self contained for the most part.
Yeah, because what I've heard is that like daughters feel like they aren't that the brother always has more leeway, particularly like going out to parties and dating, because for whatever reason, parents worry less about their sons, but brothers feel like the girls get away with more because they get treated with a little bit more mittens and like and tenderly than the boy would.
Right.
That's like, and I think the other thing that this article kind of talks about, which I kind of agree with, is that this is really about a kid's perception. This opened my eyes because I think if you were to ask me until recently, I would probably if I had to, like gun to my head, I had to pick a favorite kid, it would be my older son until recently. Now my younger son is probably more my favorite because he's employed. I've decided that having a child.
In two weeks.
Yeah, I've decided that having a child that has a job is my new favorite thing about being a father.
I love it.
That's the thing we were talking about, too, is how it changes, like your favorite kid changes.
My dad said.
The way he I asked him, and I know I've said this multiple times here is that I said, do you really have a favorite? And he was like, you don't have a favorite, You just always have. It rotates who you're worried about, Like there's always he said, there's always one of you that your mom and I are
worried about. And then when that one starts to like rally, he goes, you don't stop worrying because now you're like looking at the other two of going Okay, which what's going to happen to you two now because all three of you are never thriving at the same time.
Like, it just doesn't work out that way. Yeah, and we've used the quote before. I heard it said by Heraldo Rivera, but I don't know if he was the one who originated it, which is your never as you're only as happy as your unhappiest child, and that, I
mean that kind of plays into it. There you go back and forth, they go through different light and depending on how old they are too, if there's a wide age separation, they're going to go through different life stages at very different times and give you sort of the roller coaster effect of got to pay attention to this one as she's a preteen, but that guy's going to be an you know, late adolescent.
What's happening with their and vice versa.
Because like like it says, the more agreeable child is also usually the more favorite, which is I think what Shannon's saying about you. I would also say that about my older son. It's just always been easier for me to talk to my older son. He's like me, he likes to talk things out. My younger son is like my wife. He holds it in if he's upset and
you have to pull it out of him. But I would also argue that if you're talking about favoritism my older son, I think thinks that we favor the younger one because I have to try, I have to put in an effort to get things out of my younger son, whereas I don't have to do anything with my older son to feel like I have, like that he knows that there's a connection there. I guess I don't know,
but it's all perception. Nothing is real, because how do you sit down and have a sincere conversation about who do you think mom and dad love more?
Right? And when I talked about it last week, there were people who were upset that I would even entertain the thought of telling one of my children that they were my favorite, Like, what good is that? You're just going to sew division between the two of them, which I've never I want to tell these people shut up.
Well, I would never.
Also, I don't think I would ever seriously say to them, Hey, it's like, sit them both down and go. You know it's been bugging me for a long time. You I hate you, But she I like her? She for you're a moron, but he's really got his stuff together right now, and.
Listen, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not perfect or do we all this great? But I'll tell you like, we have videos of my wife telling me she was pregnant with each of our sons, and with the second one, it was not a happy moment. It was definitely like we were struggling financially. And after the video, she goes, should I delete this, like basically erasing the evidence?
And I said no, I said, because yes, this is.
Kind of like a oh crap moment, But in reality, I go, if this kid looks at this video at twenty two years of age and doesn't laugh at it because he has spent the last twenty two years of his life being loved and growing in this family and being supported, then yeah, we were hosted to begin with. And that video didn't change any of it. Like that doesn't make any difference, I said, so I think it.
Is what it is.
And both of my sons have listened to both all of my comedy albums, which is just me jokingly like making fun of being them and talking about how bad being a dad is, and they laugh like, I don't think it really matters. It matters when it's like when I guess it's real, Like I think if you genuinely told your kids, like.
Oh, you're my favorite, I don't think it's really that sincere. You know what I mean exactly.
That's really sweet that your kids have listened to your albums.
Oh it scared me. My dad played them when he brought him home.
He played all three of them when they were like four and seven, and I'm like, Dad, did you.
Give any context?
He's like, no, I just thought theyd get a kick out of hearing their dad do what he does, and they still to this day.
Yeah, they like it.
They think it's funny, like which I agree, Shannon, it does. It warms my heart.
But your point also is they probably don't take it seriously.
They don't. They know much. I love them.
I cry at everything they do, and I hug them all the time. Again, like this idea that we worry that the kids don't feel like you love them, I start crying right now.
I already am.
As the greatest affter half an hour. Thank you, justin.
You've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show.
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio LAP